DAVAO CITY --- The Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections are over, but the events are still fresh for all of us as voters. It is filled with victory, grief and massive elections fraud to some. In the province of Maguindanao del Norte, two schools were destroyed while two lives were lost during the election day on October 30. While in the province of Basilan, many cases of harassment, killings and otehr forms of violence related to the election happened, some were slapped inside the precinct. There were those who died. In North Cotabato, the alleged actual vote buying is still on video. There was also a different concern in barangay Northern Paligue in the municipality of Padada, Davao del Sur, it was discovered that the names of the administration candidates have a hashtag. In almost all villages allegations of vote buying starting from P300 to P1,000 persists. There was unlimited distribution of sardines, rice and noodles. If one voter accepted P300 this is the value of your vote for three years: P300.00/36 months or 1,080 days which means .20centavos per day; P1,000/36 months or 1,080 days, .92 means per day in return for what you receive If a candicate gave P300 to 500 voters, it means P150,000 which is almost the worth in building small waiting shed for a barangay. If the cadidate gave P1,000 to 500 voters, it means P500,000 worth of a one-room day care center for children in your barangay But, who will pay money? We all need money. The question is, how can politicians recover their costs? That the maximum salary of a captain according to the law is only P31,000? The question now is, how will they get back what they spent? The elected officials have a three-year tenure, if the barangay elections in the year 2025 are not combined with the national and synchronized election. Because of the loss of life, and bloodshed, our relationship with our neighbors has been destroyed and hatred remains, now that the election is over. Due to the flooding of money, sardines and rice, every citizen must guard their coffers in the barnagya and make sure that the money of our people goes to projects to develop our barangay.
