VOTE BUYING IN THE PHILIPPINES

By; Mark Ronel Ipan

It is common knowledge that once you enter politics you are ready to any eventuality, especially
when it comes to funding. Money always play a major role in bringing about the chances of
winning of a candidate. Popularity per se is not enough to assure the vote of the electorate
especially in local politics. Although the COMELEC has already set guidelines and rules
regarding the expenditures of the candidates for each voter, more often than not, they exceed
much more than the set amount. Corruption and dishonesty is deeply rooted in our political
system, so as the mentality and attitudes of the electorate. Before and during election period,
voters flock to headquarters and leaders of politicians to take advantage of the situation: to ask
for favors, influence and even money in exchange for a promise of vote. Vote buying become
institutionalized in our political system. Those politicians who have money can device a program
to identify and to assure that his or her money will be transformed into votes. This situation is
more evident in local elections where wealthy political clans are ruling. They organized leaders
in every barangay to identify possible voters to be bought. To make sure, they furnish a copy of
voters’ registration in COMELEC in the area, so as to identify a potential voter to buy or to
corrupt the mind of the undecided.

In a poor country like ours, it is not impossible to have a power because our politicians know our
vulnerability to pressure and our hardships in life. Majority of our electorate are poor and no
means of livelihood, no education to back them up and they just resign themselves to taking alms
and reliefs. They take advantage of our weaknesses but we cannot blame those who sell their
votes. Filipinos’ minds are set for any answers that are immediate. That is why even when the act
is illegal and unlawful, like selling votes, they instantly resort to it to easily come up with a
solution to their problem, like poverty. On the long run, the vote buying will only be a stepping
stone for corruption and fiefdom perpetration.

First of all, what is Vote Buying. Vote buying involves the individual, immediate, and private
exchange of goods, services, or cash for electoral support, usually in violation of legal norms.
The most recurrent violation of election ethics. The voters sells his or her vote to the highest
bidder.

TYPES OF VOTE BUYING

Vote buying can be categorized into two types: direct vote buying and indirect vote buying. Both
types are widely used in the case of the Philippines although the idea of direct vote buying serves
as the more popular act.

*DIRECT VOTE BUYING*

It is the most common type of vote buying where direct payments, in many forms, are given to
the voter. It may be in the form of cash donations, shares of stock or a promise of a particular
plan of action or payment in exchange for a promise of vote.

INDIRECT VOTE BUYING

It is a kind of vote buying done in a non-obvious and straight forward approach. This type of
vote buying uses campaign strategies that target the weaknesses of the electorate. Here in the
Philippines, the strategy of the candidates is to use and take advantage of the different Filipino
traits. Example of these traits are our values of utang na loob (an act of voluntary assistance that
creates an obligation that the receiver must attempt to repay through reciprocal assistance),
pakikisama, our close family and kinship ties, our religiousness, and other social values like
loyalty, support and trust. They effectively use the various traits to influence and temp us to
follow their selfish plans.

FORMS OF VOTE BUYING

Money is the common type of material that the candidates use in order to buy votes. But vote
buying not only takes the form of money. It can be other forms of material offers. Schedler
(2002) and Schaffer (2002) made a list that summarizes the different kinds of offers into three
categories.

The first and the most common form is payment. A payment is an amount of money paid.
Schedler (2002, p.4) described it as a “commercial relationship in which partners trade
equivalent values.” The citizen trades his vote in exchange of money. The act of accepting
money denotes that there is an indirect agreement between the giver and the receiver of the
payment.

The second kind of material offer takes the form of gifts. A gift is something that is given out of
free will without paying something in return. In the context of vote buying, accepting a gift does
not give you the responsibility and obligation of voting the giver.

The last kind is in the form of wage. A wage is a amount of money paid in exchange of services
rendered. Like gifts, it does not require any obligation to the candidate.

FACTORS AFFECTING VOTE BUYING

According to Schaffer (2002), there are three factors that affect the strategies of the candidates
and the perception of the voters toward vote buying. These are socioeconomic, institutional and
political factors. The first factor both affects the candidate’s strategies and the voter’s perception
while the last two factors affect mainly the strategies of the candidates.

SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS
One of the socioeconomic factor is the social class (Hicken, 2006). The formulation of the
different strategies are influenced by social classes existing in society. The candidate must make
a strategy that can produce strong and favorable impressions on people from different walks of
life. It should cater to the needs of the entire high, middle and low class population. But it is
impossible to come up with such strategies given that there is a massive gap and conflicting
interests present among these social classes. Different social classes connotes different needs and
expectations. A strategy that might work to the lower class might be ineffective to the middle
and higher class or a strategy that may be good to the higher class might harm those belonging in
the lower class. Adding to the problem is the unequal number of population belonging to a
certain social class. In the Philippines, the population of the lower class is greater than the
population of the middle and higher class combined. The solution to these is to focus the strategy
to those who constitute the majority. The easiest and most effective strategy to garner votes is to
buy the votes of those who are included in this majority (which is the lower class). It will be very
effective since those who belong in this class are financially unable who need money to sustain
their everyday living. This scenario is very prevalent in the Philippines since many are members
of the lower class. Almost all politicians who are running in office are focusing their campaign
on the less fortunate because to them, greater number of voters means more number of votes and
more number of votes means greater chances of winning.

The second socioeconomic factor is education (Hicken, 2006) which affects the voter’s view
about vote buying. For the high and some middle class voters, vote buying is a deviant and
somehow an immoral behavior. Those in the higher and middle class are strong attackers of this
practice. They are advocates of different anti-vote buying campaigns and they are known for
organizing movements that educate the people about this kind of campaign strategies. They have
this kind of opinion because education teaches them about this kinds of things. But for some
middle class and most in the lower class (who cannot afford to have a higher education), they
accepted vote buying because they perceive it as the time when they can receive “free” money
that they can use to buy their necessities.

INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS

Hicken (2006, p. 48), stated that “the rules and institutions under which candidates must operate
can influence their incentives to purchase electoral support.” Different institutional factors may
encourage or discourage the use of vote buying.

One institutional factor is the electoral system itself (Hicken, 2006). Under this factor is the
district magnitude. It affects the strategy of the candidate because large constituency means
larger amount of money needed to buy votes. Large district also has influence on the manner of
distribution of the money. The strategy will be more expensive and costly since the distribution
of money will take much longer and there should be an increase in the number of employees to
properly accomplish the strategy. As a result, candidates will lessen the amount of money to be
distributed to the people in order to prioritize other campaign strategies.
POLITICAL FACTORS

Political factors are different conditions and circumstances in society that affect the creation of
various policies political choices.

One of the variable under this factor are the election laws, particularly the anti-vote buying laws
(Hicken, 2006). The degree of execution of different anti-vote buying laws affect how candidates
device their strategy and distribution plans. In the Philippines, vote buying is illegal yet it
continues to occur probably because of inefficiency of the laws and the law enforcers and the
light punishments that will be given to the law breaker. There is no strict regulation of such laws
in our country that is why the practice of vote buying is still a widespread act. More often than
not, the law enforcers themselves are the protector of this scheme.

DIFFERENT STRATEGIES OF VOTE BUYING

A carefully devised plan of action is needed to successfully carry out plans, especially if act is
illegal. Candidates and politicians are wise in strategizing the effective way to buy the votes of
the people. Usually, they even hire experts and professionals who are knowledgeable in fields
concerning illegal campaign scheming.

One specific strategy to ensure that the money given was translated into vote is what Bionat
(1998) called Lanzadera system. In this strategy, the watchers give the voters an already
completed ballot which will be dropped by the voters in the ballot box. After dropping the
already completed ballot, the voter, then, takes with him or her the blank ballot and give it to the
watcher. The watcher will complete that ballot and give it to the next paid voter. In this system,
the money is given only if the voter returns with a blank ballot.

I interviewed people from our barangay in Bulacan, Bulacan about the chronic vote buying in
our place. They had first hand experiences on how vote buying takes place in our town. Based
from that interview, I was able to learn other strategies and series of actions on how the scheme
of vote buying happens.

According to them, vote buying is usually conducted a night or two before the election day,
usually around eight in the evening until midnight. Each politicians has their own “leader” per
community who is responsible for the identification of supporters and potential vote buying
targets. They are also responsible in delivering the money to the house of the identified voters, at
times in the appearance of paying the “watcher”. The intense vote buying is very evident and
common in our place that the people are the ones coming and lining up in front of the politicians’
headquarters to ask for the money.

Another strategy done by the candidates is getting the trust of barangay officials and other
community leaders. In this way, the candidate can almost assume his or her hold in the
community. The local leaders, then, are given large amount of money in exchange of buying the
votes of their constituencies on behalf of the politician or the candidate.

One more strategy that was mentioned by my neighbors is buying non-supporters. Candidates
will offer those non-supporters with a huge amount money. If they accept it, they will not be
allowed to come out of their houses on the day of the election. There will be someone who will
serve as a watchman that will ensure that the voter will abide to the agreement. Some politicians,
in order to be extra sure, hire a bus that will take all the paid non-supporters to an out-of-town
trip on the election day.

Another strategy is the taking advantage of the politicians on our deep family and kinship ties.
Some politicians use a relative or an influential member of a clan to convince members of the
family and close friends to accept the money and to vote for that politician.

Vote buying also happens during the election day itself as said by the interviewees. Buying may
take the form of 100 pesos attached to the sample ballot.

There are also ways in order to ensure that the paid voter will comply to the agreement. Before
giving the money, they are required to give proofs that they voted that candidate. Usually, they
bring with them a carbon paper or they are asked to take a picture of the ballot with a cellphone
camera. Others asked the voters to make an agreed mark (a particular fold for example) on the
ballot to serve as an identification in the course of the counting of the votes.

REASON WHY POLITICIANS BUY VOTES

The primary reason why politicians buy votes is the hunger for power. Vote buying is a form of
desperation to remain in power. Many politicians fight for the privilege of power because it
implies influence and control over other individuals. They see power as the easiest way to
achieve fame and fortune. Candidates want to purchase the vote of the people to obtain
domination on different public organizations as mechanisms. They are not afraid to spend a big
amount of money because the moment they win the elections, they can recover much more
money than that was paid to the individuals who sell their votes.

REASONS WHY PEOPLE SELL THEIR VOTES

According to the April 2007 of the Social Weather Station (SWS), one in two of the registered
voters think that there is nothing bad in accepting the money offers from the candidates (refer to
Figure 1). Others may not see this from of money-giving as an attempt to buy their votes. They
accept the money but it does not necessarily mean that they will vote for that candidate.

Another reason is the offer seems as an opportunity to get the money, that was stolen by the
politicians, back to the people. They might as well accept the offered money since it came from
the taxes of the people.
The April 2007 SWS survey also found that those in the rural areas were more probable in
accepting money compared to those who live in urban areas (refer to Table 1). This shows that
the primary reason for the selling of votes is poverty. Those who live in or below the poverty line
mostly are unemployed individuals. They accepted the money because they needed it. For the
poor, payment for a vote can mean a week without hunger. They just accept the offer because for
them, dignity and pride cannot create food and money.

Some may see elections as the only chance to obtain something from the government. They have
this view that it is an obligation of a candidate to give money and other material things to their
supporters.

There are some reasons that we can consider negative in the part of the voters. People accept
payments because they are being threatened. Most of the times, material offers are accompanied
with terror, making the offer difficult to refuse. In an election, it is not bad to accept money
provided. One votes according to one’s conscience.

HISTORY OF VOTE BUYING IN THE PHILIPPINES

Vote buying is not just a recent development in Philippine elections. Its existence started with the
coming of foreign colonizers and continued to flourish and evolve with the advancement of new
technologies and the development of new ideas.

Pre-colonial elections in the Philippines did not have vote buying because the leadership was
assumed not through election but through succession. The same thing goes probably with the
elections during the early Spanish period (17th to 18th century). I did not find any account
stating that there was vote buying but I assume that there was none because there was no
elections and the leaders were only appointed by the Spaniards. In the late Spanish period (19th
century), Spanish colonial control in the Philippines declined as the Philippine revolution started.
The revolution led to the development of a government established by Aguinaldo. Under this
government, most officials were selected individuals from the principal class and elections were
only held for higher positions. There was no large scale elections during that time so vote buying
was not an option.

The coming of the American period started vote buying in the Philippines. The Americans gave
all Filipinos the right to rule and the right to vote. Act No. 60, which became the organic law for
all municipal governments, started the elite rule in the Philippines (Tangcangco, 1988). The Act
provided a requirement that only allowed the elites to vote and participate in elections. The elites
became powerful and they may have realized the advantage that the position can give them. They
became accustomed to the power that was once denied by the Spaniards. From then on, in order
to sustain this power, they did whatever means and costs to be elected in office..
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

– giving up your rights to vote/ selling one’s ethical standards

-Vote buying-short term effects are long term. Soon after the election, it’s pay back time.

Reform must start in the smallest unit of the society, which is the family. Our family should
inculcate in us the values of honesty and transparency and the importance of a single vote to the
development and progress of the country. Change must start within ourselves. Anti-vote buying
campaigns will not succeed.

Vote buying is not a native Filipino idea. It was only an reflection of our colonial experience.
But this experience manifest in us that it became a constant scenario in every elections. History
has an indirect effect on the start of vote buying in the Philippines. The desire for self-rule that
was forbidden to the Filipinos for almost 300 years was suddenly bestowed to us that it might
have created the idea of doing whatever it takes (may it be good or bad) to preserve and uphold
this right.