The camp of United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) standard-bearer and Vice President Jejomar Binay slammed the administration’s bottom-up budgeting (BUB) program for supposedly legalizing the practice of vote-buying for the upcoming elections.
UNA spokesperson Mon Ilagan claimed that the promise of the administration’s presidential bet Mar Roxas of expanding the BUB to P100 million is “legalized vote-buying.”
The BUB covers 42,000 barangays nationwide.
“No matter how Mar and the LP call it or sweeten the packaging, it is still legalized vote-buying because it is meant to influence the people’s voting preferences… ang BUB pwede nang matawag ‘Bribe Ur Barangay’ dahil ito na ang kanilang modelo ng legal na vote-buying,” Ilagan said in a statement on Sunday.
He also said that the aside from BUB, which UNA has christened as “Bribe Ur Barangay,” the administration has earmarked almost P25 billion in the national budget for election purposes.
“Sadyang ibang-iba na ang layunin ng BUB sa orihinal nitong intensyon na budget ng bayan sa kamay ng taumbayan. Pero tila yata ang budget ng bayan eh ginagamit ng partido ng administrasyon para suhulan ang taumbayan,” Ilagan said.
The spokesperson of the Binay-led party hit the Liberal Party’s “desperation” to woo voters by dangling the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT).
“Ang ‘Bribe Ur Barangay’ na ang bagong localized version of pork-barrel politics. The power of the LP’s purse is energized by the Administration’s CCT and BUB projects. The BUB’s rationale is no longer developmental but envelopmental; no longer economics, but politics,” he said.
In the national gathering of the Liga ng Barangay last Thursday, Roxas promised that every barangay will benefit from the expanded BUB.
Binay is not the only presidential candidate who has accused the administration of supposedly bribing voters with the BUB.
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s camp said that through the BUB, Roxas is “buying” local executives for their votes.
“Let us not be fooled by this. This early, Roxas is already trying to buy local executives by promising them rewards. He is as worse as [Vice President Jejomar] Binay, who is mired in allegations and cases of illegal wealth and corruption,” Duterte spokesperson Peter Laviña said in a statement recently.
RELATED VIDEO
