New group vows to end vote-buying

MANILA, Philippines — With 12 more months to go before the next elections, veteran community organizers and development workers across the country launched on Sunday a nationwide movement to get rid of the scourge of vote-buying in Philippine elections.

The ChangePolitics Movement, which includes former social welfare secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, has vowed to map out the “vote-buying vulnerable areas” in the country so that development NGOs could pour their resources into these areas and prepare voters to reject vote-buying politicians.

The movement plans to turn these places into “vote-buying free areas” come election day as a beginning of its long-term vision to end “patronage and transactional politics” in the country by 2022.

“Our members are already going around the country so that we could map out the vulnerable vote buying areas,” Soliman said at the group’s launching at the Ateneo De Manila University in Quezon City.

“And then we will invite and encourage development NGOs, micro-enterprise programs, cooperatives and livelihoods programs to start helping these areas to decrease vote-buying because (people) will now have an answer to poverty,” she added.

Soliman said that her group was capable of implementing its plan because its core group of 2,000 members got “on average” 15 years of experience in community development work and organizing.

“Why do we say this is doable? Because the individual members of ChangePolitics are former and current community organizers at development workers who have different ongoing development programs,” she said.

“In other words, this is a movement to link the development work that we do into getting and changing politics, one of which is by reducing the vulnerability to vote-buying,” she added.

Soliman said that some ChangePolitics members in the Visayas had started working to have their areas declared “vote-buying free areas” by November.

“They tell candidates that if they have money, they should give these to community projects rather than through individual gifts because, [as one ChangePolitics member] said, we are not products [for sale],” she added.

The scourge of vote-buying has been rampant in Philippine politics with politicians doling out P500 to P1,500 to each voter.

An April 2007 survey by the Social Weather Station found out that one in two registered voters thought that it was not wrong to accept money from candidates so long as one would vote “according to one’s conscience.”

Asked for their opinion on the statement, “In an election, it is not bad to accept money provided one votes according to one’s conscience,” 50 percent agreed, 32 percent disagreed, while 16 percent were undecided.

Those in the rural areas (56 percent) were found to be more likely to approve of accepting money, compared to those in urban areas (43 percent), according to the survey held before the May 2007 elections.

Fifty-four percent in the Visayas, 51 percent in Mindanao, 49 percent in the rest of Luzon and 45 percent in Metro Manila also agreed with the statement. The survey also showed that seven out of every 10 registered voters (69 percent) expected vote-buying to occur in their areas.

“In my talks when I go around the country I tell my audience the story that ‘Come May 9, 2010, I’ll be given P500 which I’ll use to pay for the graduation of my children.’ How can I judge such a person who will accept that P500?” Soliman said.

“That is why we’re saying that we should start now,” she added.

To present its nationwide reach, ChangePolitics was simultaneously launched on Sunday in Mandaue, Dumaguete, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Samar, Iloilo, Ormoc, Naga, and the Caraga region. These areas were linked by streaming live video.

“The prevailing view is that the poor can be easily bought. That is why our politicians do not do their work because they think that when voting day comes, we can be bought,” said Jose Morales, an urban poor organizer.

“This time, we will make sure that our colleagues won’t be bought in the coming elections because we want to change the political system. We will encourage them not to sell their right and dignity to change the country,” he added.

The movement will also nominate and campaign for local and national candidates who meet their criteria in the coming May elections, according to the ChangePolitics leaders.

The group’s members in August will vote, through text messaging, on who they should campaign for based on the candidates’ “integrity and track record, immediate and specific agenda for reform, and capacity to win and have access to power for reform.”

They will also look into his or her platform on eradicating poverty, improving education, protecting the environment, and respecting “multi-culturalism and right to self-determination.”

“This is just the first step in our discussions on how to make sure that we remain idealistic and realistic at the same time,” Soliman said.

“We will look at our criteria and the (candidate’s) track record and these will guide us on who will be our candidates,” she added.

Soliman said all their actions would hopefully free the country from traditional patronage politics by the 2022 elections.

“We set it at 2022 because, based on our studies and the experience of countries that have political structures and history of politics similar to the Philippines, it took them two or three elections before they were able to change the practice (of politics),” Soliman said.

“And we recognize that transactional and patronage politics have deep roots in this country. That is why 2010 is our first step. If by 2010, the citizenry unites and mobilizes to end patronage politics, by 2022, we believe we’ll be organized enough to actually have a candidate that will come from the people themselves,” she said.

“Not from any dynasty, not from any plan, but from the people themselves,” Soliman added.

She said that if the ChangePolitics’ presidential candidate won in the coming elections, the movement would insist on having a say in the decision-making process in that coming administration.

“We should be included in governance. We will not agree that after he or she wins, we will be [left out] in the streets. We will sit down and be a part of governance as a group, not necessarily having posts,” Soliman said.

“We recognize that an ‘active citizenship’ involves making sure that our democracy will not regress as we have seen in the last three or five years. We are saying we are promoting active citizenship and accountable leadership,” she added.

The group has 15 convenors representing various regions of the country and decisions are made through consensus, Soliman said.

“What makes us different from other groups? We are talking here of community organizers and development workers who are on the ground,” Soliman said.

“We are clearly stating that we are movement beyond 2010. We are a movement that will change politics all the way to 2022. We are here for the long haul,” she added.–Philip Tubeza, Philippine Daily Inquirer