Prohibitive Cost of Election

I don’t intend to scare off the wannabes to run for next election.  But if you intend to run, better start now otherwise you’d be left behind and blowing away your chances of making it. That for as long as you have the money.  By money I mean not just barely enough for  you to make it. If need be hire  a good mathematician to give you an  exact figures, one that would catapult your dreams into an  elected post.. By that, it means securing overhead that’s more or less more than the budget you’ll spent in the principal. Ignore this reality and you would soon utter to your heart’s delight: If I know pa lamang, I will never gayod!

            Sounds like a mantra for successful election. Actually yes as I’m writing this piece after gathering relevant data in the field analyzing why an incumbent slate who so far has been there making it to elected local posts via landslide victory finally folded leaving only one Municipal Kagawad winning by his lonesome self despite well-oiled machinery.  There might be other variables like their being not residents in the area and all that.  But it seems that short of not delivering the goods to the voters specially in the homestretch sealed the fate of the failures of the seven incumbent. It was like very strong wind blowing them away fast their chances without ever knowing why.

            With money too, you need not to be affiliated in any popular political party.  Your budget is already enough making the difference specially when yours is much higher than what they are giving.  The best thing they can do is to dish out higher money buying out in other words what you gave. In that case you should make your stake higher above than theirs so that the momentum would go back to you again or you would soon wake up badly beaten.

Such was the case of the four independents who mostly make it to the final winning magic eight of Municipal Kagawad. Note what we’re talking here is merely Saguniang Bayan and you know how much at least they budgeted for their victory? More than half a million pesos at P50.00 per voter for at least 6,000 voters adding their budget on foods, gasoline, fighter, And where did they get the money. That’s crucial for the uninitiated. Where else if not from the proceeds of selling properties and loans just to secure that  their candidacy are bankrolled to the end.

It is just unfortunate that the incumbent strategist didn’t do their homework otherwise they would have remain in power comes July 1^st, 2010. The better they stop throwing tirades fomenting further division.  The better they go back now in the drawing board and start renewing their interest if they still intend to regain their lofty position and go back to power. Simply lick the wounds in other words and no need crying over spilled milk. Politics anyway is higher brand of entertainment.  Pakapalan lang yan ng mukha.  That if you have face to reckon with. What if the problem instead is your face! That needs complete reconfiguration as in PCOS machine earlier subjected.  As they said in English: it’s very hard to face the problem, if the problem is your face.

Reflecting how  the immense power of  gold among the guns and goons have transformed the lives of political  wannabes for good, it’s no wonder that many unknown, unfit and unschooled make it to the corridor of powers and down the lines in local offices where the almighty made their entry possible in the world of politics.  Some stayed there until they lost their stellar political career. Think for instance  the elder Ampatuan who defeated Candao then in ARMM. The elder Ampatuan was only grade four compare to Candao who is a stateman and yet look, how he made him mere smithereens in the world of politics in Maguindanao. Many others carved the niche of  their political career by sheer guts and with the help of vast and great resources.  These are the likes of the elder Democrito Plaza in Agusan del Sur and the Roa’s of Misamis Oriental who all first secure the power of their financial base before they engage into full throttle political dominance in their respective districts.  Similar observation could be said in other provinces.

Ergo, it’s all money in the world of politics.  It’s not only the oil that keeps you burning and running your political machinery but most importantly that vital cog  keeping your dreams alive keeping it there afloat without which better swallow any of your political ambition. You might not even make it.  But the fact that you shared your resources to the voting public specially the poor win or loss is already modest effort of reaching them out to your dreams in Sociology’s Lavelling Theory.  And that you may be blessed.