Proem

Prior to the May 14, 2007 election the television stations, particularly ANC TV, always displayed this advise, "VALUE YOUR VOTE". It is presumed that those who read it know the meaning in accordance to the nuances of the English language. The purported meaning would be, give importance to your vote and vote wisely in accordance to your conscience.

Upon deeper analysis, I am sorry to say that the phrase "Value your vote" carries with it another meaning. If you read it in English, think in Sugboanon Bisaya and translate again into English, the meaning would be, "put a price to your vote"! So the majority of the Boholanos obeyed the advise, the price of their vote was FIVE HUNDRED PESOS (P500)!

Linguistic Analysis

"Value your vote" is not a complete sentence because it does not contain a verb. It is only a phrase. However, in Sugboanon Bisaya a phrase is already a sentence if it contains a COMMENT and a TOPIC. For example the phrase "The big tree" is already a complete sentence when translated in Bisaya as, Ang kahoy nga dakô. The comment (timang) is "dakô" and the topic (tumong) is "kahoy". Note that the Bisayan sentence has no verb.

Now, translate "Value your vote" into Sugboanon Bisaya. The translation will be "Hatagi og bili ang imong boto." If you translate it back to English it will become, "Put a price to your vote". So that is it, according to 50% of the respondents of the nine (9) towns in Bohol that we surveyed, the price of their vote is P500. About 7% "valued" their votes at P2,000.

Those who are educated enough and able to read in English and think in English have no problem with the advise "Value your vote." They can get the English meaning.

You, who are pro-English, should not despise the Sugboanon Bisayan language because our language has a precise translation. The precise translation is "Hatagi og nahót ang imong boto." The word nahót is a precise equivalent of the English word "value" as used in the TV advice.

The problem is, how many of the Boholanos have studied their Bisayan language? How many of you know that "nahót" and not "bili" is the equivalent of "value"? I would say, very, very few and not even one percent.

So the culprit of the misunderstanding is our educational system. We study English as a second language, Tagalog as a third language, but we do not study in school our first language, which is the Sugboanon Bisaya.

Another Revelation

When the question was asked, "Imo ba nga sundon ang "sample ballot" nga ipadala sa kuwarta? (Will you follow the sample ballot accompanying the money?) The response was, 42% would not follow the sample ballot.

Taken in context with the other questions in the research, the meaning is that each candidate must separately give his own money. That is how the Boholano voters "value" their votes. If and when the number of "giver-candidates" is more than the number of slots to be voted, the votes go to the "highest bidder."

The Focus on Money

At the start of the campaign period we were already surprised that those who will accept money and vote for the candidate was 33%. I said in a previous column that it was already greater than the 17% response to the same question in the 2004 election.

On our May 11, 2007 poll survey, the same question had already a response rate of 49% to 52% among the towns and City of Tagbilaran that we surveyed.

I would say that something had gone wrong in the mental set of the Boholano voters.

The majority of the voters was interested of the money and did not care about the quality of the candidates.