According to a political operator I bumped into recently, running in public office is not for the faint hearted. After the filing of candidacy in October 1 to 5, he said, financial matters come to the bets.
He said a congressional or mayoralty candidate who challenges an incumbent mayor would deal with the following: Every week, the candidate would have an average of five invitations for him to stand as godfather in a wedding.
He has to shell-out an average donation of P3, 000 to each pair of the couple, or P15, 000 a week if there are five pairs of them, or P60,000 a month or P420,000 up to the May 13, 2013 poll. He said the bet has to deal too with solicitations from fiesta and basketball leagues where the latter mercilessly fleece all the candidates they caught to bankroll their uniform, shoes, and even their socks.
“Wala na silang paki-alam kahit magdoble-doble na ang sapatos o medyas nila,” he said.
“If a candidate is a newbie who wanted to impress the community, he will ask the solicitor how much the incumbent congressman or mayor shell-out in every fiesta. If they retort that the incumbent gives P5,000, the new candidate will showboat by giving P10, 000 to double the amount.
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Another all seasoned mayor told me that it is tough call colliding with an incumbent mayor.
The incumbent, he said, uses the town or city’s social fund and his payola of an average of P20,000 (for a town) and P40,000 (for a city) daily from illegal game jueteng , and his cut from whatever government contract’s his hand can lay on. “Iyong kalaban iyong hinuhugot niya ay sariling pera niya.”
The mayor said it’s a blow and a shame if an incumbent, with all the trappings his position gives him, loses to the challenger. He said that those bets that lose and did not circulate in the community in the three hiatus years before they file their candidacy would surely lose again.
“When I lost, I did not stop giving dole-outs to solicitors (hospital and funeral bills, rice, bail, games), I did not cease going to wake, I did not stop standing as godfather in weddings”.
He said he could do all of these because he has a booming business.
When he challenged again his opponent who defeated him in the last poll he won. “My opponent lost because he was an elitist”.
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The supporter of a mayor told me that wherever his boss is, either he was drinking, gambling, or meeting with somebody, any of his needy constituents can still go to him and beg for help. “I gave eagerly what they wanted without chiding them unlike my opponent who immediately rebuffs the solicitor that they are barred coming to his place because he bought their votes when he ran for office,” the mayor said. Another mayor in his neighboring town agreed what the hizzoner told me.
“That’s the human touch, added by tapping at the back of the Unwashed of the Society who are in dire need, that wins election,” he whispered to me.
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Are Dagupan City re-electionist Mayor Benjamin S. Lim and vice-mayoralty tandem Alex Siapno up for a tough fight in the May 13, 2013 polls? According to Dagupan City councilor Karlos Reyna, for the first time the three big families of Dagupan -- Reynas, Manaois, and Fernandezes with the support of the de Venecias have locked arms together behind the mayoralty and vice mayoralty bids of Belen Fernandez and Michael Fernandez.
Would these big guns enough to snare the votes at the expense of Benjie? Or would these big families’ cooperation be tested by the mettle, genius, and shrewdness of Lim in a Battle Royale that many political spectators likened to the Normandy Landing.
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A town mayor in Pangasinan said Governor Amado T. Espino could no longer use the spruced up swanky Capitol in Lingayen town and the renovated provincial hospitals spread all over Pangasinan as his vote getting come-on. “Gasgas na iyon (They are worn-out),” he quipped.
He said voters would no longer buy it since Espino has used it emphatically when he sought re-election in 2010.
“The issue (against the governor) now is there are no significant investors from outside of the province putting shops in Pangasinan,” he stressed. You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)
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