Winning devious pols will now start sucking our taxes

Election is over. An election that was marred, as usual, by massive vote buying activities. In fact, the truth is, vote buying was even extended until after the winners were proclaimed as some shrewd politicians bought votes in two installments.

The first installment was paid when voters go to the polls and the second one is paid when the results show that he wins. So wily a politician, so creative, well, in a bad way. This way, if he loses, he only spends one-half of his budget. If he wins, he pays in full and recover the entire amount plus several millions more starting right on his first day in office.

Truth to tell, weeks after the filing of certificates of candidacy ended, except for the level of greed that certainly shoot up, the usual scenery dominated - the same old political clans (the trapos) and entertainers who are either running for reelection or are returning to the political arena after a painful loss. They’ve made election their own and their positions their businesses or livelihoods to bank on.

Such usual scenes are very ironic for a positive exercise as election. As we all understand, election is a formal decision-making process by which we, as a nation, shall choose individuals to hold public office. Presumably, therefore, we must rejoice for the state-bestowed free hand to choose than bearing dictator-controlled twisted arms. Certainly, because in the end, he’ll (the dictator, like Marcos) get his wishes not ours.

However, such situation doesn’t exist anymore. Obviously, therefore, the reason isn’t downright associated with it. Truth to tell, the primordial concern is in our kind of electoral process. That is, from filing of candidacies where nationalities and addresses are even faked, to counts of ballots that could be possibly rigged.  Then, within this span, there are real concerns about the kinds of campaign that ranges from “swiftboating” to vote buying.

Therefore, just as imminent as the sun rises again, vote buying was just as prominent, thus, the need for lots of money. As campaigns will entail huge expenditures, ranging from cost of travel to advertisements, the need for heaps of it is clear as daylight. So that, candidates and their fundraisers devote substantial time and effort burning potential benefactors’ phone lines.

As phones ring, possibilities are endless. Everyone is very much aware that as money flows out from a contributor’s pocket, agreements are sealed. Such deals could come in illegitimate favors from government for juicy projects. On the other hand, it could be selfishly a deal for some lucrative cabinet positions or directorship in government corporations.

Bluntly, such political donation is, in essence, bribe money. Undeniably too, due to the unfathomable need, on top of these bribe moneys, the candidates themselves will personally shell out huge bundles of it.

With these dirty moneys in circulation, these candidates and contributors will certainly retrieve them and selfishly put them back in their own treasury. Certainly, as contributors take their money back through juicy projects, the elected officials shall have their own heydays amassing lots of it not just to recover amounts spent but also to fill their purses to the hilt to finance the cost of their future generations’ stay in power.

To recall, for instance, about a decade ago, the country was in the limelight when the World Bank (WB) released debilitating news about the debarment of seven firms and an individual for “engaging in collusive practices under a major WB-financed roads project in the Philippines”. As concluded, most of our contractors were indeed cartelizing the bidding process of government projects. Sadly, had it not been for the World Bank, majority of the Filipinos should not have heard about this project.

Certainly, cartel begets overpricing. Cartel, however, wouldn’t be successful without the blessings of those in power. So that, as in the case of Janet L. Napoles, some lawmakers, as alleged by the whistleblowers, colluded to siphon taxpayers’ money.

All these money recovery measures are consequences of the kind of electoral campaigns the candidates are waging. The penalty, however, of these devious schemes is huge. As politicians (from dynasties) and contributors (cohorts) deceitfully siphon money from the government’s treasury (our taxes) through illegitimate deals, the economy is starved with it.