The proper way to buy votes

Kirk Chester Damasco

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This has become something many people look forward to. Voters would eagerly await who would give, when, how, and how much.

Kirk Chester DamascoThere is vote-buying.

Those who deny it must be living in a different world.

As a kid from the province, I would learn about and sometimes see envelopes containing money — P1,000, P500, P300, P250, P150, P100, and even P50 — being given by political leaders to voters.

Today, I learned that not much has changed.

Where I come from, this has certainly become a way of life during elections.

This has become something many people look forward to. Voters would eagerly await who would give, when, how, and how much. There is a general sense of excitement in all this, a heightened feeling of anticipation.

And make no mistake about it: as far as I know, everyone is doing it.

Since such is the case and since it seems that it is here to stay, I would like to respectfully propose a new – and, I believe, proper – way of buying votes.

Let me start with some assumptions:

One, I guess we will all agree that the money that politicians use to buy votes is not theirs. Chances are, it comes from the government. It is our money.

If ever the money is theirs, what will most likely happen is they will shell out money of their or their supporters’ or patrons’ pockets and eventually recoup all of that when they are in power.

Two, I believe that one of the main reasons people accept the money and why they eagerly wait for it is the fact that they just need it. Pandagdag gastos. Who does not want money in the first place, especially if it is given away?

There is a lack, a need that must be fulfilled.  The majority of voters are not well-off and, by nature, believe only on what is tangible. They want to see concrete things. There is a saying in Hiligaynon: “Dapat may tupa, dapat may agi.” (It must be felt that indeed something happened, that indeed something was done.)

So I thought: Why don’t politicians — at the start of their terms — already set aside an amount equal to what would be their vote-buying budget, whichthey can allocate for honest-to-goodness, tangible, concrete projects for their constituents?

For example:

You are a candidate for mayor. You have 10 baranggays in your municipality. Your voting population is 30,000 people. For the next election, your budget to buy votes is P300 per voter or a total of P9,000,000.

Instead of the appalling practice of buying votes before elections — putting money in envelopes and so on — why don’t you make sure that the P9M is directly translated into real projects in those baranggays during your term?

These projects can then be cited through any form of media that you like: flyers, posters, streamers, radio, television, online. No one would challenge them because people really felt your projects, people really saw them.

If I were a voter, I would forgive you for being slightly epal (telling the world about all your “accomplishments” because, well,  it’s true anyway). I would forgive you even if the projects were done close to the elections so that there is a sense of recency – that’s better than no projects at all.

Most off all, I would forgive you for “buying” my vote. And I would even vote for you.

This is how I think vote-buying should be done.

This is the proper way to buy votes.

I look forward to the next elections when what people will receive, when what I will receive, are still envelopes — not with money inside, but a list of real, tangible, concrete, and honest-to-goodness accomplishments that would make me say “yes” and go out to vote for that candidate. – Rappler.com

Kirk Chester Damasco is co-owner and business development director of KCube Enterprises.



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