| Contributed photo
MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — It’s already 9 p.m. and residents of this thickly populated sitio in a barangay in Mandaue City proper have remained widely awake.
Aside from celebrating the annual feast of Señor San Jose, the city’s patron saint, most of the residents continue to wait for their share of the ‘brown envelopes’ that were distributed by a political group.
“Wala pa gyud naabot ang among bahin,” a resident said.
(Our share did not yet reach us.)
Early on Sunday morning, May 8, residents were greeted with crisp P100 bills that were stapled to a blue card from a partylist seeking election on Monday.
| Contributed photo
The cash was sent to their homes by the assigned sitio leaders.
Recipients of the cash were confident that they would get more later in the day, just like in the 2019 elections.
At about 6 p.m., only very few of the sitio residents received the brown envelope which contained P500. Household leaders got P1,000.
One sitio leader said the other envelopes were distributed through a barangay official.
“Pila man ang sa pikas?,” one resident asked.
(How much is from the other party?)
“Wala pa may storya,” the household leader replied.
(There is no talk about it yet.)
And while the group, that was said to have been the source of the brown envelopes is allied with top Cebu officials endorsing the candidacy of a popular presidential candidate, the sample ballots that were attached to these envelopes did not include the name of any presidential or vice presidential candidates.
Senatorial candidates, whose names were also shaded on the sample ballot, came from different parties.
Only the local names that were shaded on the sample ballot all came from their political party.
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