EDITORIAL

Most expensive ABC poll

Just how much does it cost to win the top post of the Association of Barangay Councils in Cebu City? If the reports currently circulating in the media are true, a candidate for the city’s ABC presidency has to shell out millions to ensure victory.

With the city slated to hold its ABC election next week, accusations of vote-buying are starting to surface as the administration and the opposition begin their ultimate showdown for majority at the City Council.

On Friday, at least eight village chiefs affiliated with the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan of Mayor Tomas Osmeña revealed they were offered money to vote for Mabolo Barangay Captain Prisca Niña Mabatid in the ABC election.

The monetary offers, ranging from P300,000 to P1 million, came from middlemen they refused to identify. One of the BOPK captains said a representative from Mabatid offered him a whopping P1 million in exchange for casting his vote for her.

Mabatid, an independent barangay captain, would deny the accusation, saying she has not even decided to run for the ABC presidency. She instead threw the vote-buying allegation at the camp of Kasambagan barangay captain Franklyn Ong, an ally of BOPK.

She alleged Ong and his camp are the ones dangling up to P300,000 to lure barangay captains to vote for him. Mabatid, who was sacked from BOPK following a fallout with Osmeña, claimed Ong has been giving them P5,000 every time they meet.

Because the coming ABC election is crucial for both the BOPK and Barug Team Rama-PDP Laban, which is fielding Mabatid, money is expected to play a vital role in the polls. Of course, the camp that exhausts more financial resources will have huge chance to emerge victorious.

However, as of now, we can only consider all the reports of vote-buying from the two camps as mere allegations. But if it is proven following the election that they indeed resorted to spending millions, this year’s Cebu City ABC poll will certainly go down in history as the most expensive ever in the country.