Of all the legislative districts in the country, the first district of Leyte is considered a “no contest” district because all the seven towns and one city here are expected to vote for House Speaker Martin Romualdez as their representative in Congress.
After all, Romualdez has been doling out millions of pesos to numerous congressmen for them to win in the forthcoming elections next year. This goes without saying that the Romualdez-Marcos war chest will be flowing with oodles and oodles of money to give to their Leyte constituents.
This will take the form of official government assistance to those in need, but in reality, this is nothing but a simple purchase transaction where votes are the commodity.
In Pangasinan during a particular local election when Fidel V. Ramos was president, there were vote-buying stations established for this purpose, and the operation was in full view of the public. These kiosks were even secured by soldiers of the AFP. But FVR’s “manok” went home humbled. The opponent won the elections convincingly by a huge margin. The people of Pangasinan showed the nation that elections are not won by money alone.
We believe the people of the first district of Leyte and Tacloban City are intelligent and honest voters.
While many believe that no “sira-ulo” politician will challenge Martin Romualdez’s entitlement to the House seat in Leyte—that necessarily goes with it the Speakership in the next Congress, and further on, the Presidency in 2028—it has become clear that many Leytenos are willing to join the political fray and give Martin a run for his money.
There’s Nene Amago, a community organizer in Tacloban City, an operative of the PDP-Laban and a campaigner for the erstwhile Unity team of BBM and Sara, and an Erap Estrada diehard. She wanted to replace Martin in the House. And so is a certain Bishop Olaes, originally from Northern Samar, who presumably changed his residence to Tacloban.
And then, there’s Ray Junia, publisher of this newspaper (Opinyon 8) and for many years a successful media specialist. Junia is sad that while Tanauan and Palo have attained the level of progress that they made, his native Tolosa (also the hometown of Martin Romualdez and Imelda Romualdez Marcos) has remained so poor that it has the cleanest public market (very few goods on sale) and there is not a single bank in operation, not even a rural bank.
Martin has alienated himself from Tolosa although it belongs to his district. Martin, meanwhile, has pumped millions of pesos in infrastructure projects with questionable benefit to the people, but with unquestioned benefits to the contractors, mayors and other government officials all the way to the House and the Senate. In other words, the RICH of Leyte, while the poor wallow in misery.
In his media interview after the filing of his COC for representative of the first district, Junia said he does not have the kind of money that Martin can and is willing to dole out, but he is media specialist, a storyteller with a story to tell. And the people of Leyte are willing to hear him.
He began by saying that he wanted democracy to survive, not to die, and democracy will die if people are not given a choice in an election.
If I may add, democracy will certainly fade and whither away if the people are not allowed to speak and protest against the abuses of the state.
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