An Igorot Discourse

It is now election period in the Philippines to fill up local positions and twelve senatorial slates, the polls will be on may 2007.Most of the poor electorates are eagerly looking forward to receive instant cash for selling their votes. It is the busiest time for vote selling and vote buying.This is the best opportunity to get back the taxes undelivered to them in the form of basic services that were long overdue. The winnable candidates are the rich whose family is in the political business for generations while the poor principled ones will never make it.Huge amount of wealth were accumulated by these politicians from graft and corruptions while they were in office, the purpose is continuity of power through vote buying. In mountain province, Philippines ninety eight percent of the inhabitants are Igorots whose lively hood is agriculture. The province is categorized as fourth class, one of the poorest local unit in the Philippines. This miserable condition is not due to lack of funds from the national government but due to the priorities of development were on non essential infrastructures and almost nothing in agriculture. Actually these government projects are implemented to justify the liquidation of huge expenditures because the rest,the amount of about fifty percent of an implemented project went into the pockets of these politicians. To continue their power they see to it that the people will remain poor and make it appear that these politicians are the only source of hope and money.They do this by keeping them hostage through poverty. when election time comes the voters will demand money and the politicians will readily give them. Anyway they will surely recover the amount when they assume office. This is the reason nobody complains, its because they are also a part of the corruption process by being bribed.
The Igorots including me will bear with this kind of system until we are no longer dependent from these corrupt leaders for food,hospitalization, clothings and shelter. The unmonitored campaign expenses of the politicians will show how powerless the commission on election on the fraud being committed. The expenditures too will tell the extent of graft and corruption that will take place after the election is over. Our laws made by these leaders are complex and vague with so many loopholes so that they will have a way to recover their huge expenses.
In the past a family composed of five voters can get a sum of money in the amount of eight to ten thousand pesos plus two sacks of rice from one candidate or an average of five hundred pesos per voter so that in mountain province there are one hundred thirty five thousand voters, multiply that with the money given to each voter plus the food expenses and other expenditures incurred.It will be a huge sum of money to recover. The only way to do that is to meddle with government transactions and create changes,justifications,re-alignments of government funds and projects and profit from it. I call these the mafia in the provincial government of mountain province.
The politicians know that a hungry population won't care for good platforms or good characters,the goodness of a man is measured on how much money he can give. There are only few voters who believe otherwise and there are always the losers.