Why Politicians Spend a Fortune to a Post that Pays a Pittance?

 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.

In the 2019 election in my city in Dagupan, candidates for the legislative body have been seen through 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.

RECIPIENTS of vote buying in the Philippines election. Photo Credit: PhilStar.com

“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 legislature 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 13^th 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 13^th 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 te-he 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 why politicians still spend a huge amount just win a post that gives them a minuscule salary:

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 with 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. 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:

Voters Abuse Mayor’s Kindness As Election Nears

(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)