You gotta love free enterprise. Filipinos will steal and sell anything that isn’t bolted to the floor. So no surprise in these recent reports following the latest barangay elections. Votes are certainly not the heaviest of objects to make off with. And there are lots of buyers.
Why do Filipinos sell their votes?
There’s really no need to over-intellectualise the answer to that question. The answer is quite simple: Filipinos don’t see themselves as having much of a stake in their votes. They have no use for a wise vote. But they do find value in a sold vote. Think about it. Di nakakakain ang “wise” vote. Why worry about voting wisely when your immediate concern is where the money to pay for your next meal — or your next celphone load — is coming from?
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The concept of an ‘intelligent vote’ is an oxymoron in the Philippines.
Indeed, why should Filipinos care? Politicians steal them blind from right under their noses. These are politicians who are products of the Filipino Vote. Perhaps the thinking of the average voter is that since they will be stolen from anyway, might as well make them pay up front for the privilege of being voted into office. If you stop to think about it, the equation balances out. Filipino voters make their candidates pay for their vote, then the candidates recoup their “investment” once they’re in office. This has been a well-known age-old covenant between Filipino voters and politicians. This is really not news.
Consider too how much tax (if any) many of these enterprising voters pay to begin with. Vote buying is really a win-win situation for many Filipino voters. They make the odd-thousand pesos every election day and don’t really have much invested in whatever the politicians they elect steal from the public coffers.
Big taxpayers are the real victims here. The average Filipino vote-seller does not pay enough tax to really care how much of it politicians steal. But big taxpayers like you and me do care. Trouble is, we don’t get much of a say around who gets to “lead” us in Malacanang and “represent” us in Congress. Because we chose to be a “democracy”, we’ve effectively handed over this important selection mechanism to the million-odd starstruck ignoramuses and their idiotic notions of who should be leading and representing them.
There’s nothing fun about paying tax to a government composed of people voted into office by idiots. But that’s pretty much the Philippines for you. Southeast Asia’s most “vibrant” “democracy”. It’s no wonder that former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had this to say about Philippine “democracy”…
When people think only of the freedoms of democracy and know nothing of the implied responsibilities, democracy will not bring the goodness that it promises. Instead it will result only in instability and instability will not permit development to take place and the people to enjoy the benefits of freedom and the rights that democracy promises.
Elder Singapore statessman Lee Kuan Yew called ours “a soft forgiving culture”…
Only in the Philippines could a leader like Ferdinand Marcos, who pillaged his country for over 20 years, still be considered for a national burial. Insignificant amounts of the loot have been recovered, yet his wife and children were allowed to return and engage in politics. They supported the winning presidential and congressional candidates with their considerable resources and reappeared in the political and social limelight after the 1998 election that returned President Joseph Estrada. General Fabian Ver, Marcos’s commander-in-chief who had been in charge of security when Aquino was assassinated, had fled the Philippines together with Marcos in 1986. When he died in Bangkok, the Estrada government gave the general military honors at his burial.
I beg to differ slightly. It’s really not that Filipinos are a forgiving lot. Filipinos are just forgetful and apply a lazy and sloppy approach to thinking. When not enough thinking prevails in a democratic nation’s politics, you get idiotic results. Leadership in administration and representation in legislation in a democratic nation merely reflects the quality of the Vote.
That’s about as simple as the science gets when trying to understand why the Philippines continues to fail as a nation.
[Photo courtesy Demotix.com.]
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
They are happy to sell their children and their soul, so selling a vote is par for the course, just like the violence and murders which accompany the elections, and tge death of democracy in the farcical process.
And as far as the 800,000 candidates for barangay elections are concerned ( including 3 pacquaios, 3 revillas, and even a marcos), the motivation has little to do with service or the 1,000 peso a month salary ( price of 1 vote in some areas), but the backhanders/corruption, and usefulness in the national elections for their family/dynasty or backers.
“violence and murders” are hardly farcical. it is a disgraceful system.
it is even the thought of many hard working ‘middle-class’, tax paying Filipino’s that the country should not even have been allowed to govern itself in 1948 but that it should have continued as it was then until a better way was found. the way it is now? it is better to just leave. and the sooner the better too.
A lot of people here must love living in absolute poverty from cradle to grave and that is not going to change.
I wonder when will the Filipino wake up to this defect in the voting system. Getting paid to vote for scoundrels and criminals destroys people and the system. I have never allowed this sordid practice to affect me. I and many others refused to be bought. Perhaps a greater criminal penalty and/or fine should be applied to those who sell their ballots for a fee. Wake up Filipinos! Next time you vote… Do not waste it on the dirty money of scoundrels and criminals! We already have massive graft and corruption in the PDAF and DAP. Will you allow yourselves to be bribed like the pork barrel? Oink! Oink! Enough is enough!
and when your vote is not counted all you really did was miss out on the P500. Look the votes are paid for/rigged, and if the ‘pre-selected’/paid for candidate doesn’t win the popular vote? The ‘SMART’ machines will take care of the ‘inconsistencies’, and the ‘pre-selected’ candidate wins anyway, as the machines can be rigged… Better to get paid, huh?
correct that’s why need a national laws that the politicians cannot buy thi vote because they are the affected of the corruptions,diba?or educate them na bomoto ng tapat dahil ang botog bat isang tao ay hindi ipingbibii kahit sinong politicaian man…
Don’t we have any laws against vote buying? because it’s happening like it’s legal. everyone knows and experience it, no one gets punished.
Accept the money, but vote for those who really would do the job description when you shade the ballots. Problem solved(?)
In the provinces, there is no secret ballot. There are poll watchers to make sure you vote for the right person.
there are no sellers if there is no great demand for a certain product….if someone insist on buying its because he needs it badly…so if the politicians dont ask the voters to buy their votes then there would be no sale…politicians creat the demand for a vote for sale.
Buying votes is the lesser evil than Aquino’s Hocus PCOS. At least the voters got some compensation.
LOL, I have seen Filipina’s who make P10,000/month(=$245.00 USD) who are actually concerned w/having a $300 Cell Phone rather than having a nicer place to live in.
I am not a rich guy but I make a considerable bit more than what those young Ladies do and there is not a POS cell phone on the planet worth more than $50 to me. I need one to make a phone call, and if it doesn’t let me use Skype/Google Voice or some other VoiP call…then it is not even worth fifty bux!
Why a poor broke as shit Filipina would even care about having a P10,000 POS cell-phone is beyond me.and it cuts straight to the asinine mentality of the voters in the country as well. BUT, better get paid to vote as no one knows who you really vote for anyway, and the elections are rigged as well, SO HURRY HURRY..get paid to vote. Damm if you do and Damm if you don’t, I guess.
I can’t help but ponder how things would work out if the Philippines changed from a democracy to a feudal system with aristocracy as the form of government.
Where on Earth can you find candidates arrogantly admit they spent hundreds of million pesos in their campaign for positions that pays only a tenth of what they spent.Common sense will tell you that the return of investment is guaranteed! Steal it plus the big profit! Criminals go in and out political scene.Looks like we haven’t seen the worst yet.
And that’s why I’d rather have a voter who passed a “voting exam criteria” or a proven ITR. Not Aling nayang who is happy with a Chicken Joy and 500 pesos.