Elections not so long ago

A. Paulita Roa

ONCE upon a time, election campaigns were conducted in a manner that is more than a hundred light years away from what it is today. The voting public was politely addressed to as “haring lungsod” which when loosely translated means that all power and authority reside with the people. The candidate politely described himself as “Ang among ubos nag sulogoon” or your humble servant. Thus, the usual spiel was, “Haring lungsod, kini imong ubos nga sulogoon buot unta magpapili isip Consehal sa atong pinalangga nga dakbayan!” Flowery isn’t it? But this was the standard way of speaking and wooing the voting public. And the political opponent was called “Ang tinamod kong kaparang sa politica” or my respected political opponent.

I remember Emmanuel “Maning” Pelaez, the only Vice President from Mindanao, who was also known to many as Ang Mestizo. He was the first bar topnotcher of Misamis Oriental and was such a brilliant speaker that people would not mind standing till midnight in Divisoria just to hear him speak. One of his avid supporters said that Pelaez could turn a stone into flower when he spoke. Sure enough, he used his gift to the hilt as he and his candidates won every elections. His popular political slogan was “Bisan unsanon Maning gihapon!” He was also called the “Political Butterfly” as he would fly from one political fence to the other when he deemed that the party has become a disappointment to him and to the principles that he uphold. Each time he did that, majority of his supporters in Misamis Oriental switched  their political alliances along with him.

Then there was Fausto “Totong” Dugenio, then congressman of Misamis Oriental, who was a popular speaker and commentator of his time. He was witty, knowledgeable and at times, spoke in elegant Visayan prose. So I was not surprised to read recently that Dugenio was once part of the pre-war Cebuano literary circle as a novelist and a poet.

Political issues then were not laced with scandals, mudslinging and cursing. It was more of a mild form of attacks but were quite viral among the public. Dugenio was for a while disturbed by the “Lista Pang!” issue. This was about the notebook that his charming wife, Pepang kept. Whenever, Dugenio helped or granted favors to his constituents, he would call for his wife to bring her notebook and tell her, “Pang, ilista iyang ngalan ug ang nabuhat ko para sa iya.” His political enemies found this offensive, so they started and circulated the Lista Pang! issue. This for me is not bad at all. I would love to get hold of Pepang Dugenio’s notebook for it tells us of Dugenio’s public service and it is now part of local political history.

Vote buying is not new here. It started way before the outbreak of World War II. In the 1930s when the popular footwear of the Pinoys was the bakya, one gubernatorial candidate had hundreds of pairs of bakyas in all sizes and colors stacked in his house. On the eve of the election, voters were given half of the pairs and they collected the other half after voting. Needless to say, he was always a winner.

There was once a popular senadora who was running for re-election. In Divisoria, she gave a fiery speech on the need to stop the bribery system that was already creeping in all big national offices. She promised that when she is re-elected, “Pupotolin ko ang lagay system. Yong mga lagay na yan ay mawala na!” Unfortunately, this was misunderstood by most males in the crowd. This was in the late ’50s long before the Tagalog teleseryes and TV shows so most of the men were alarmed. They told a local official, “Dili mi mobotar nia kay putlon nia ang among  mga lagay.” Lagay in Bisayan refers to the male organ–a far cry from the Tagalog word that means  bribery or to put in place or to give. (to be continued)