Video wars: Mar gets flak over ‘envelopes’

MANILA, Philippines – While Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte fended off criticism yesterday for his videotaped comment about a rape victim, his rival Mar Roxas’ camp also took flak for a video clip that insinuated the Liberal Party (LP) engaged in “envelopmental” campaigning.

The video, which circulated Saturday, showed an emcee at an LP campaign sortie telling those who did not cheer loudly for the administration standard bearer that they would not get “envelopes.”

A certain “KutangBato Vlogger” posted the 58-second video on Facebook.

The one who supposedly uploaded the video said the incident happened in Pikit, North Cotabato on March 31, a day after the violent dispersal of protesting farmers in Kidapawan City.

The video uploader accused Roxas and his allies of resorting to “envelope campaigning” to gather an audience during their political sorties.

The video also showed an emcee rehearsing the crowd to shout “Oras na, Roxas na (It’s Roxas’ time).”

After the crowd chanted the line, the unidentified emcee remarked in Filipino: “The chanting is weak here. You will not get envelopes. The chanting at the back is weak. You won’t have envelopes later.”

The video also showed the emcee giving an envelope to a woman who uttered the name of Roxas’ wife Korina Sanchez. The woman appeared to have answered a question because the emcee reacted by saying: “You are right. Every right answer equals an envelope.”

It was not clear what was inside the envelope given to the woman.

The emcee also gave what appeared to be another envelope to another member of the audience but the video did not show why he did it.

The last part of the video showed Roxas arriving at the venue while members of the audience chanted “Oras na! Roxas na!”

While it remains unsure whether the envelopes contained cash, Facebook users who posted comments on the video were convinced that the LP distributed money during the event.

Some of them reminded voters not to support candidates who use money to gain support.