Stop normalizing vote-buying!

By Herman M. Lagon

Saying vote buying is “normal” is not harmless talk. When a person who seeks or holds public office says it out loud, it signals a willingness to break the rules that protect everyone else. It lowers the bar for the whole city, town, or barangay. People hear a leader excuse a crime, then start to think the law is flexible. Public service becomes a hustle, not a duty. That is the first reason to refuse this idea: it poisons the culture of office from the top.

Normalizing vote buying turns representation into a transaction. The voter becomes a customer for one night, not a citizen for three years. After election day, the bill arrives. Budgets quietly bend toward recovering “campaign costs.” You see it in thin culverts that overflow after a short rain, in classrooms that still mop floors under a banner that says “Project Completed.” The community pays twice—once with a vote, then again with poor services. This is the second reason: it trades short cash for long damage.

It is also a direct attack on the rule of law. Under the Omnibus Election Code, buying or selling votes is a crime with penalties that include jail, disqualification, and loss of the right to vote. Public officials swear an oath to uphold that law. Saying the opposite in public—“everyone does it”—tells young people that oaths do not matter. A government that treats its own rules as optional cannot expect citizens to follow traffic signs, pay taxes on time, or believe audits. That is the third reason: it breaks the very system officials are paid to uphold.

Normalizing vote buying steals from the poor most of all. Cash handed out before the polls looks like help for a day. After the count, it becomes a reason to overprice medicine, delay a water line, rush an inspection, or receive a kickback, commission, or under-the-tablds. The barangay clinic lists “out of stock” beside basic supplies, while families line up longer at dawn. Those who had least to begin with lose the most. That is the fourth reason: it deepens the gap between those with access and those without.

It also drives away the people we need in public life. Clean candidates look at the price of “playing the game” and decide not to run. Honest civil servants watch shortcuts being rewarded and shift to quiet compliance or look for other work. Research has shown how money pressures voters in tight races and how clientelism weaves around the practice (Canare, Mendoza, & Lopez, 2018). When “take the cash, vote your conscience” becomes the norm, even good intentions can backfire (Innovations for Poverty Action, 2025). That is the fifth reason: it starves government of talent and courage.

There is a quiet harm to children and students when adults excuse the practice. Teachers who spend weeks building lessons on integrity see those lessons undercut in one evening of envelope talk. A Grade 8 class learns that platforms matter, then hears that pesos matter more. Values do not survive that mix for long. Schools can and do model clean elections, but leaders must not undo that work with a wink. That is the sixth reason: it teaches the next generation that honesty is naïve.

Normalizing vote buying locks towns into debt to private interests. Donors expect returns. Contractors who “helped” expect easier bids, softer penalties, and friendlier inspectors. A city that normalizes this cannot keep prices fair or timelines honest. You feel it when a road cracks in six months, or a pump fails just before a storm. That is the seventh reason: it captures policy and procurement, and the public pays the interest.

It erodes trust, which is the basic tool of any community. People who think results are rigged stop reporting wrongdoing, stop joining consultations, and stop voting altogether. Cynicism spreads. When trust dies, even good projects stall because no one believes the numbers. That is the eighth reason: it kills the social glue that lets towns work together on hard tasks.

Finally, calling vote buying “normal” is a confession that the speaker cannot win trust any other way. Public office is a trust, not a prize to be bought. Leaders who mean well will say so and act like it: no envelopes, open donor lists, clean bids, receipts that match results. Citizens will do their part, too—document offers safely, protect seniors and first-time voters, and support those who run on platforms, not payoffs. That is the ninth reason: integrity is practical. It leads to dry classrooms, shorter clinic lines, and projects that last.

Let us keep the rule simple and shared: our votes are not merchandise, our future is not for sale. To normalize vote buying is to normalize corruption, broken promises, and weak services. We can choose better. We can expect better. And we can hold to that standard together, calmly and firmly, every election and every ordinary day after.

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Doc H fondly describes himself as a ”student of and for life” who, like many others, aspires to a life-giving and why-driven world grounded in social justice and the pursuit of happiness. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions he is employed or connected with.