WITH vote buying proving to be massive and rampant in the May 14 polls, can the people expect the officials-elect to serve honestly during their three-year term?

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said practically all of the candidates in the last election engaged in vote buying – either in cash or in kind, happening all the way up to the last minute of the campaign – and this, he said, “is a mortal wound to democracy.”

He said vote buying has become more rampant because the people are poorer.

He said it is unthinkable why some candidates will spend so much and others would even resort to violence just to hold a public service position.

“That’s ridiculous,” he said, adding, “So the assumption akin to certitude is when they come into power, they will try to recover very, very much more than what they spent.

Cruz called on the electorate to rethink their view on vote buying so that they can demand better services from their public servants.

SENATORIAL RACE

Meanwhile, Cruz said the fact that senatorial bets from the Genuine Opposition are leading in the ongoing canvassing of election results consistent with the previous surveys conducted reflects a vote of disapproval on the current administration under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“It is an argument against the acceptability of the administration, there can be no other,” said Cruz, former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

“It only says, as previously said repeatedly, that this mid term election is some kind of a referendum on the credibility and acceptability of the incumbent leadership,” he said.

Cruz warned that if the ultimate result will be the reverse in favor of the administration, “that will be asking for trouble.”–EVA and APE

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