By
Mortz C. Ortigoza
Many
Filipinos of different persuasions want to aspire for elective
government position – from being a village official to President
of the Republic.
When
a
pal Luvin
Candari – an opinionated resident of Kidapawan City – asked for my
advice what he needs to win in case he will run for the membership of
the Sangguniang Panlungsod (city legislature), this I posed to him:
“May
pera ka bang pambili ng boto para manalo? (Do you have the monies to
buy votes to win an election?)”.
It
is public knowledge that winning a public office in this country
entails a candidate to chalk-up a huge financial chest to give to voters who will shade his name on the ballot.
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| Photo Credit: PC&V |
In
the 2019 election in my city in Dagupan, candidates for the
legislative body have been seen or though their associates during the
campaign season sneaked a one hundred or fifty peso
bill to the hand of a voter. Worst, even during the casting of
ballots these undaunted supporters would distribute a sample ballot
with the mentioned amount attached there to the electorate who enter
the voting precinct.
“If
you’re new bet for the councilorship you need two to three million
pesos dole outs and bills for ingratiation to effectively run a
campaign and win the post,”
a former city veteran lawmaker told me.
An
elective member of the SB in a first class town receives an average
monthly pay of P102, 140 or P3,983,460
in his three
years term - including his three 13th
month pay - as dictated by his Salary Grade 25.
Although
his remuneration is a little bigger than his expenses in the
45 days mandated election period by the Commission on Election, the
expenses orgy did not stop after the hustings
but
continue everyday (and even at night) as constituents
specially the marginalized members of the local government unit continue to solicit fund for their hospitalization, burial, food, and other
needs.
“It
is a thankless job, even my salary is not enough I have to fork from
my wallet bills to give to these folks,”
a lawmaker in a first class town in central Pangasinan lamented.
“Indeed,
running for public office is for the moneyed,”
I retorted.
The
mayorship election of the second class city was a mockery of the
Omnibus Election Code because one of the candidates spent more than
half
a billion pesos for a Salary Grade 30’s post that gives an average
of P188, 187 a month or P7,339,
293 in
the three years term – including the three years of 13th
month pay - of the occupant.
Why
candidates still aspire for these posts that give them a pittance in
the government pay?
As
a self declared seasoned Reporter and Op-Ed Writer who
cut his teeth
for two decades in the rough and tumble politics of the 44 towns
and four cities mammoth Pangasinan Province, these are
my following observations:
1)
PRESTIGE SEEKER: Many of these politicians are successful
businessmen, member of a landed family, retirees, and former workers
overseas. They don’t give a damn how much money they burned in a
stump as long as they win. The reward is being looked up by the
community as sui
generis
and the
appended title of “Honorable” before their name is
an ego booster the
elective
brass
used in social function and official correspondence. This aside from
being called by their constituents as “Kap”, “Kagawad”,
“Councilor”, “Mayor”, “Cong”, others. Many of them have
low I.Q - where they could easily fail if they take the Civil
Service Sub-Professional Examination - an inferior version of the Professional Eligibility few media men like me possess. A number of these politicians are scoundrels
who win the polls because of their wealth.
2)
BUSINESS TO PROTECT AND TO EXPAND: Those who run for mayorship,
governorship, and congressional post have business to protect if not
greed to enrich themselves at the expense of the public coffer where
they
become more powerful by raiding the government projects worth
hundreds of millions of pesos. As
quid pro quo, their
favorite contractor give them their 20 to 10 percent cut critics
called as S.O.P in
every one of those projects.
A
contractor dubbed one of the congressmen in my province as Korean
because of his
avarice to ask contractors how much they are going to give him
as
grease money
on the buildings, roads, and other government projects where
he shamelessly asked up to 40 percent S.O.P.
“Magkano
Korean (ako riyan)? (How much you will give me on that project)?,”
the private builders keep quoting him whenever the topic goes to his
impunity to rob the coffer.
3)
SHEER ALTRUISM: Altruism means unselfish
regard for
or devotion to the welfare of others
(Merriam.webster.com).There
are people who are charitable or use their connection
to help those members of the great unwashed.
