THE 10-day official campaign period for the 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Election (BSKE) started Thursday, with the government calling on the electorate to “ditch vote-buying.”

On October 30, the nation’s electorate goes to the polls anew to elect new village and youth officials in the country’s more than 42,000 barangays, according to the Commission oin Elections (Comelec).

In the Philippines, supposedly the bulwark of democracy in this part of the world, election spending has reached “scandalous proportions,” preventing poor but deserving Filipinos from seeking public office.

Without doubt, this is “lamentable and revolting to the senses” since there are pieces of legislation which prohibit overspending during national, local and even barangay and youth council elections.

That’s why we commend the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), headed by Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr., for calling on the voters to say no to vote-nuying and vote-selling.

Secretary Abalos, former head of the powerful Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), said this is protect the sanctity of the country’s electoral process.

“Wakasan na natin ang kanser ng lipunan na ito (vote-buying),” said the hard-hitting and highly-articulate DILG top honcho as the campaign period for the BSKE officially kicked off.

We agree with Abalos that the people, through the voting citizenry, have the power to initiate changes by picking the right candidates during an election, which is “democracy in action.”

In fact, voting during an election is a sacred exercise of the people’s democratic rights as embodied in the Philippine Constitution.

And barangay officials play a crucial and big role in implementing government programs, projects and policies, which are aimed at hastening the country’s socio-economic development.

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