After the election and depending on the number of inputs we get, we will create a spreadsheet showing the approximate cost of the election and do financial analysis, like, what if all the political money were invested in Ranao local economy or used to buy carabaos for the local farmers.
So please post your "price". If you haven't received it yet, just let us know how much was promised. That's good enough.
This information will not be available in the National Statistics Office.
I will post the first comment on this thread kagiya ba n’da so manga bisita ak’n na di ran katawan a importante na misorat iran mambo so pamikiran iran sa giya a blog para di tano di makatotokawa. Tsk, tsk, tsk!
ReplyDeleteMy first feed was for a small municipality off the east coast of the lake. I went to Wikipidia and here’s the information I found.
In 2004, it has a population of 17,000+ in 2,400+ households. That’s approximately 7 people per household but personally I know that they don’t have that many houses. My very best estimate is a third of the household own their home so there are 21 persons per house. Fortunately, most of the people are merchants in the big cities and they only go home to during election (to collect their “cash advances” from the candidates), bury their dead or attend very important family functions. They can’t stay home for good because they will starve to death: there are no jobs in the municipality.
Farming is not much because most of the lands are in legal disputes. Those that are not disputed can’t be used for variety of reasons: the water irrigation was cut-off by a local freedom fighter-turned-gangster from the neighboring municipality, there are not enough farming animals, the working people are sickly and the strong ones are simply lazy. The people don’t even want to plant coconut trees because they take years before bearing their first fruits.
Fishery is almost non-existing because fish in the lake is almost gone. Starting in the late 1970’s, smart fishermen used poison and electrocution to fish for quick bucks, killing all the fishlings. For decades now, the province is an importer of fish from nearby coastal areas and even from the man-made lake on the highway to a nearby city. Biggest irony ever: lake has no fish and provides no electricity. Not even good enough for transportation because of the high cost of oil. The lake is useful only as the biggest toilet in the world!
This is a 5th class municipality and I am not sure what this means in terms of financial allocations from the national treasury. But I was told it’s more than P1,000,000 a month. That money includes the salary of the executive and administrative officials, policemen, road improvements and all other local government projects and expenditures. Like the other municipalities around the lake, I am not sure any one pays business taxes simply because there’s no economic activity in the area. The people’s main source of income is government employment and of course the politicians during elections, which comes every 3 years.
Got the picture?
Allahu Akbar! I thought, I was describing a municipality in hell.
In the next comment, I will write about the numbers. I gotta go to work.
I am sorry. I forgot to write the continuation of this post. Actually, this is the most important part of the story.
ReplyDeleteI heard through the “grave” vine that the previous mayor spent more than 25 million pesos during the May, 2007 election. Therefore, the winner must have spent a lot more than that amount to dislodge him. To be conservative with the amount, let’s say the 2 candidates have spent a combined amount of 50 million pesos for the 7,000+ registered voters (it was just little over 5,000 in 2004 census).
At today’s exchange rate of 45.98 pesos to a U.S. dollar, that money spent is equivalent to one million, eighty seven, four hundred, twenty nine and 31 cents in U.S. dollar currency ($1,087,429.31). I think, that’s more than the amount that was personally spent by the mayor of San Jose, California in his election early this year. For those of you who don’t know, San Jose is the Capital of Silicon Valley, which is the technology capital of the world. It is the 10th largest city in the United States with a population of almost a million people. Being in California and Silicon Valley, it’s one of the most expensive cities in the United States.
So what can the 50 million pesos buy if it was not spent to pay for the votes of the Pilandoks in this tiny, dirt-poor, 5th class municipality of approximately 20,000 people?
Here are just some of the good stuff you can get at $155.34 per vote (1M divide by 7K voters).
• Each one of the voters could have the 4mb Ipod Nano, plus $10.34 to download songs from iTunes. This small municipality will instantly become the coolest in the country.
• Every 3 of the voters could have Acer notebook with Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor, 15.4” WXGA display, 1GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Disk, 8x DVD+/-RW Drive, 802.11 b/g wireless and Windows Vista Home Edition. Basically, almost everyone in the municipality will be able to surf the net for news, pictures of celebrities, watch Korean soap operas in Youtube.com, chat with their buddies in Friendster.com, find the meaning of English words, download porn movies, etc.
• Everyone in the municipality, including new-born babies could have a $50 Nokia cell phone so everyone can send text, ie. a baby Pilandok can text her mother, “ina kulay, miyakaodo si Pilandok!”. The municipality can be in the Guiness Book of World Records as the most cellphoned-population on earth.
• Three thousand, three hundred, thirty three and 1/3rd (3,333.33) water buffalos (carabaos) at P15,000 each. This will be the happiest bunch of carabaos because they won’t be working as hard. I think, the total land area of the municipality is not more than 15 square miles. At 1 carabao per 3 Pilandoks, the carabao will be working M-W-F only. Tuesdays, Thursdays and week-ends are days off.
• The two candidates could have built the biggest grocery or department store in the province so Pilandok’s money stays local and commerce will increase and people will get jobs, became happy, build their own toilets, etc.
• The two candidates could have paid half of the money required to re-pipe the water lines in Marawi City and forever, they will be remembered for their “generosity” or they can be paid monthly compensation from the income of the Water District. By the way, the existing water pipes in Marawi City is the ones installed in the 1950’s. The water system needs re-piping and the Water District is unable to get loan of P100 million, the estimated cost to re-pipe. This amount can be raised from local population if only we trust one another. God forbid that a water-borne deadly disease hits Ranao. Pilandok will be wiped out easily.
