Is your candidate willing to sign the Anti-Vote Buying Covenant?

For the past few months ever since the filing of the Certificates of Candidacies, several candidates have lamented the growing costs of running and winning an election here in our country. One mayoralty candidate of a small municipality in Mindoro told me that he would need at least P 10 Million just to be able to put up a decent campaign against his opponents. For a municipality that has a voting population of less than 10,000 people, this would amount to investing roughly P 1,000 per person. Upon probing further, the candidate finally told me that the main reason why is because he also needs to buy votes because all of his opponents are doing it and if he doesn’t do it then he will lose. In short, the situation in many areas in our country is that the vote of an individual or a family now goes to the highest bidder so much so that many well-meaning candidates are now forced to even consider to also go into vote-buying just to be able to have a strong chance of winning. Voters see nothing wrong in Vote-Buying Sadly, the bigger problem here is that many Filipinos especially those who are living below the poverty line no longer see vote-buying as something illegal or immoral. Vote-buying has now become so rampant that many Filipinos now look forward to it every elections and worse, there are instances wherein they even take the initiative to approach candidates and sell their votes to them. During the last elections, one of my colleagues at Kaya Natin! told me that in their province, large families were receiving up to P 10,000 per family in order to ensure that every member of the family would vote for that particular candidate. When I asked someone living in a depressed community in Quezon City who received money from a candidate in the last elections, she told me that she sees nothing wrong with vote-buying since this is the only time when they are able to receive monetary support from their government officials. She further added, “Pera naman ng taumbayan yang ipinamimigay nila kaya okay lang na tanggapin namin, sayang naman ang pambili naming ng bigas (The money that they are giving away is the people’s money that’s why there is nothing wrong if we accept it, we can use it to buy rice).” Vote-buying leads to corruption and illegal activities What many of our voters fail to see is that while they are receiving money that will be able to tide them through life for less than a month, the consequences of their actions will be felt for three years. For example, which candidate would be in his right mind to spend more than P 10 Million of his own money for his campaign and not try to get this back when he wins? A Mayor in our country earns only P 40,000.00 a month and if you multiply that by 36 months which is the duration of his term than that would only amount to P 1.4 million or less than 15% of the total amount that he spent during the elections. In this case, it is not surprising that graft and corruption continue to thrive in the local level since many of our government leaders have to continue to recoup their “investment” and at the same time save enough funds again for the next elections. Aside from being one of the major causes of graft and corruption in our country, vote-buying is also a major reason why illegal gambling and illegal drugs continue to thrive. Many of our local officials are seen as protectors of jueteng operations in their areas because they also receive a cut from the monthly revenues of these illegal activities. When I asked a local government official about this they said that they need to do this because during elections, Filipinos are now expecting that candidates would give them money and if they don’t, chances are they will lose since people will say that they are selfish and unhelpful.    Is winning without vote buying possible? Is it true that one needs to buy votes just to be able to win in the elections? The late Jesse Robredo wouldn’t agree to this premise since he was able to win 6 straight elections as Mayor of Naga City without ever resorting to vote buying. Robredo showed that if you perform well then the people will vote for you again. Two other known leaders to have won without resorting to vote buying are current COMELEC Commissioner Grace Padaca, who won two terms as Governor of Isabela and Among Ed Panlilio who in 2007 won as Governor of Pampanga against two more moneyed opponents. Their examples clearly show that winning without vote buying is possible. Anti-Vote Buying Covenant As we head towards the 2013 elections which is seen as a prelude to the Presidential elections in 2016, the urgency to act against vote buying continues to grow. The Kaya Natin! Movement for Good Governance and Ethical Leadership together with the Ateneo School of Government has now launched a campaign to ask candidates to sign an Anti-Vote Buying Covenant wherein they would pledge never to engage in vote buying. This covenant will be made available online for candidates to download and sign. A responsible citizen’s pledge not to sell their votes will also be made available for ordinary citizens to sign. Now as ordinary citizens, the challenge for us is to demand from our candidates to immediately sign this covenant and to ensure that they follow it. As the saying goes, the price that we have to pay for our freedom and democracy is eternal vigilance. The only way that we can stop vote buying is if we are able to show our candidates that buying votes will only make them lose votes and ultimately, lose the elections.  For those who would like to receive a copy of the Anti-Vote Buying Covenant, you  can send an email to knmovement@gmail.com or you can also call (02) 433-1440. Comments are welcome at harveykeh@gmail.com Follow me at Twitter: twitter.com/harveykeh Harvey S. Keh is Director for Youth Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship at the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government and is also the Lead Convenor of the Kaya Natin! Movement for Good Governance and Ethical Leadership.