Sunday night, in Davao del Norte and Davao de Oro, was festive. They had a night market for votes and the price for each was unprecedented compared to previous electoral campaigns.
Vote buying was commonplace in many places in the country and Davao Region is not exempted. Vote buying comes in many forms. Before the election ban, Ayuda and AKAP were being traded off in exchange for votes.
In a distress move to save incumbent Governor Gwen Garcia from defeat, ₱20-per-kilo rice was sold in vote-rich Cebu but on account of the fact that it contravenes election laws since the subsidized rice partakes of vote buying, what was like a fire sale was stopped. Gwen lost miserably to Pam Baricuatro of PDP-Laban, a clear message that the Marcos administration as well as the bigtime political figures in Cebu are no longer in control of the Cebuano electorates.
But it was something else in Davao de Oro and Davao del Norte. Sunday night before election day, massive vote buying done in a not-to-covert operations, flooded the votes market which, according to unimpeachable source, ranged from ₱3,000 to ₱5,000 each. A candidate confided that Saturday before the Monday election, their survey showed that he was leading with 55% to 60% advantage. Then past midnight Sunday he received reports that oodles of money were stealthily doled out in what the locals dubbed as “kamangay” as in secretly creeping to avoid detection to deliver the moolah .
A politician I talked to last Tuesday said that what is worrisome is that since the benchmark of the price of vote had been raised to an absurd level, what will happen next is that new level of corruption will follow as the winner will have to recover the amount he of she spent. It will also drive away people with intentions to serve away from politics.
Davao City electorates however is distinctively insulated from the evils of vote buying despite the magma of Ayuda that flooded the city from the start of election season. . The outcome of elections was incredibly overwhelming as the Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod skippered by Mayor President Rodrigo R. Duterte, from far away Netherlands, won in clean sweep all elective posts in the midterm elections, sending a resounding declaration: “Davao City is not for sale”.
