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Fr. Leo Pabayo .

THERE is enough evidence to convince us that vote buying is widespread in every election. Vote buying does not only happen on the day of the election when the supporters of some candidates offer money to individual voters in exchange for their votes. There are large scale vote buying that happens before election day when moneyed politicians buy the support of other politicians who can deliver the votes they need to win in certain areas of the country.  Vote buying of the worst kind is when big time politicians bribe certain Comelec officials to manipulate the result of an election.

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We need to be reeducated on the wrongfulness of vote buying and selling and develop a revulsion for it. We can start with our schools. I would like to offer the following reflections as matter for teaching the young on the harm of vote buying/selling.

Vote buying/selling is harmful to us as a people and to our democratic way of life. It sabotages the very thing that politicians are supposed to bring about when they assume office, namely, a better life for our people

A better life primarily means the development of those qualities in man that makes him human. It is not primarily about economic progress. As a matter of fact, economic progress is meaningful only, can be enjoyed only and be sustained only when the citizens have developed in themselves those qualities in man that make him human. These are, truthfulness, honesty, freedom, respect for people neighborliness and community life, gratefulness, industry, justice, peacefulness, compassion for the needy, etc…. The Bible would summarize it as love of God and neighbor. All politics ultimately are meant to help the citizens to have a better human life in this way. Material prosperity, which seems to always get the attention of our leaders is of real value only if it enhances the quality of life according to the above mentioned characteristics.

Vote buying and vote selling are already acts that inflict damage on these characteristics, for the following reasons:

Firstly, the one who sells his vote is involved in a kind of dishonesty or a lie. A vote in an election is meant to be a testimony from a citizen that the candidate he votes for deserves to be in office because he, the voter, believes that this candidate will advance the interest of his community or country. But by selling his vote the voter is really saying that he does not care about advancing the welfare of his community or country. What he cares about is personal monetary gain.

Secondly, buying and selling a vote is an act of ingratitude of the worst kind. This is so because the vote of a citizen is a precious right that has been earned for him by those who fought hard for our freedom and our democratic way of life. Many of them did so by shedding their blood. To buy and sell a vote is to cheapen it into a commodity that is worth a few pesos whereas its real worth comes from the blood, sweat and tears of the people who have made it possible for us to live in freedom. Buying and selling a vote is a form of desecration of the sacrifice of the people who built this nation.

Thirdly, vote buying or vote selling derails our growth in freedom as a people thus making us less ready to enjoy the democratic way of life. To be deserving of democracy we need to have the mature kind of freedom. Mature kind of freedom is freedom that has grown from mere freedom to choose what I like and what I think is right for me into freedom as the ability to do something good for others.  When we were children we were hardly capable of doing something out of concern for others. The purpose of our desires and actions were almost always if not always our selfish interest. As we grow we develop the ability to act for a noble purpose. To vote is an opportunity for the citizens to be noble minded and to act for the sake of the common good. To buy his vote is to reduce him into one whose only kind of freedom is freedom to choose for his personal material gain. It is equivalent to saying to him, “Never mind about acting for a noble purpose. Just follow your desire for more material gain.” 

Fourthly, buying vote or selling vote is wrong because the vote of a citizen is one rare opportunity given the ordinary citizen to participate in determining the direction his country should take. Buying votes, especially the votes of the poor citizens, deprives them of this opportunity. A citizen’s vote taken a long with others can spell the difference between a bright future for his children or a gloomy one. The constitution has given the ordinary citizen such power. It is people power in every sense of the word. This right of a citizen is so important, so sacred because it is where the real equality of opportunity among the citizens of our country begins.

Equal opportunity. Election time is a time when the most ordinary citizen is equal to the richest and most powerful person of the nation. Both of them are entitled to only one vote each. One may be a billionaire and can buy as many votes as he can. But as far as his own vote is concerned, he is entitled to only one vote. During election time the ordinary cigarette vendor is equal to any other citizen, including the CEO of the biggest corporation. The democratic form of government has given him that dignity.  

If all the poor exercised their right to vote rightly they would deliver themselves from poverty and oppression. The poor ought to be helped to exercise their right to vote rightly and not to sell their votes. This is the kind of revolution that revolutionary minded people ought to get the poor to undertake. This can be done. 

Fifthly, election time is a great opportunity for educating the people in good citizenship. If the people have already learned to appreciate the value of their votes, they will see to it that they will use their votes wisely. They will be challenged to study and understand the candidates and their platforms and carefully choose those that will best serve the people’s interest. On the part of the candidates there will be real effort to get the people to understand their platform of government and why they are best suited to implement their platform. In doing this they will also be educating and raising the consciousness of the people. This can lead to a more aware citizenry and to a greater responsible participation on the part of the citizens in the affairs of government. The expression “government by the people” is realized more and more.

But vote buying derails the education of the people towards responsible participation in the affairs of the government. They get accustomed to looking upon public officials and the government as agents of handouts.

The other harm that buying votes does is the harm to the leaders. Those who buy votes would most likely want to recover the money they used to buy votes. They will likely fall into the temptation of making government service an opportunity to make money. Their growth in their calling as true leaders of the people gets derailed. They instead become leaders in graft and corruption. They deceive instead of serve the people. Their administration becomes a government of “fool the people”. The better human life that the people hope for does not get realized.

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