JUST how crucial is the election of an Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) president in the political scene of Cebu City that both camps of the leading contenders are throwing allegations of massive vote-buying at each other?
Last Friday, at least eight Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK)-allied barangay captains claimed they received offers amounting to P1 million allegedly for them to vote for Mabolo Barangay Captain Prisca Niña Mabatid.
Long before she was disowned by Osmeña from BOPK last month, Mabatid had been vocal about being endorsed by the Office of the President for president of the ABC.
A day before the village chiefs’ admission that they had received such an offer, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said reports about vote-buying are pointing to Mabatid as being among those involved.
Omissions
Osmeña said that almost all allies of the BOPK were approached directly and indirectly. The mayor believes that a big business establishment is behind the vote-buying and supporting the opposition.
A press statement written in third person was sent by Mabatid’s camp to some members of the media yesterday in response to the allegations that have surfaced against her.
However, it made no mention of Mabatid running for ABC president despite all the controversies surrounding her.
She also did not answer when asked about her plans to pursue her bid, and instead accused Osmeña of dipping his hands in the ABC elections on July 30.
“This unraveled the intention of Mayor Tomas Osmeña to resort to vote-buying just to get and secure the ABC presidency so that he can have a slim majority in the City Council. He knows that once he loses the ABC presidency to the camp of Mabatid, he would also lose a slim majority in the council,” reads a portion of the statement.
The winner of the ABC election will sit as an ex-officio member of the City Council.
Stalemate
At present, BOPK and the opposition each have nine councilors, including ex-officio members (current ABC president) Phillip Zafra, Sangguniang Kabataan Federation President Jessica Resch and newly appointed Councilor Erik Miguel Espina.
Should BOPK’s bet Kasambagan Barangay Captain Franklyn Ong win as ABC president, he would tip the scales in favor of the administration.
“Mayor Osmeña ought to stay away from defending his chosen and anointed candidate because it is the sacred freedom of the barangay captains to choose on their own. Dictating them whom to vote will only cheapen them of being peons and mere puppets to do the bidding of the puppeteer,” Mabatid said.
The village chief lamented that if there was someone capable of massive vote-buying between her and Ong, it would be the latter.
“As a matter of fact, Ong already started enticing his followers to prepare their passports because they will be treated abroad once he wins in addition to the amounts he is giving every meeting he had with the barangay captains. It is easy for Ong to shell out huge amount for vote-buying because he has already enjoyed the multi-million-peso deal with City Hall in garbage collection,” she said.
Denial
Apart from serving their barangays, both Ong and Mabatid are in Cebu’s business community.
Ong owns Pasajero Motors Corp. (Pamocor), which was previously hired by the City Government to haul the city’s garbage from 2017 to last June. The City also rents garbage trucks from Pamocor.
Mabatid, on the other hand, is chief executive officer of PinoyCare Visa Center, a visa consultancy firm. She also recently ventured into beauty and skin care by launching Prisca Beauty and Cosmetics.
This, however, does not mean he is using his income to bribe his colleagues, said Ong in an interview.
“I’ve been going around the barangays to see what’s the problem among them. I don’t know unsa na iyang pasabot. Mas maayo gyud na siya ang mangutana sa mga barangay captains,” he said.
Mayor Osmeña, for his part, challenged Mabatid to take to a prominent radio broadcaster on Monday the barangay captains she claimed to have been bribed by Ong.
“Let her produce the barangay captains to declare like I did. There are more captains I will present next week. Note that she did not deny she offered to bribe barangay officials. She is smearing the integrity of the ABC. Niña, do the Cebuanos a favor, alis dyan (get out),” he said.