MANILA, 29 October 2007 — About a million candidates will contest nearly 672,000 village and youth council posts as the Philippines holds elections in the country’s 42,000 barangays today.
Police were placed on the highest security alert yesterday ahead of the polls, which authorities fear could be disrupted by communist guerrillas backing candidates.
The election for the country’s smallest political unit had been postponed repeatedly, causing the incumbents who were elected in 2001 to overstay their three-year-term.
Problems like neighborhood quarrels, uncollected garbage, busted streetlights, lack of health services and unemployment are some of the problems that confront village leaders. Candidates, however, are hoping to get their neighbors’ support so they can lead their communities in peace and progress, and in the process, get the privileges and perks attached to their offices.
Commission on Elections officials said they were all set for Monday’s elections even as police and soldiers kept a close watch of villages declared as election hotspots.
Police expressed fears of widespread violence and fraud as candidates in local elections are known to take their interests on a personal level.
Ahead of the balloting, communist New People’s Army guerrillas abducted a candidate for village leader in Basey town in the central Philippine province of Samar. The candidate, Elizabeth Gutierrez, who was abducted Wednesday, was running against a relative of a rebel commander, police said.
A former rebel also aspiring to become a village head was killed by suspected communist gunmen last Monday in Villareal town, also in Samar, about 600 kilometers (375 miles) southeast of Manila, police said.
National police chief Avelino Razon Jr. said the 120,000-strong force was placed on full alert to guard against violence and fraud. Police commanders have been ordered to stop any attempt by communist rebels to use force to ensure the victory of sympathetic candidates, he said.
Honor and Perks
Many village candidates are running due to the honor, power and privileges attached to the positions they are aspiring for.
The monthly allowance of a village chairman may range from a low of 3,000 pesos ($65) to a high of P20,000 ($440), depending on the internal revenue allotment and incomes of the villages. The allowance, no matter how small, is attractive enough for many of them because it is considered steady income.
For farmers, who constitute most of the elective village officials in the provinces, P3,500 is already a “bonanza” because they earn only when they harvest their crops, according to observers.
In Bulacan province, for instance, 21-year-old Maria Gilamie Sarmiento said the P1,870 monthly honorarium she received as chairman of the Sangunniang Kabataan (youth council) in barangay Maysantol helped her defray the family’s expenses for her education. She said scholarship assistance was also given to family members of village officials. Most candidates would cite their desire to serve the community as the reason for their candidacies but Danilo Morillo, an incumbent village councilor seeking the top post of Barangay 61 in Tacloban City, admitted that the perks of being an official lured him to run. “I will be a hypocrite if I will not admit that,” he said. If he wins, he stands to receive P3,000 in monthly honorarium.
Reports also said payoffs from operations from the illegal numbers game “jueteng” have become a major come-on for candidates, including those running in the SK polls.
All in the Family
In the eastern province of Catanduanes, an entire family is running for village posts in separate villages.
Mark Ian Condeno is aiming for the SK chairmanship in Marambong village while his mother, Mary Ching, is running for a seat in the barangay council. Isai, the father, a former kagawad of Marambong, is running for a similar seat in Napo several kilometers away in the poblacion where the family resides, according to the young Condeno’s rival, Michelle Trinidad.
Several third-term village chairmen have fielded their wives or close relatives to run for the posts they will soon vacate while they themselves are campaigning for a council seat.
Name Recall
Edu Manzano is running for kagawad of Barangay Calzada in Guinobatan, Albay. But he is not the Edu Manzano seen on television acting, hosting game shows and confiscating pirated compact discs as chair of the Optical Media Board. In Barangay Zone 2 in Digos City, Joseph Anthony Estrada, a candidte for village councilor made sure people would not forget to write his name on the ballot by introducing himself as “Erap Estrada.” Estrada, a former tanod (village watchman), said he was using the former president’s name not to capitalize on the latter’s popularity but to show his admiration for him.
“My parents also love him very much. It’s the reason they named me after him,” he said.
In Los Baños, Laguna, a re-electionist candidate for village councilor in Bagong Kalsada is named Boy Capitan.
Candidate for Three Positions
In Negros Occidental, the Commission on Elections learned through its computers that a 59-year-old teacher was running for three positions in different villages.
Election supervisor Jessie Suarez said the name of Fe Benitez appeared in computer records as a candidate for councilwoman in Barangay 4 in Bacolod City and Zone 4 in Pulupandan town; and as a candidate for village chairman in Tabao Proper, Valladolid town.
The Comelec removed the name of Benitez as a village council candidate in Bacolod and Pulupandan after she chose to run as barangay chairman in Tabao Proper.
In Cotabato City, candidates for village chair and village council in barangay Rosary 11 have started serving the public even if they have yet to be elected.
Led by re-electionist chairman Rasul Ismael, the candidates were seen cleaning drainage and cutting grasses every morning while doing the house-to-house campaign in the early evening.
“This is our way of showing we can be good servants. We have to clean our surroundings because this is our place and all of us will benefit from this simple service,” Rasul said. (With reports from Inquirer News Service & Agencies)
