By Leonardo Micua

 

I DON’T know what’s with Councilor Erfe Mejia. He asked the City Secretary to submit a report on my virtual attendance via Zoom in regular sessions of the SP. He also sought from him clippings of my weekly column Random Thoughts.

He manifested these during the SP regular session on November 7 as chairman of the committee on public information.

Was he puzzled how I manage to get information about SP proceedings and committee hearings? Was my attendance via Zoom illegal? Aren’t sessions of legislative bodies open to the public, particularly to journalists?

Did I get the goat of the majority in the SP for regularly covering the sessions and for truthfully reporting what transpired in their sessions in this paper?  But why ask about my attendance in particular when other media men are also doing the same in their papers or their respective radio stations.

Must I thank Mr. Erfe-Mejia for noticing my presence in all sessions since the inaugural session of the SP and onward, and for declaring that the Sunday Punch is the only newspaper that’s on top of their desks every Tuesday?

But is it possible that he is complimenting me and The PUNCH? Or is he just pulling my leg?

My friend, Lina Cervantes of DWPR, was hysterical when she called to ask me if the majority in the SP is imposing a ban on me, to stop me from attending sessions by Zoom? She also knows that  the majority will be exceeding its boundaries if and when it does that.

She said the majority cannot prevent a card-bearing member of the mainstream media from covering SP sessions, and all journalists worth their salt must strongly denounce the ban.

I told Lina that I have to wait and see what Mr. Erfe-Mejia intends do after reviewing the report on my attendance and the clippings of my weekly column.

What I do know is Erfe-Mejia and his colleagues are in no position to prevent me from covering their sessions.

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We were not the least bit surprised when the Comelec and its deputized agents again failed to effectively address the vote buying and selling during the October 30 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).

This unfortunate reality is something we have come to accept, as the practice of vote buying and selling has already become deeply ingrained in the Filipino voting culture. 

Take Binmaley for instance. One candidate for Kapitan reportedly shelled out P1k per voter and when his opponent heard about this, he also gave out P1k per voter. So, on the day of the election, recipients of the bonanza had to make a hard choice on who to vote for – should it be the one they considered as lesser evil?  

Still in Binmaley, we heard that the candidate who shared two kilos of tilapia per household two or three days before the polls won handily against his opponent who just gave token gifts in the neighborhood.

Over in Calasiao, it was reported that some households can already put up mini-groceries after receiving plastic water basins or pails, filled with assorted canned goods, topped by a sleek P1K and a dozen or two longganisa as bonus. 

And in Pantal, Dagupan City, we heard this former official was fuming mad that his neighbors turned their back on his favored kagawad candidate and whom he helped distribute P300 per voter.

Compared to past elections, candidates corrupted voters by issuing QR-coded cards, which they present to designated vote buying stations to claim their money, today’s  system of  buying and selling votes in the just concluded BSKE was admittedly less sophisticated but still flagrant.

From the very beginning, we held a pessimistic view of the success of Task Force Kontra Bigay organized by the Comelec, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

But what truly astonishes us is the staggering amount of money candidates were willing to spend from their stable for a mere barangay post.

But nevertheless, Task Force Kontra Bigay still did its best to help contain vote buying and selling. But its best was definitely not enough. #

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