“Benguet for I-Benguets”

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Elections in the country, whether these are barangay or national elections, are never held minus the protests, cheating, overspending, vote-buying and vote-selling, and worst is the bloody violence involving candidates and supporters in identified election hotspots.
    As long as there are people who desperately need money during elections, vote-buying and vote-selling will not go away.         The election offense is an open secret, but the hardest to prove, according to the Commission on Elections.
    These are election offenses under the Omnibus Election Code that have penalties of imprisonment and permanent disqualification from holding public office. Still, even with stiff penalties, the twin acts have become widespread.
    Violators have even become organized which seems to tell us that the election code now appears to be a toothless law.     And we have yet to see violators sent behind bars for vote-buying and vote-selling.
    The violation involves LGU executives, community leaders, barangay officials, socio-civic organizations, farmers and fisher-folk associations, sari-sari store owners, market vendors associations, ambulant vendors, and even religious organizations are not spared.
    The political candidates do not do the actual vote-buying. They have on-call coordinators in place who gather votes for as low as P50.00 per head in poorest barangays, and rates could go as high as P50,000 for organizations. No amount is ever too small or too big.
    By the way, aside from vote-buying, incidence of cheating in elections has increased. That was why the hybrid election system (HES) which is a mix of manual and electronic counting was proposed.
    But manual counting was what we used to do before the AES (automated election system). There was transparency in counting of votes in that old system until someone in Malacanang proposed the AES for money and control of winning votes.
In the race for congressional, gubernatorial and local positions; payments are expected to be higher. These are where the number of incidences for vote-buying increased. These tell us that promises of change are not enough to make people vote according to their conscience.
    In the case of presidential aspirant Manuel Pacquiao who has been giving away money everywhere he went, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said campaign rules applied only at the start of the campaign period which would start in February for those running for national posts.
    For her part, presidential aspirant Leni Robredo said voters could accept money offered by candidates but must vote according to their conscience. Jimenez who was asked to react regarding Robredo’s statement immediately clarified that the vice president could not be held criminally liable for her statement.
    Political bets do not operate by themselves. They have people they call “leaders” who do the dirty job of vote-buying for them. Some of their leaders do it openly when dealing with officers of an organization.
    Leaders have their own territories such as sitios, puroks and eskinitas in a barangay, bunkhouses in mining communities, university belts, street vendors and market stalls where they conduct surveys and mock elections to see if voters support their bets.
    The mechanism is comparable to a networking scheme where the ones on top of the ladder get the biggest share from the politician’s money. In remote sitios, leaders conspire with some election officers.
    For desperate congressional bets, the easiest system they can apply is to finance the candidacy of local candidates in their line-up. To an extent, they promise public works contracts to their gubernatorial and mayoral bets, including the barangay chairmen.
    The problem here is that the money for distribution to voters does not reach the intended recipient. Of course, anybody who is offered money in exchange for political favors will drop the dough straight into his pocket. If he is a local bet, he will “take the money and run.”
    Another scheme of vote-buying is to pay people not to vote at all while still another method is to have ballots deliberately invalidated by placing marks on them. The more direct form of selling one’s vote is by receiving food packs of rice, food products, groceries and gadgets or anything of value.
    The common forms of indirect vote-buying which appears more above-board include promising infrastructure projects, scholarships for college students, jobs and promotions especially in government offices.
    But imagine how much these candidates and their moneyed supporters spend in order to win. That is where corruption comes in because the candidates have to get back the money they spent.
    For Senator Panfilo Lacson who is running under Partido Reporma, he said “If voters think that accepting money or selling their votes is the only way to immediately benefit from a politician, they should be aware that they would suffer for a longer period in return.”
    I do hope, especially in Benguet, that we instill in the minds of voters that the promises made by an outsider politician and the money being distributed may be enjoyed for a short time but because of it, life is bound to suffer for the next few years until the next elections come again. The solution is simple: “Benguet for I-Benguets”.