‘Philippine elections have not changed since the word “hakot” was first used in a derogatory sense.’
IT is BOTH appalling and pathetic, this anecdote related by Sen. Panfilo Lacson at a recent press conference in Zamboanga City.
Lacson narrated: “This is funny because the other day, one of our supporters in the Southern Tagalog Region was approached by an organizer. I would like to share this with you because this is somehow misleading. He was asked if Senator Lacson and Senator Sotto would like to conduct many rallies. We can provide attendees for P500 per person. We can deliver as many as you need.”
Other candidates who were with Lacson at the presscon, including Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle “Beng “Climaco-Salazar, vice presidential candidate and Senate President Vicente Sotto III, senatorial candidates Manny Piñol and Minguita Padilla, were dumbfounded at the brazen offer of hundreds of rally participants in exchange for money.
The senator and independent presidential candidate added that these “hakot” crowds will be coming from Rizal, Payatas, Caloocan, and Mandaluyong. It is for the prospective customer to determine the volume of the crowd, just like a human resources department in the corporate world. Actually, the net take home of each participant is something like P200, minus expenses for food and transport.
This revelation is of course denied by other political groups who boast of huge volume of participants in their rallies, who will swear to high heavens that their attendees were unpaid and even pay for their own expenses and donate for the campaign. This is definitely true, too, as big crowds in political rallies are composed of paid and unpaid participants, for how could any political party come up with such huge crowds if they will not spend, at least for drinking water and transport?
This situation makes it doubly hard for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to identify, much less prosecute, the incidents of vote buying in the heat of this election campaign. We just hope that they can do their job and make a small dent in the campaign to lessen the buying of votes by moneyed candidates.
Another thing that this revelation shows is that political parties are hyping their campaigns, trying to project the image of strength in numbers, of a bandwagon. Just like spending money for favorable survey results, this participants-for-hire scheme plays on the misconception of many that their votes will not matter if given to weak candidates who will most likely lose.
Philippine elections have not changed since the word “hakot” was first used in a derogatory sense. But there is still hope as young, discerning voters join the vetting process.
