By Mortz C. Ortigoza
Voters nowadays are exploiting the extra ordinary
generosity of politicians as election nears, narrated by a mayor to
reporters.
The Pangasinan mayor complained that one recent
noontime, he already spent seventy thousand pesos as dole outs to
callers in his office where some even came from the neighboring towns.
“Look, my drawer is almost empty with cash,” he told media men who came
for an interview.
| VOTE BUYING - Money exchanges hands to favor a candidate during the election campaign period in the Philippines. |
The bills he gave were of twenties, fifties, one
hundred, five hundred, and one thousand.
Each of the four obviously poor mothers
were given two twenty peso bills.
“Masyadong maliit naman iyong binibigay ni mayor.
Parang pamasahi na lang iyon sa tricycle,” one of the reporters quipped.
“Mga pabalik balik lang ang mga iyan kaya binabarat na
rin sila ni mayor,” the
other retorted.
The chief executive of the first class town however
shelled out P1,500 to one of the three members of the Tricycle Operators
and Drivers' Association(TODA) who told him that they will be celebrating the
anniversary of their organization.
The mayor gave two thousand pesos to five teenagers
who solicited for a set of basketball uniforms in an upcoming competition in a
fiesta of their village.
“Malaki iyong binigay ni mayor kasi maraming botante
iyong mga players,” a
scribe quipped.
The mayor generosity is fueled probably by
his rival who has more money to spend in the campaign period of the May 13,
2019 polls.
"Iyong kalaban kahit P1,000 per voter kayang bumili ng boto. Hindi ko alam
kung kakayanin ni mayor ang presyo ng rival sa mga bobotante," a radio announcer commented.
Elected officials in towns and cities in various
provinces in Northern Luzon have a hard time because President Rodrigo Duterte
stamped out the proliferation of illegal number game jueteng in favor of the
legitimate Small Time Lottery (STL) that earned P26,103,422,348.39 gross sales
in 2018 compared to the P4.7 billion in 2016 when jueteng rampaged during the
first semester of the year when the country was still ran by then president
Benigno Aquino III.
During the height of the illegal number game a mayor
of a huge city in Pangasinan received P1.5 million a month from the gambling
operator while his chief of police got P600, 000 monthly, according to a former
councilor who is now the election campaign manager of the mayor.
“The monies I was giving to the my constituents who
seek help in my office came already from my pocket. Mayors like me identified
with the provincial power are no longer beneficiary of some financial
shares from the legal number game,” a mayor in the Second Congressional
District said.
Of course reporters who were around just played it by
ear because they know that mayor like him still has a cut or the
anomalous S.O.P given by contractors and suppliers of government projects
intended to the local government unit and he received shares from perya
operators that front for illegal gambling that proliferate not only his town
but other local government units.
READ MY OTHER BLOG:
