Money Flourished in Limay for 2 Days

It was like New Year’s Eve in May. People were all around town buying everything, eating out, shopping...in short, they are spending money...and in big currencies, 1000 and 500 peso denominations.
As a testament to this, my wife’s modest shop, Cuplinx Internet Cafe’ (some advertisement here), had the biggest daily sales for the year last election eve. They all have their hands full that I have to assist in the washing of dishes. Their food ingredients and raw materials, which usually last for 2 to 3 days, were all consumed that night.
On Election Day, people are everywhere, not only in the polling places but even in the market, groceries, shops, etc. The scene is no different to New Year’s Eve, when everybody is rushing to buy last minute groceries for Media Noche. The next day, there was shortage of goods from the market and even from the biggest supermarket in town, so my wife had to buy from Balanga City.
What could have caused all of these? Was it because of the massive vote-buying that was perpetrated by politicians to ensure their victory? According to reliable sources, leaders of two opposing candidates gave out envelops with cash ranging from a minimum of P1000 to as high as P2000. One candidate undertook, what local folks call as “Gapang”, and instructed his leaders, in the wee hours of midnight, to buy out hard-core loyalists of his opponent by an imaginable amount of P3,500 per voter and even placed indelible ink on their fingers as guarantee that they could no longer vote for his opponent. Imagine, for a small family of four voters, that would easily sum up to P14,000! And for a middle income earner, this amount could easily demolish one’s loyalty to a candidate or adherence to principle.
Until we improve the lives of people of the lowest class, which is the majority, vote buying will always be the norm in every election, where the highest bidders are declared winners. The need to satisfy these poor people’s hunger, tend to cut their memories short, as they tend to forget the sins of candidates in the past.
Let us hope and pray that with the looming leadership of Senator Noynoy Aquino, and the strength of the Filipino people, we could finally put an end to all these forms of corruption.