‘The post-EDSA electoral reforms could not break up the rampant bribery and large-scale vote-buying on the ground perpetuated by national leaders.’
TENS of thousands of Cavite voters showed up to welcome Vice President Leni Robredo as an open rebuke to Cavite Gov. Junvic Remulla’s promise to deliver 800,000 votes for Bongbong Marcos. Shortly after Remulla’s announcement, social media was nearly ablaze with retorts from Cavitenos that they would not vote the Remulla way. Cavite is the second most vote-rich province with 2.3 million registered voters, next to Cebu which has 3.2 million.
More than 47,000 Robredo supporters waited a few hours for Robredo who was caught in traffic. While waiting, they chanted “Hindi kami bayad!” which was another rebuke of the Cavite incumbent’s hakot system.
Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said: “It’s the local officials, especially the incumbents, who work on the ground to deliver votes for a national candidate, like the president. But they will not do it without getting something in return, that’s the nature of patronage politics.” It has been an open secret in national and local elections that presidential and senatorial candidates would commonly give out big money to local officials in exchange for their voting support.
Since covering the elections in the 1980s after EDSA as a TV reporter, news producer and anchor, I have known this to be the awful reality of elections in the Philippines — powerful and moneyed groups have all the resources, to the disadvantage of deprived but unquestionably qualified candidates. The post-EDSA electoral reforms could not break up the rampant bribery and large-scale vote-buying on the ground perpetuated by national leaders.
A Catholic priest, Fr. Ed Panlilio, was elected governor of Pampanga at the height of the government’s campaign against illegal gambling, especially jueteng, and despite the vaunted political machinery of the Pinedas. He had vowed to renew the people’s heart and minds towards integrity, morality, and the Godly way of life. But they were accustomed to material and political benefits and not to moral enlightenment.
The selfless piety and zeal of Panlilio to help the poor, the jobless and uneducated were no match to the abundant promise of the good life sourced out from gambling, illegal businesses, and regular dole-outs from the LGUs. He lost in the next elections.
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Pastor Tim Dilena of Tijmes Square Church in New York lends a powerful voice on how to prevent further mayhem in Ukraine. He exhorts Christian believers that they should use the weapons of God and not of the world, as he read from Psalm 46: 1-2 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, even if the earth has changed.” He also reminds us that Christians in Russia and Ukraine and in the rest of the world are connected by the blood of Jesus.
Nearly 70% of Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians and on the side of God. Pastor Dilena knows that only the Lord can strengthen their faith to halt death and destruction.as in Psalm 46 9-10: “He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. Be still and know that I am God.”
