CEBU CITY -- Voters in Tacloban City spent Tuesday, the day after the elections, the money they got from candidates who bought their votes. But the situation remained tense among candidates and their supporters as the canvassing of votes continued in many areas in the Visayas.
Supermarkets in Tacloban City on Tuesday reaped the benefits of the massive vote buying by candidates of different parties when shoppers went into a buying frenzy. The residents here flocked to supermarkets and groceries, paying for the goods with crisp 1,000, 500, 200, 100, 50 and 20 peso bills. Celso, a resident of this city, immediately bought two pairs of blue jeans as he got P2,000 from the candidates he voted for on Monday. Another voter, a jeepney driver, immediately bought P1,000 worth of grocery items after the paymaster of the candidate he voted for gave him the amount. "This is for our three days consumption," he said in Waray.
Voters in Tacloban might have enjoyed their day but the municipal election officer in Sogod, Southern Leyte had to ask for security from the National Bureau of Investigation in Tacloban City after he received several death threats.
Military checkpoints were removed yesterday but some soldiers were assigned near the town's gymnasium where the canvassing of election results is being conducted, said Lt. Col. Mario Lacurom, commanding officer of the 43rd Infantry Battalion.
In Estancia town, Iloilo, the police arrested two supporters of mayoral candidates Rene Cordero and Restituto Mosqueda for gun possession.
The election supervisor of Antique said he does not foresee the proclamation of any candidate running for provincial posts before Friday as the counting of votes continued at the precinct and municipal levels.
May 15, 2007
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Visayas Bureau.
By: Cynthia B. Pease, Jolene Bulambot, David Israel Sinay,
Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Hazel P. Villa
For more election news go to:
http://eleksyon2007m.inquirer.net/running