Money talks

There’s a joke going around about a voter who was made by barangay officials to sign up for either “5K o 8K.” He picked – what else? “Syempre pinili ko 8K.”

The punch line: “Fun run pala.”

Pinoys know only too well that the joke refers to vote buying, which the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has warned becomes most rampant in these final days before election day.

Here’s another viral joke, referring to the Department of Trade and Industry: “Breaking news: Next Monday’s election has been placed under DTI instead of Comelec for price control.”

Across the country, vote buying is in fact (to borrow an infamous quote) “no joke, no joke.”

In my neck of the woods, supporters of a particular gang of candidates (they’re a bunch of dynastic crooks, so I refer to them as a gang), who have previously tossed to residents campaign t-shirts, are now asking low-income folks for a photocopy of any of their government-issued IDs, which they must sign three times.

Since the government (including the Comelec) has also learned to use social media, even if belatedly, I know people who have refused. They have learned from their online feeds that something illegal could be afoot and they could land in jail for it.

The other day we got an inkling of what it was all about: a stub would be issued to the person, which would be attached to a “certificate of low-income” or indigent status, which would entitle the bearer to a payout of P3,000 from the barangay.

Someone who signed up for the payout in late April went to the venue but reportedly backed out upon seeing the long line of people. But she kept the stub and the “certificate” signed by the barangay captain and bearing what looks like an official-looking dry seal.

Elsewhere, a kasambahay who used to be a barangay tanod in a province near Metro Manila says she is being asked to distribute a total of P300,000 to voters in the barangay on the eve of election day, at P3,500 per voter. For her labors, she has reportedly been promised P1,500 plus P3,500 each for herself and her husband. She’s still considering if the money is worth the risk of being caught and ending up behind bars.

Meeting underprivileged folks who have refused (or are hesitating to accept) such offers for fear of getting caught and punished is one of the most encouraging developments I’ve encountered so far amid the dismaying outcomes of pre-election surveys.

Those voter choices could mean that our country would be slipping further behind our neighbors in the coming years. We’ve already lost so many years in national competitiveness, and wrong election choices guarantee another decade of lost opportunities.

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These days a quote from Donald Trump’s fellow Republican, 19th century senator Mark Hanna, is also spreading: “There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money and I can’t remember what the second one is.”

We could laugh it off as a joke, except it’s our ugly political reality.

Technology has facilitated the spread of fake news and disinformation, with e-wallets also facilitating vote buying. But technology has also made it easier to spot such illegal activities, which leave a digital trail that can facilitate prosecution.

Video recording can provide evidence of voters being trucked in by grassroots leaders of unscrupulous candidates, or of voters congregating at certain houses or venues for dole-outs in cash or kind, or waiting in line to be registered for e-wallet loading.

As the Comelec has warned, vote buying and violations of campaign rules can constitute criminal offenses. For one of the most serious offenses, the Comelec has a new acronym: ASR, for abuse of state resources. The resources include state-funded ayuda.

Such warnings must be intensified by the Comelec this weekend, if possible showing someone who has been arrested and indicted for ASR and the buy-and-sell of votes.

The Comelec must also fine-tune its rules on partisan activities that barangay officials can engage in, since village officials openly abuse state resources for partisan purposes. Most of them serve as grassroots operators of higher-ups in government or of local political warlords.

This role played by barangay officials is the reason for the never-say-die effort of lawmakers, supported by Malacañang, to postpone forever the barangay elections, in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling declaring such long-term postponements as unconstitutional, unconstitutional, unconstitutional.

Lawmakers who ignore the word “unconstitutional” and keep pushing for a term extension for their barangay leaders are not functionally illiterate, but are selfish, venal crooks who typify the country’s political class.

They will lead the country to perdition, unless voters make the right choices on Monday – which it looks like we won’t.

But at least, with the help of technology and involvement of the citizenry, the effort to crack down on vote buying, ASR and other illegal campaign activities seems to have intensified in this election season, and may actually lead to violators suffering the consequences. Reforms, even if they come in tiny increments, will be welcome.