• Individually, each of these candidates could have put their 25 million pesos into a time deposit and stagger the deposit expiration so they get paid 1 million plus every year. That’s way more than the “legal” salary of the Mayor’s office, even more than the salaries of the Provincial Governor or the Congressmen. And the coolest thing is they don’t have to report for work for the next 25 plus years, if they live that long. Oh, and they won’t burn in hell because they steal people’s money.
• It could have paid for the education of ALL the children and youth in the municipality.
Gotta go to bed now… my daughter is in Shanghai, China trying to learn how to speak Mandarin Chinese.
In Arata wata's interesting quasi-financial analysis of the most recent Ranao political excercise dated 20 April 2007 and aptly titled: "Exchange Rate," he zeroed in on election related expense of political candidates in one 5th class Ranao municipality.
ReplyDeleteWhat a clever accounting, cost-benefit analysis, indeed. Ironically, had the money been siphoned into nobler causes, significant ROI could have been enjoyed by pilandok. Even more ironic and sad, is the fact that the much-adhered and highly acclaimed Maranao virtue of Maratabat is now bastardized and exploited.
Maratabat, which used to be the pride and glory of "Darangen- noted to be longer than ancient Greece's Homer's Iliad and Odessey combined, is now applied in some sort of clandestine evil fashion, with matched up passion from its perpetrators, local political kingpins, their court, and nemesis, as well.
Whatever happened to "Noblesse Oblige????????????????" More on this later, 'gotta prepare for work. Likewise, when i get the time, I would like to comment on the Cows, the IPOD Nanos, Acer Notebooks, etc. Hats Off to Aratawata, what an amazing animation and representation . . . . .
Due to heavy workload this week, I almost forgot about the Nanos and the Acer. TGIF! a warm relaxing weekend at last! It's always good to know that Saturdays mean sleeping late. Nice weather tomorrow, says the weatherman. It would be nice to stroll by the lake, enjoy the fresh air and watch sailboats and what have you. Lots of fun activities in the beach tomorrow, I can imagine people teeming North Avenue beach.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, when i say Lake, I mean Lake Michigan, not Lake Lanao. The lakes are halfway around the globe from each other, but both are beautiful and calming. Lake Lanao some 20 or so years ago, greets my every waking morning. Viewing it from under a Falcatta tree in the golf course was delightful.
Sunrise amid the magnificence of Lake Lanao, was always a treat.
Fast forward 27 years, I am reminded of Lake Lanao, the sunrise and the magnificent view. Every single morning, I get a glimpse of Lake Michigan from my bedroom. Lake Michigan and its white sandy beaches and shady trees is a breathtaking spot. Chicagoans has kept it clean and beautiful. It has remained a tourist attraction. It's very safe and on weekends, you see people in their bikes, roller blades and skates. Some sample the waters, while others simply laze around, scantilly clad while basking under the great midwest sun.
Both Lakes Lanao and Michigan are huge lakes, both are scenic (as most lakes are). Both are really breath-taking. Both you can always be proud of. But, I wonder why both can't provide the same pleasure to its denizens at this present age and time.
Lake Lanao, from what I heard, is no longer as clean and scenic. Whatever happened? Well, we can talk about this next time. I am supposed to talk of the IPOD Nanos and the Acer computers. What about these new-age techno gadgets? Now I remember............
If election money in the last Ranao election was used up differently, like say ........ providing IPOD nanos to each and every pilandok in that 5th class Ranao municipality, then by now, that municipality would have been worry-free and very peaceful.
Why? because the people will be so engrossed listening to their kind of music, feeling good and cool. No one will unleash his rage quite easily, hotheads will decline, bickering will eventually fade out, quarrels ultimately will become things of the past. Everybody will be so thrilled by their IPOD Nanos.
The Acers computers, on the other hand, will be doing wonders. For one, it will turn people in that municipality more smart and abreast. In just a click of the mouse, they will be in different places, learning all kinds of stuff. They will have access to any information available in the worldwide web; they can surf and learn a whole new world, their horizons widen, their perspective will further be enhanced, their vision turns global.
So, if you were one of the electorate of that municipality, how would you rather spend the money given you, or should the question be, would you have rather refused the money and clamored for IPOD Nanos and Acer Computers, instead? Take your pick, it's a free country!
Aratawata's currency exchange topic, provided alternative ways of spending the BIG MONEY spent by politicians buying votes in the last Ranao electoral exercise.
ReplyDeleteThe mention of IPOD Nanos and Acer Computers may sound so high tech, but the humor by way it was presented, makes one pause and introspect. Not to mention the tinge of sarcasm suavely represented by the Cows in the meadows of Ranao.
Anyhow, the mention of Cows, reminds me of two things, the movie "Someone Like You, with Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman as lead actors, and a cheese AD here in the states that says California Cows produces better cheese because they are happy cows.
Cows were mentioned by Aratawata. Funny how cows take their days off and how productive they can be if they are well fed and rested. Sure, rest is very important, specially for humans. Machines can run berseck through continuous use, how much more for people?
Rest, we must to recharge our batteries. We need to restore our energy through sound sleep and clear minds. Here in the states, people are so disciplined that you don't see them going out late on weekdays, they do that only fridays and saturdays, not even sundays.
Back home, workweek or weekends, really doesn't matter. I wonder if we follow the american model of rest and recreation, what good would come out of us? Let's give it some thought. And Hey! Pilandok, wanna give it a try?