MANY years ago, someone called me up to ask if I wanted to buy a vault door. My initial reaction was, What vault door? He replied, The kind that a bank uses.

Me: Huh?! What will I do with a bank vault door?

He: For your money, documents, etc.

My thought bubble: A la Scrooge McDuck? What the…?

But that was a big Realization 101 for me. You mean ultra-rich people build the equivalent of bank vaults in their mansions? To hide what? Ill-gotten wealth? Or they don’t trust banks anymore for their deposits?

As a preventive measure against vote-buying and -selling, the Commission on Elections imposed a money ban on May 11 and 12 to disallow the possession, carrying, or transport of P500,000 or more in cash. But the alleged vote-buying already began several days before in Cagayan de Oro, causing traffic jams even at midnight.

If the political candidate has a bank vault in his house, and voters were joining the procession to that house, with only concerned citizens and neighbors and a few police personnel out there to document the alarming garapalan moves to buy votes, the money ban became the cherry on top of the icing on the cake.

Garapalan vote-buying moves perhaps became the elephant in the room among government agencies that were tasked to stop it. Concerned citizens and neighbors could only do so much against a procession of alleged vote-sellers that were marching to a political candidate’s house. Facebook Live, anyone?

There were concerned citizens against this particular procession to a political candidate’s house in CDO, whose concern was deemed questionable if they belong to the rival political party which was also allegedly busy buying votes. They allegedly said that at least they were not doing the vote-buying out in the open. Unlike the other party.

So, garapalan was not acceptable, but house-to-house was okay? “I’m gonna knock on your door, ring on your bell/Tap on your window, too,” went the ad for Electrolux years ago.

For a vote-buying and -selling case to prosper, it needs solid evidence. A live video of that procession to the political candidate’s house won’t be enough. A live video of people gathering outside of his house won’t be enough. A live video of a traffic jam allegedly caused by that procession won’t be enough.

Both the vote-buyer and -seller are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Proving that guilt requires, hmmm, details.

There was the Cagayanon, getting stuck in traffic jams allegedly caused by a political candidate who seemingly didn’t trust his vote-buyer leaders anymore and would rather ask vote sellers to please go to his house for the ulan-ulan. And government agencies tasked to stop the vote-buying and -selling were seemingly helpless in stopping the procession of vote sellers to the ulan-ulan source.

The scenario was like Christmas in May, with the political candidate as Santa Claus. Wait, it was worse than Christmas. At least, Christmas’s source of funds was the 13th-month pay and bonus. The ulan-ulan’s alleged source was the taxes that the Pinoy paid to the government. So, the Pinoy vote seller was lining up to get his own money. Unsa na, refund? Oh. Not enough if it’s a refund.