Looking back and hopefully forward

“Vote-buying spree drives mobile phone sales”. The title of the article in the May 15 Inquirer issue says it all. Vote-buying does happen, and Filipinos’ priorities are skewed. This happened in Surigao del Sur where for two days straight right after the May 9 elections, stores in three malls sold most if not all of their inventories of cellphones. Customers did not even try to hide where the money came from, making jokes as they cleaned out the stores. I will not point fingers as to where the money came from, only to confirm the practice of buying votes during elections.

Cellphones trump, food, paying utilities like electricity or paying the rent, or even putting the money aside in savings. They must have a cellphone, pronto. It would be interesting if a sort of exit poll from the stores were conducted, asking where the money came from, but no one will talk. I can only speculate as to how many candidates resorted to this shameful act to win. Those who accepted do not realize that they will have to recoup their expenses once the vote-buyers win. That normally leads to graft and corruption, or even plunder. But who cares? They have a new cellphone, right?

With another election in the books, many will argue that much is needed to elevate the electorate to the standard of most Western countries. But the situation we have is fully ingrained in most people. Money, entertainment, and theatrics bring in the voters. In the last two elections new weapons have emerged; misinformation and fake news via social media. And this has been prevalent in the months leading up to the May 9 elections.

One example that has emerged is a Cebu Pacific pilot’s post alleging Vice President Leni Robredo asked for a priority landing last April causing the flight to be diverted to another airport, thus inconveniencing many passengers. The pilot has since admitted his claim has “no basis” and was “purely speculative”. The pilot is supposedly under disciplinary review. The OVP also debunked the allegation labeling the claim as malicious. Several fact-checking sites have also confirmed the incident never happened. Still, supporters of the winning presidential candidate continue to spread the lie. His supporters are even saying the pilot was merely forced to make the retraction by the company to avoid a lawsuit. I must ask, has anyone from that allegedly diverted flight spoken about the incident? What about flight records, or even sites that track flights? Did a diversion occur on that date? So easy to check fake news and yet, supporters will believe anything derogatory said of another candidate. This is the sort of electorate the country must change.

I’m not holding my breath.