Vote buying is taking advantage of voters’ poverty and ignorance

As the 2025 midterm elections draw near, the day that will determine the next three to six years of every Filipino will undoubtedly take place. Isn’t this what many are eager for? But there is a challenge that every Juan needs to understand, and that is the value of their individual choices. It is a right that no one else can rob unless one allows someone else to take control of him or her. How is that possible?

The story is told of the twin boys first mentioned in the Bible: Esau and Jacob. Esau was considered the firstborn because he came out ahead of his twin. It must be understood that a firstborn means everything in the world back in those times. It isn’t just about inheritance. It’s also about passing the promised blessing received from their grandfather, Abraham, who received it from God. Tell of how valuable the seconds or minutes are that make you older than your twin sibling. Fast forward, Esau became a hunter, and Jacob a homebody. One day, Esau got hungry after a long day of no capture. “Now Jacob cooked a stew and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was Edom. But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.” Genesis 25:29-34

Esau sold his birthright for bread and a stew of lentils while Jacob took advantage of his hunger. Would Juan also sell his “vote right” for P5,000? Would Pedro also take advantage of Juan’s poverty and hunger? But Esau didn’t sell his birthright alone, he also sold his dignity.

When Rebekah, the twins’ mother, heard about the plan of Isaac, the twins’ father, to bless Esau, his favorite, she informed Jacob, her favorite, to steal the blessing by impersonating Esau. “And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck” (Gen. 27:16). Only then did she realize that by taking this move, she would be separated from her son to see him no more until her death. Jacob again took advantage of the dimming vision of his old father, but this move would later cause Esau’s hatred and anger which would lead him to find safety in his mother’s hometown and learn things the hard way.

So, who do you take advantage of when you buy votes to win the election? Vote buying falsely convicts the recipient with an erroneous sense of utang na loob toward the candidates who paid them. This kind of so-called utang na loob directly opposes its true meaning, which should have been rendered by the true winners of the election to the people who trusted them with their votes. Vote buying completely turns the table.

Like Jacob, there is forgiveness for past sins and hope for everyone who wants to lead the nation. A bright day awaits every mindful vote cast to the deserving and not merely the popular. While many Andres may fist and protest, many a Jose can sit down and write boldly and sensibly against those who try to take control and take advantage of their neighbor’s poverty and ignorance. A time of reckoning will always come. You may call it karma or “judgment day,” but justice will be recognized someday. It must come, and it will surely do (Rev. 22:12; Eccles. 12:13-14).