3-day bounty in May: Albayanos’ vote-selling spree boosts local economy

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ALBAY, Philippines – Daraga night market vegetable vendor Eden Manzano, 68, has been through many elections in her 45 years, but none like what she witnessed in the days before and after the May 12 midterm polls.

“It seems that buyers have an unending source of money [and buy] as soon as shops open. They [customers] significantly spiked when the elections were approaching and even two days after,” Manzano said. 

BOOM. The Daraga night market in Albay bustles with vendors and shoppers at 11 pm on May 13, 2025, the day after the elections. Vendors noted a significant rise in post-election sales. Photo by Reinnard Balonzo

On the day before and after the elections, the night market became extremely crowded from 5 pm to 5 am, which she described as the result of the “enormous bounty” people likely received during the elections.

SENIOR. Eden Manzano, 68, peels and chops vegetables while attending to customers at her small stall in the Daraga night market, Albay, in May 2025. She pays a daily fee of P50 for her “latag” (display space), in addition to the annual vendor fee of P500. Daily fees vary depending on the volume of products sold. Photo by Reinnard Balonzo

“I hardly get any sleep [these days] because the potential sales are too good to miss. This is a huge blessing for us who are vendors,” she said.

The same is true in a mall in Legazpi City.

“For several days now, stocks have consistently sold out shortly after delivery, especially on election day itself when the mall was packed with people buying new cellphones,” said a gadget salesman who asked not to be identified due to company policy.

OUT OF STOCK. Several days after the election, phone shops in a mall in Legazpi City saw brisk sales of mid-range phones. A salesman said demand for phones surged after the May 12, 2025 midterm elections. Contributed photo

Rosmae Armeña, a voter and resident of Albay, described the situation as a “prolonged fiesta,” noting that queues at counters have become much longer due to the influx of customers.

“The lines are so long because so many people are buying groceries, gadgets, and appliances. The number of shoppers in the malls in Legazpi has hardly decreased for several days now,” she said.

She added that more families are eating out in restaurants, prolonging the waiting time for the limited seats.

Election bounty

In Albay, the post-election buzz isn’t about new leadership — it’s about the money people received from widespread vote buying. Josephine, not her real name, said she got nearly P19,000 from vote buying in the recent election. In other areas, she said residents received even more. 

“We were called individually and given money in the hope we would vote for them,” she said. “I received P17,000 initially, and others continued to send money until election day. I accumulated almost P19,000 this year.”

Despite what many here call their “three-day fortune,” a Commission on Elections (Comelec)-Albay report said it has received no complaints about vote buying in this year’s election. 

Provincial Election Supervisor Maria Aurea Bo-Bunao said in a radio interview, “No complaints were filed in the province of Albay in connection with alleged violations of the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) ‘Kontra Bigay’ campaign on election day.” 

Comelec-Bicol, however, earlier issued four show-cause orders for alleged vote-buying complaints, specifically in Albay, and 44 across the entire Bicol region.

People with evidence or leads could have submitted reports or complaints to Kontra Daya desks located in numerous towns and cities. Volunteers from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) could have verified these complaints and assisted in their submission to the Comelec.

Poor service

According to Manzano, while a three-day bounty offers fleeting relief, it’s back to the reality of hardship after the elections, especially for senior citizens and vendors like her.

“While the strong sales of the past three days are welcome, our real need is a reliable government that offers dependable support, allowing people like me to finally get some rest from this grueling work,” she said.

“It takes far too long for us senior citizens to receive help here,” Manzano said. “I’ve only received assistance once in several years of waiting for benefits we desperately need as residents.” 

Despite her age, Manzano has to continue to selling vegetables, often getting only a few hours of sleep. “If only elderly vendors like me could depend on better social services,” she lamented, “I wouldn’t have to push myself to work in this condition.” 

Similarly, Allean Paglinawan and her husband Jesse also saw a tremendous increase in sales in the week following the election, leading to a significant rise in their income from selling in the night market.

HARDSHIP. While their two children rest on a cot next to a noisy street in Albay, Allean and Jesse Paglinawan peel onions for their stall at the Daraga night market, in May 2025. The couple said their children stay with them in the market until 5 am. Photo by Riennard Balonzo

“Of course, even though sales are high, we know that a big factor there is the vote buying that happened,” Paglinawan said. “We’re not just thinking about sales, we’re also worried about what will happen after the election for people like us who are vendors.”

Their biggest concern is about reports on the relocation of the Daraga night market, which could displace vendors and threaten their livelihood. The couple relies on the income from the night market to provide for their two toddlers’ needs and education.

“There are talks that maybe after this election, the night market will be moved to a farther part of Daraga. The vendors will surely have a hard time, and sales might also decrease because buyers will be farther away [from us],” Jesse said.

Should this happen, they may have to stop selling vegetables and seek other livelihood. There’s also talk that the night market will start at 10 pm instead 5 pm, which means less time to sell their goods.

Currently, the Paglinawans bring their young children along with them until the wee hours of the morning, and they’re afraid the situation could get worse if reports about the changes in the market push through.

“We always bring our children because they don’t want to be left behind since they’re still very young. They’re with us here until five o’clock in the morning. If the time is changed, the number of buyers will decrease, so maybe we just won’t sell anymore because it will be too difficult for us, especially for the children,” Allean shared, with Jesse nodding.

Vote-buying implications

Athough vote buying provides a much-needed boost for the local economy, a study on Philippine politics and elections suggests a link between vote buying, corruption, and poverty. Voters might end up choosing corrupt and incompetent candidates instead of good ones, leading to poor governance and little or no socio-economic progress.

Albay’s poverty incidence has been on the rise, increasing from 15% in 2018 to 15.40% in 2021 to 18.10% in 2023. In terms of magnitude, the number of poor individuals in Albay rose from around 289,000 in 2018 to 354,000 in 2023.  Poverty makes people vulnerable to corrupt practices like vote buying, and if bad leaders are elected, life gets worse.

According to a study by Rema Cabatu, “Vote buying is not usually perceived as a campaign strategy, rather a problem, yet an accepted norm practiced in the area when the government officials themselves are the chief perpetrators… It constitutes that vote buying is a manifestation of a bigger problem, a vicious cycle, that needs to be addressed with urgency.

“It is an inevitable truth that voters themselves are now openly and willingly subscribing to this [corrupt] campaign strategy, and the candidates who invested in them enjoy an increased chance of winning, thereby jeopardizing the very purpose of the election,” Cabatu said. Rappler.com