Pinoy Country

I don’t know how long will the Comelec will keep on tolerating Villar’s campaign tactics. Barely a week ago, he  shelled out some three million pesos of “financial assistance” to 42 kids during the Rockatropa concert. He was cautious enough not to go up on stage to present the gifts but his daughter did it in his place. We’re not idiots. We know where the money came from and we know it was blatant vote buying in broad daylight. For some reasons, this all happened when the entire Comelec was on the process of blinking and unblinking its eyes.

Last Friday, in one of his campaign travels in Batangas, Villar did it again. He gave out P20 bills to kids who “needed to buy camote” for food. His reason? They are kids, they can’t vote and they were hungry, what’s wrong with giving them money to buy camote?

Seems like faultless logic, isn’t it? It’s just that I have a bit of a problem with the whole thing. First is that the “camote fund” could influence the parents’ voting preferences. This is indirect vote buying and Villar is getting away with it again. Second is that our very rich and famous candidate is simply skirting around Comelec rules. He is violating campaign regulations but he manages to get away with it by mere technicalities. And third is that he does all these in the name of helping the poor.

Comelec should buy a new set of teeth to have a sharper bite.