Cebuano songwriter parodies vote buying

A week before election, a Cebuano songwriter in his efforts to eradicate vote-buying wants to make his message across in a song entitled “Kokokoprasa” to the tune of Spanish corrido or ballad, La Cucaracha.

The parody said Cesar Ditan, popularly known as Johnny Kawa is his contribution to making vote buying irrelevant.

The song starts with the line:

“Ko-ko-koprasa! Ko-ko-koprasa! Wa’g tu-o atong grasya. Da-da-dawata ang ilang kwarta, palit bugas ugma puhon [Harvest grace from left and right. Accept their bribe to buy rice tomorrow].” The following lines alternate the word ‘bugas’ with ‘tuba’ and ‘load’ for mobile phone credit.

“You can call it a satire or a social commentary. I am not encouraging people to commit a crime. But if everybody is just making ‘kopras’ (harvest) then vote buying is no longer effective. The concept of ‘kopras’ will make vote buying ineffective,” Ditan said.

“The objective is to continue with the effort to make vote buying irrelevant to make it an ineffective tool to win election. Hopefully the politicos will someday say they will no longer buy votes because koprason raman diay ang ila kwarta,” [their money will just be collected for nothing], he continued.

Ditan first posted his composition in his website: www.johnnykawa.com and can be downloaded from there.

The song goes:

Nangadlawn intawn si Manoy/ Layo baya iyang baktason/ Kay ang pondo sa taytayan/ Sa senador nasungkaban!

(The man wakes up early/ He walks the distance/ Because the funds for the bridge/ Was taken by the senator!)

“Nagbagu-od intawn si Misis/ Bug-at baya ang labhanan/ Kay ang pondo sa pa-tubig/ Gui-lamoy ni congressman!

(The wife toils with her load/ The laundry is heavy/ Because the funds for the water system/ Swallowed by the congressman!)

“Padu’ong ciudad na sad si Inday. Magpa check-up sa doctor. Ang tambalanan sa iskina. Gui-rema-te sa mayor”

(The lady is off to the city/ To see a doctor/ The clinic in the corner/ Taken for granted by the mayor!)

He said there have been several attempts and strategies of different groups to stop vote buying but he said most of these anti-vote buying campaign may be too “preachy.”

“Maybe one of the reasons why their campaign is ineffective is because of the approach. We are not connecting properly, we are not talking properly. We tend to moralize everything. They tend to be preachy,” Ditan told Cebu Daily News.

“I am not passing any value judgment for those who get the money,” he said.

Double meaning

However Jenny Lea Tan, project officer of Dilaab Foundation Inc. expressed concern that the song might be misconstrued that vote buying is acceptable.

“I think it is meant to tell people the negative effects of vote buying but it could mislead people that vote buying is okay,” Tan said.

“It promotes a wrong principle during the election. I think that principle (of just collecting the money) did not work before. What we are advocating, if we want change, we should reject vote buying in all its variation and choose good leaders for our country. However we respect his advocacy but our message is really not to accept vote buying.,” Tan said.

Dilaab Foundation started its ‘I Vote Good’ campaign asking voters to carefully choose their candidates and shun vote buying.

The group started their house to house campaign in different sitios in Mandaue, Cebu and Talisay cities.

To give a signal to politicians that their vote is not for sale, after talking to the family, they give out a sticker which says: “I Vote Good. I matter, my vote matter. Kandidatong Mopalit, Korapsyon ang Kapalit [Candidates buy votes in exchange for corruption].”