Purchasing power

People left Manila for the provinces yesterday to vote, and for some it wasn’t out of sheer civic duty. I was told that certain candidates offered from P300 to P500 per person, plus two-way fare, to bring in the voters.

The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) reported over the weekend that candidates were offering up to P3,500 per voter in Ilocos Norte, P3,000 in Ilocos Sur, P2,000 in Zamboanga Sibugay and P100 in Tawi-Tawi. How do politicians develop such strong purchasing power?

So much for a money ban. All that vote-buying is for positions that pay from about P50,000 to P90,000 a month. How do candidates recover their campaign expenses? Why are politicians ready to kill for positions with low pay, even in towns so remote they have fewer than 5,000 voters? Why do they want to pass on their positions to their spouses, children, even mistresses and their children?

The answers to those questions should give you an idea of how dirty governance can be in this country. Many family fortunes have been built on political power, and the first order of business is winning the vote. Everyone, bar none, pursues the Machiavellian path: the end justifies the means.

In Cavite, certain pro-administration barangay officials made house-to-house calls, threatening supporters of the opposition that they would be stricken off the list of beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) once the elections are over.

The CCT is supposed to be insulated from politics, with workers of the Department of Social Welfare and Development selecting the beneficiaries together with representatives of the World Bank (WB), and the cash transferred directly through banks and ATMs. DSWD officials had previously told us that for this campaign, politicians were prohibited even from displaying streamers and similar materials taking credit for the CCT.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government, currently under Liberal Party president (supposedly) on leave Mar Roxas, has jurisdiction over the barangays. Did the DSWD forge a modus vivendi for the elections with the DILG?

As far as I know, the WB has threatened to pull out of its participation in the CCT program if politicians are given a say in the selection process, evaluation and actual fund transfer. Has the WB changed its policy?

Muscle flexing is the order of the day. Perhaps those opposition supporters in Cavite should be thankful that they haven’t been physically harmed. In Roxas City, opposition supporters are grousing that all campaign materials of the United Nationalist Alliance were torn down by the police, allegedly on orders of Roxas. UNA stalwarts can take comfort in the admonition of an official in the Estrada administration: “Weather-weather lang yan.” To everything there is a season.

The administration isn’t the only one flexing its muscles. A mayor seeking re-election in Metro Manila failed to get the support of a religious sect that operates like the Mafiosi after he refused to grant a request of the group to build a church on several hectares of public land in his city. So the Mafiosi backed his rival.

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You wonder where all the campaign funds are coming from, and how candidates and their supporters intend to recoup their investments.

The scramble for congressional seats is understandable. Through the pork barrel system of earmarking projects and programs for funding, senators and congressmen have at their disposal an enormous amount of public funds (P200 million per senator), which many of them unabashedly allocate to benefit themselves, their relatives and friends.

Every year taxpayers are burdened with additional lawmakers, through gerrymandering and the ever-growing party list. Do taxpayers really need to pay for the upkeep of so many people to craft laws, a number of which cannot even be enforced? Do we have to pay for the drivers, bodyguards, gasoline, travel allowances, food, air-conditioning and office supplies of these people, some of whom do not even bother to attend legislative sessions?

Meanwhile, for local government positions, you wonder why politicians are ready to kill for a three-year job that pays P78,946 a month for provincial governor, P73,099 for vice governor, P62,670 for mayor, P58,028 for vice mayor, and no more than P53,730 for councilor.

Obviously everyone intends to recoup campaign investments. How? The crooked possibilities are endless.

Yesterday a tuwid na daan official said today’s elections will ensure that the country will not veer from the straight path of reforms.

It was the joke of the day.

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ABUSIVE CABBIES: Responding to my story about two friends who became victims of an abusive taxi driver at the NAIA, Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Jose Angel Honrado wrote to say that there are efforts to protect the public from such cabbies.

Passengers can choose either a coupon taxi, whose fare depends on the destination, and a metered taxi with a flag-down rate of P70 for the first 500 meters and P4 for every subsequent 300 meters. The taxis are accredited by the MIAA and the rates are approved by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB).

A passenger who books a cab at the NAIA counter is issued a dispatch slip bearing the passenger’s name, the cab’s plate number and company name, the date of the ride, numbers that can be called in case of complaints, and the amount to be paid if it’s a coupon taxi.

Honrado admitted that fares on the accredited taxis “are a little bit higher” than on regular cabs, but he wrote that “passengers are better assured of a safe trip and action on their complaint.”

For non-accredited taxis operating outside the airport terminals, Honrado said the MIAA has partnered with the LTFRB and the Land Transportation Office for a dispatch system to prevent abuses at Terminal 3, with the measure soon to be in place at Terminals 1 and 2.

“Rest assured that we are doing all we can to be of better service to all,” Honrado wrote.

He also provided the following numbers for complaints. They should display these numbers prominently at the arrival areas in the three terminals:

SMS: 0917-839-6242 (0917TEXNAIA)

Curbside Management Office: 877-1109 local 4199

Command Center: 877-1109 loc 3031 to 3003

Customer Relations Center: 823-0669 or 829-0998

Airport Police Department: 877-1109 loc 4230, 8367, 791

LTFRB: 426-2515