WebClick Tracer

TYBOX: KIBOT, Kamang and other exercises

tybox tyrone velez mindaviews column columns

(MindaNews / 05 November) — My previous column presented real talk from netizens about the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. But in this column, after the election results, comes reality bites.

What will leave you scratching your head is how your neighbors leave the house on election day and come home with cash — 1,000 pesos, or 2,000, depends on which party gave more. 

They also get extra kilos of rice, canned goods, noodles, and even liquor.

There’s an acronym for this extraordinary exercise in elections: KIBOT (kwarta, ilimnon, bugas, odong, tinapa), basic necessities for the poor to survive a day.

There’s another term for this exercise in the northern parts of Mindanao: Ulan-ulan, as if it’s a blessing from the skies or manna from heaven when these actually comes from someone’s pockets.

There are also other words added to the lexicon of election operations : Kamang, which refers to special operations done in the night. There’s Backing, where teams with resources fetch voters from home and send them back to ensure the votes are secured.

But how did these political exercises enter the voting exercise for the basic unit of governance?

One should know who to vote for in the barangay, one knows who has credentials, character, commitment, but why is it in most barangays it’s KIBOT, kamang and the like that rule?

Also, where do these candidates even find resources to shell out these goods? Everyone says this is politics, of building bailiwicks, especially for the 2025 elections, down to the barangay level.

While they try to secure their positions in the next two years, your neighbor secures his stomachs for the next few days after the elections.

But what will become of him after a few months? When he needs help for a sick family member, or when he needs to settle an argument with his neighbor, can he find the kapitan or the kagawad in their office,  or does he find them  building an extension for their homes or expanding their small business?

Let us still hope, though, that the elected barangay and SK officials will serve their constituents well.  

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Tyrone A. Velez is a freelance journalist and writer.)

Search MindaNews

Share this MindaNews story
Send us Feedback