Pustaan, mangabak ni Juan

Pustaan ta. Mangabak ni Juan. Napigsa isuna idiay southern ken northern barangays. Adu ti kabagyan na idiay ken naikamang pay isuna idiay southern. Awanen ni Pedro….. kurakot gamin isuna isunga awanen ti pagkagawis na idiay ili.

Presumptions of who will win and who will be defeated this coming May 14 elections are favorite and passionate topics during breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner.

Assumptions range from the length and breadth of the candidate’s relatives to the thickness of his money. So the more relatives a candidate has, the more votes he/she has. That is why in culture-rich places, relatives try to prevent a relative from running in the same position in order to let their relative-candidate win.

But even if one has many relatives but a rival candidate has money to buy votes, chances are the moneyed candidate will buy the votes of his rival’s many relatives.

Vote buying has time and again influenced and taken over the choices of the electorate for a free and honest elections. It has corrupted minds and downgraded the electorates to mere commodities to be purchased like one kilo of sugar or half cavan of rice.

One aspiring congressman advised the crowd during a rally to get the money because that is a “balato”, but don’t vote for the candidate who gives the money. Anyway, as the candidate said, you spend that money in three days only but leave you to suffer in three years.

This issue of vote buying whether or not to get the money has been a moral question which has bugged moralists who want to straighten things out. While it would be totally best not to get the money at all and leave a clean conscience and a sound moral base of living harmoniously, it also leaves a grey area of concluding that the money belongs to the people anyway (as it may come from corrupted government funds) so why not get the money, but not to vote for the candidate who buys your vote.

But hey, getting the money maybe applicable in some areas where the vote-buying candidate is not vindictive of the money he gave and will let the voter enjoy a breath of fresh air the next day. The corrupt candidate’s corrupted followers may be closely guarding you if you have voted for their candidate and if not, you better watch out, you may find yourself not enjoying another breath of fresh air.

Vote buying definitely has to be condemned to the hilt! It has done nothing for the betterment of the people, of the community, of this country. It has downgraded people to mere objects of merchandise.

Chances are the vote-buying candidate is a corrupt public official. Where did he get he money to buy your votes and where will he get the money to get his money back? Your answer is as good as mine. Its another round of corruption. Which means your municipality, your province, your city, and this country will still be counted among the poorest countries which had never learned its lesson to advance and move for a better province or city where such is the case.