When
I was riding a commercial van in 2019 from my former home town
M’lang, Cotabato to Davao City for my flight going
to
Manila, I was seated with Medical Doctor Cecile Rodrigo Roldan who
just won as the No.1 elected member of the rustic town’s
legislative body.
“Pila
gastos mo sa vote buying? (How much you spent in buying votes?),”
I, as a meticulos political spectator, in Pangasinan election was too
frank in my Ilonggo query to the beauteous Doc Cecile the damn the
torpedo question.
She
told me she did not even spend a cent to be whisked- in to the number
one post among the eight regular elective members of the SB of the first
class town.
“Wow,
how you did it?”
“I
told
the voters in every stump of the 37 villages that they know already
how I helped them. They did not spend a dime whenever they come to
our hospital (she and her husband Rene’s owned hospital the biggest
in the municipality- Author) for consultation. Even I lose or win in this election
“padayon gihapon and serbisyo Roldan sa inyo (even I lose or win in
this poll our selfless service to the people will continue),” she
narrated to me in that almost three hours trip.
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| RECIPIENTS of vote buying in the Philippines election. Photo Credit: PhilStar.com |
I
could collaborate what she told me how other politikos done it
without resorting to vote buying.
In
the late 1990s I have a classmate in the College of Law in the
University of Pangasinan named Ferdinand Galang, Jr. He told me his
father had access with politicians and doctors in the provincial and
regional hospitals based in Pangasinan where he brought poor sick
people from Calasiao town (my missus Miles’ municipality) to be
treated gratis (free) in those health institutions. He had done this
herculean job for them for decades. When he ran for councilorship he
did not spend a cent but still win with overwhelming votes.
When
he died, the son Ferdie – who emulated how his father interceded
for the medical needs of his constituents – ran for the SB post and
the Vice Mayorship and won them all. Unfortunately, he drank a poison
and died in his home in April 1, 2017. Personal problem, eh, but that
was another story.
“Ang
pagtulong sa mga indigents malaking bagay sir. Pag natulongan mo na
ang isang miyembro ng family, buong pamilya o angkan iboboto ka na
nila (It’s a big deal when you helped a poor man, sir. His family
and tribe are already indebted to you thus they will vote for you),”
Binmaley Vice
Mayor Edgar
C. Mamenta
who was a former driver and trusted man of Doctor Francisco “Pinggoy”
Duque III, told me when I dropped by at his office several years ago.
Duque, who is now the Secretary of Health, was the Dean of the
College of Medicine in the 1990s of the family’s owned Lyceum
Northwestern University in Dagupan City while I was an Associate
Professor of this school for a decade mentoring students with
my favorite subjects’ Political Science and Economics.
When
Duque became PhilHealth Chairman
and
Secretary of Health under then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo,
Mamenta
stocks spiked. Just like Galang, he brought town folks of Binmaley to
the provincial and regional hospital of the province and have them
treated despite their bills that run to hundred thousand of pesos.
Mamenta assured them not to worry because the government – through
his clouts with the power-that-be - would shoulder for them.
“Wala
kayong babayaran ako ang bahala,”
a confident Mamenta
– whose younger brother work at the Region – 1 Medical Center in
Dagupan City - told me that Secretary Duque until now is all-out
support to his sibling’s free service to the poor folks of the
town.
Because
of his popularity, Mamenta
now gears to run for the mayorship of the 60,550
registered
voters town in the May 9, 2022 election against the son of the
outgoing hizzoner of the town Sam Rosario.
Despite
selfless
folks
like Roldan, the
Galangs,
and Mamenta,
in general Philippine election is about huge
financial
spending where the bulk are intended primordially
on vote buying. As what old folks would quip then: No
Money No Honey.
Those who have the golds win in this electoral democratic practice
bequeathed
to us by the Americans when they colonized our country in 1898.
Show
Me the Money,
another phrase we Flips, er, Pinoys
usually see on tees and quotes on novel and even in the social media.
Showing
of the dough as election periods progress continues to worsen. This
malpractice happens because of the growing poverty of the majority of
the vulnerable Filipinos.
READ MY OTHER BLOG/COLUMN:
(You
can read my selected columns at
mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and
articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at
totomortz@yahoo.com)
