Roperos: Here we go again

THERE goes the report of flying voters again. As far as I can remember, there has always been an imbroglio over flying voters in every election. When I was still a kid in knee pants, I thought flying voters were like the birds that flew around the church even during mass.

It was many years later when I understood why flying voters are significant election tools. With elections being a hotly contested event among politicians, flying voters became bones of contention in my hometown.

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Voters, though, were not really alarmed, accepting their existence as a matter of reality. And unless the political contest was very close, candidates did not seem to mind the flying voters at all. Why should they when their existence was always an accepted fact?

Flying voters were either relatives of candidates who needed their support, or those who have decided to support a candidate. There is always the promise of monetary returns, although this is decidedly an anomalous political practice.

But it has been done again and again over the years, and it has become a political tradition.

I was not surprised, therefore, when I read the report of flying voters in the upland barangay of Buot-Taup. Some 82 personages of unknown origin were reportedly able to register and may vote there, unless the Comelec prevents them from doing so.

Barangay residents claim the new registrants did not come from their village but intend to vote there. Comelec, through the Municipal Trial Court, has been asked to exclude the 82 from the list of barangay voters.

The “flying voters” were allegedly from Talisay City and have decided to transfer their election registration to Cebu City.

Whoever facilitated their transfer must have in mind the high possibility of the holding of the barangay and SK elections before the end of the year.

Now that the holding of the elections next month has been confirmed, a threat to the would-be candidates in the barangay and SK became real with the presence of people that could not be counted on to vote for the best candidates for barangay posts.

The only way the flying voters’ wings can be clipped is when legitimate residents of the village themselves will be vigilant enough, and concerned enough, to identify these voters and have them excluded from the election register.

It may not matter if one does not care who wins or loses among the barangay candidates. But the SK and barangay elections are important for our grassroots leadership.