“HE’S making a list/He’s checking it twice/He’s gonna find out/Who’s naughty or nice.” That’s the Pinoy voter as he decides on whom to vote for on Election Day, with the Commission on Elections keeping its fingers crossed that he’s not waiting for “gifts” from “Santa Claus.”
It’s May, how timely for the rainy season to be waving this month as voters expect ulan-ulan from political candidates. The weather’s rainy season may cause floods while the electoral ulan-ulan may cause victory or loss on the part of the candidate, depending on whose loyalty he can buy. There’s that voter who sells his vote but without delivering the vote, opting to choose the rival instead: dawat kwarta, botar konsensya.
I gotta feeling mobile-phone and appliance stores are now boosting their merchandise inventory, excitedly anticipating an increase in sales with much thanks to the electoral ulan-ulan. The amount being floated around through the grapevine is P15,000 per voter. Multiply that by Cagayan de Oro’s more than 414,000 registered voters, and that’s at least P6.21 billion.
Of course, no wise political candidate will spend that much. Perhaps only one-eighth of that, which is about P750 million — that’s the affordable amount, can still be recouped if the candidate loses. That’s for mayor and vice mayor.
For the congressional and city-council candidates who have to convince only one district, the amount can be much less, say, one-half of the P750 million which is P375 million. Or half of the P375 million which is P187.5 million. The total amount decreases as the number of voters that need convincing decreases, or as the bribe itself decreases. If the candidate will give only P2,500 per voter instead of P15,000, that will greatly reduce the budget for ulan-ulan.
This doesn’t include the expenses for campaign rallies and sorties, tarpaulins, billboards, social media, food, salaries, transportation, gasoline, rent for headquarters, T-shirts, and other expenses that the candidate’s team may deem as necessary — wink, wink.
The best campaign team is the one that can convince the voter that their candidate is humble, simple, presentable, approachable, nice, kind, generous, eloquent at least in the dialect, brilliant, real, authentic, genuine, honest, trustworthy, has public service in heart and mind. Or the team that can push their candidate forward through viral videos and social-media posts, both good and bad, since bad press is still good press and will hopefully result to name recall.
A Cagayanon voter said that the campaign is now in social media and not through handshaking. But then, what do he and I know since we’ve never been political candidates.
If there’s one characteristic that the candidate needs, it’s this: to not be onion-skinned. A political candidate has to be cute and lovable, but once he becomes a politician, his behind-the-scenes actions will require all the strength he can muster.
There’s a close fight for the positions of mayor, District 1 representative, and city councilors for CDO. Some of the surnames running for the city council are surnames of reelectionists since they’re either running for reelection or have been replaced by their spouses, siblings, or children, therefore, already familiar to the Cagayanon voter. Districts 1 and 2 have eight slots each, and these reelectionists or their relatives are already enough to fill up those soon-to-be empty seats. The newbies will have to work double time if they want to win and are not merely running for fund-raising purposes.
