|
Sale
of cellular phones skyrocketed to an unexpected level since
after last Monday's elections.
This
could be the most visible effect of the huge cash flow received
by Boholanos from "uwan-uwan" or "inangayan"
which is the Cebuano term of money received from vote buying
during elections.
"I
was surprised why our sale of cellphone tripled last Wednesday,"
a shop owner revealed saying that it was the highest sales
he ever had (after operating his shop for five years).
Random
check made by the Chronicle on election day showed that vote-buying
was all over. No barangay visited by reporters of "DYRD
Election Live" would say there was no vote buying either
on the eve of election day or two days before the polls.
The
"biggest buy" was in Panglao wherein voters receive
no less than P3,200 each, presuming he gets from both camps
of Mayor-elect Benedicto Alcala and defeated mayor Doloreich
Dumaluan. There were even reports that a bigger wave of cash
bonanza was ready for the electorate should the other party
released another surge of cash.
|
|
|
In
the neighboring town of Dauis, leaders of reelected
Mayor Lulu Bongalos was reportedly giving P700 cash
to the voters on election eve. This reportedly shifted
the tilt to Bongalos, instead to newcomer US-based philanthropist
Victorio Migriño who has been giving dole-outs
over the year. Voters interviewed said they thought
Migriño will give more than P700 since he was
perceived to be wealthier than the incumbent mayor only
to find out that there was nothing more than P100/voter
coming from Migriño's camp. Until today, electorates
are still puzzled on what caused Migriño to hold
on the much expected release of funds to buy votes.
A
more business-like approach was noted in the coastal
town of Loay where a candidate presented his bonanza
through a "packaged deal," wherein a household
was arranged to "vote straight" in exchange
for P10,000 or P20,000 (depending on the number of households).
|
This
reportedly blocked the victory of the power-cast team of former
Mayor Ondoy Clarin and former Mayor Eddie Tiongco together
with their popular mayoralty bet, Vice Mayor Bong Bullecer.
The
combined forces of two former and an incumbent town leaders
was not able to match up the overflowing budget from the camp
of lady mayoralty bet May Lim-Imboy.
In the city's hotly contested one-on-one rematch of Mayor
Dan Lim and former Mayor Joe Torralba, it was not as "financially
bloody" as expected (compared to some towns).
A
whole ticket "pay" reportedly tagged P300 or P400
per voter. However, the bonanza became bigger since majority
of the candidates for city councilors did "special ops"
distributing their individual sample ballots (with their own
budget) of P20 to P50 per voter. So, if each kagawad-bet pays
P20, a voter would receive no less than P500 from the entire
slate.
In
most towns, the buying was noted to be no less than P100 per
voter (the least).
Meanwhile, some senatoriables allegedly did their own "special
ops." Reported to have sent their men to field sample
ballots (attached with few hundreds) were the camps of senatoriables
Prospero Pichay who landed second in the counting; Ed Angara,
Mike Defensor, Migs Zubir and Manny Villar. (With reports
from Danny Reyes, Willie Maestrado, Ben Pingkian)
|
