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Volume IV,  Number 16              May 23 - 29, 2004            Quezon City, Philippines


 





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Political Dynasties Still Rule Philippine Politics

Across the country, the same political clans are winning. Reports and allegations of fraud and violence, often meant to prevent people from voting and to disrupt the counting of votes, also show that their methods of holding on to power remained the same.

By Carlos H. Conde
Bulatlat.com

For decades, the Dys of northern Luzon had lorded over Isabela as if the province were their own fiefdom. In elections after elections, the Dys were undefeated and, in many instances, unopposed. The people of Isabela were what one would call captive voters.

Then, in 2001, from out of the blue, Grace Padaca, a radio commentator disabled by polio, emerged and ran against one of the Dys in the congressional race.

“They were virtually unopposed. So in 2001, I wondered, ‘What if I run against them? What if I just listed my name there as a candidate?’” Padaca recalled in an interview. When she filed her candidacy and people learned about it, support poured in. She lost, but only because, according to her, the Dys cheated.

Undeterred, and spurred by the growing disenchantment by the Isabela folk toward the Dys and the support of the religious and the progressive sectors, Padaca ran again in this year’s elections, this time for governor, against Faustino Dy Jr. Although other Dys are emerging victorious in other towns, it looks like the 40-year-old Padaca is going to end their dominance at the capitol, the throne of the Dy dynasty.

But it had not been easy for Padaca and those who now oppose the Dy regime in Isabela. In this month’s elections, the Dys were accused of fraud and violence in an effort to defeat Padaca. The Dys are demanding that the counting be done in Manila – a move Padaca and her supporters opposed, knowing that anything could happen in transit. Town halls and election materials were attacked or burned down by armed men suspected of being Dy goons.

On election day itself, the radio station where Padaca used to work, Bombo Radyo Cauayan, was closed down, supposedly by the Comelec, although nearly every one following the case know that the Dys had closed the station twice in the past for being critical. The diocese of Ilagan, Isabela, had published full-page ads in national newspapers criticizing the Dy regime and the closure of Bombo Radyo.

New People’s Army

The Dys had denied all these allegations, even threatening to sue the Philippine Daily Inquirer for libel for a story about Padaca and the odds she faced. On Thursday, they accused Padaca and her supporters of consorting with the New People’s Army in an attempt to unseat the Dys.

“They're doing this to me because I'm the only governor who had openly stood up to the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army,” Dy Jr. was quoted by the Inquirer as saying. Padaca, he went on, is the NPA’s mouthpiece. “That's why I was singled out by the NPA because I openly fought against them."

Padaca denied this charge. “The people demanded change,” Padaca said in an interview.

She added: “I am so proud of Isabelenos for finally deciding to oppose the Dys, something they never did before. I just wish that the Dys would respect the people’s voice, and that they wouldn’t feel insulted that somebody like me, a polio victim, would defeat them.”

It is perhaps not a coincidence that Padaca is single and childless. “My constituents are confident that I can never form my own political dynasty,” Padaca quipped.

The Isabela experience, however, is more the exception than the rule in this year’s elections.

Across the country, political clans are winning. Reports and allegations of fraud and violence, often meant to prevent people from voting and to disrupt the counting of votes, also show that their methods of holding on to power remained the same.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is leading in the presidential race, is herself the head of a political clan that goes way back to the 1950s, when her father was a legislator and later president.

Most of the top 15 senatorial candidates belong to political clans with several members in public office.

Still dominant

In the provinces, these families are still dominant. Among these are the heirs of the late president Ferdinand Marcos as well his cronies and political allies, such as the family of Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. chairman of San Miguel Corp., and Juan Ponce Enrile, Marcos’s former defense minister who looks likely to win another term as senator.

Political dynasties became notorious for kowtowing with the dictator Marcos for years, helping him perpetuate himself in power. A recent study by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism found that two-thirds of the members of Congress are from political dynasties.

The same study traced the emergence of political dynasties in the Philippines to the introduction by the Americans of electoral politics in the early 20th century, when voting was initially limited to the rich and the landed, who then monopolized public office.

The image of the political dynasty as one being ran by a warlord has become the exception than the rule, the study said. But the motives remain the same: protecting the interest of the clan. As long as they remain in Congress, it said, “these families will tend to legislate in favor of their own interests to the detriment of that of the majority.”

“Political dynasties are a terrible indictment of the kind of politics we have,” said Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., one of the very few in the Senate who doesn’t have relatives in public office. “I do not believe that any one family has the monopoly of talent to run government,” he added.

Among the first things Pimentel did when former president Corazon Aquino appointed him secretary of local government was to remove from power political dynasties identified with Marcos. Ironically, many of the politicians Pimentel chose to replace those clans later formed their own political dynasties. And the dynasties soon came back to power because, according to Pimentel, “there was no political will to follow through.”

After the fall of Marcos, there were attempts to curtail political dynasties but these did not pass the legislature, which has always been dominated by political families. The anti-political dynasty bills, Pimentel said, “never got around to first base.”

He said there was a strong resistance to the bills. “Their argument was that, we are in a democracy and the people decide whether we remain or not. So the siblings, the wives, the brothers-in-law of these politicians also ran for office, because, according to them, it’s the will of the people,” Pimentel said.

Inequalities

Dr. Encarnacion Teresa Tadem, director of the Third World Studies Center at the University of the Philippines, said the continued flourishing of political dynasties “is a reflection of the socio-economic inequalities in the country.”

Political dynasties are inherently wrong because they give a headstart in politics to a member of the same family, Dr. Tadem said. “We’re lucky if the heir is good” – citing the case of Pia Cayetano, who belong to a political clan in Manila who is winning in the Senate race – “but what if he’s not?”

Still, Dr. Tadem, couldn’t help wondering about the change this new breed of politicians from these dynasties could bring to their constituents. “Many of them study in universities and abroad. Are they still the same when they come back? It’s interesting to see to what extent they are able to inject change on their own.”

Dr. Tadem said she is optimistic that when they go back to their provinces, they will inject some change.

The growing number of political clans is itself a factor that drives this change, Dr. Tadem added. “There is no one dominant dynasty now,” she said. “There is bound to be competition among the dynasties and that could translate into better public service.”

Pimentel, however, cautioned that while this change is good – “the heirs are young, forward-looking and better-educated,” he said – the fact that they belong to political clans still prevents equally promising young people from getting a crack at public office. Bulatlat.com

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