Vote-buying root of defective governance

Delicadeza is a word that doesn't bother any politician at all.

In some developing countries like the Philippines,  many people, especially the voters, don't understand why they continue to ignore proper ethics when it comes to electing public officials that can be trusted. Instead, they are after candicates, even without qualifications or experience on public administration, who have the money to buy their votes.

This problem is no longer new to most Filipinos. Because of the voters couldn't care less, politicians continue to take advantage of the situation by either ignoring them or buying their votes even if the offer is against their will. For many decades, vote-buying is a practiced.  I don't have the slightest idea how it started? As to which administration in the past it proliferated, I don't have the perfect answer.

As had been observed, elections in the Philippines are becomeing a big business. Every time there is election, consumer-spending habits pick up. Notably, one of the reasons why this is so because there's a lot of money in circulation. Funds that are intended for official expenditures are being siphoned-off to finance political campaigns and buy votes of ignorant electorates whose only dream is to get an instant money to satisfy their temporal needs.

With more than 70 percent of the population considered impoverished, what else can the government expect but a strong tendency for the voters, especially those in the countryside, to sell their votes to politicians who are willing to pay.  This brings to mind a reality that many local officials elected to their posts are half-baked, if not mediocres, whose knowledge and ability to manage local governments are questionable.

Conseuquently, we get public officials who were elected to their posts, without doing anything but draw their salaries and allowances from the taxpayers' money. Then, the people will complain that they're deprived of the basic services that are due them. Who is to blame, anyway? The politicians? Who else but the voters themselves.

Now, I can say that vote-buying is the root of defective public governance.

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