It was past midnight but most of the residents in a densely populated barangay in Mandaue City remained awake. Some gathered in small groups to discuss who to vote in today’s election.
Shortly before 1 a.m. of Monday, or just six hours before voting precincts opened at 7 a.m., a candidate for councilor of the administration group went around to knock on homes and distribute crisp P50 bills for each of the registered voters.
“Pila man mo ka book? (How many are you?)” was his only question before handing out the bills. The candidate was accompanied by a barangay worker.
The P50 per voter pay off was on top of the P150 that the reelectionst candidate for village chair of the same barangay gave to each voter through their designated barangay leaders.
Of the amount, the P100 bill was clipped on the sample ballot, which listed the names of the candidates for their entire slate – from the barangay captain to the seven members of the barangay council. It also had the voter’s precinct number.
Another P50 bill was separately clipped on a small paper which contained just the name of the reelectionist candidate for barangay captain and a new candidate for counciman.
The candidates’ leaders who were tasked to give out the cash were separately given P450.
On Saturday, the family of one of the group’s candidate for councilor also gave out P100 each to voters.
“Karon pa man ni nahitabo nga daghan kaayong kwarta ang ilang gipang hatag (This is the first time that so much money were given away),” said one of the recipients.