MANILA
The seasonal madness that engulfs the Philippines is upon us again, its election time once more. Unfortunately, the list of candidates isn’t inspiring. Actually it’s depressing.
On the first week of October, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) here opened its doors to would-be candidates, filing their certificates of candidacy for the positions of senators, congressmen, governors, mayors, and lower positions in local governments. The first day of the filing exercise was typical of any Filipino event, full of noise and not much else.
And yet, the actual elections won’t be until May 2013, yes seven months from now! The reason for the early filing of candidacies is that the 2013 elections will be computerized again, similar to the 2010 elections, and the Comelec needs time to put together all the ballots and other related paperwork. Thus, the need for early filing. But the actual campaigning won’t start until February next year.
Nothing excites Filipinos more than elections. Not because an election exemplifies democracy, not because an election validates that a country is truly free and democratic because its people elect their governors and representatives.
Filipinos love elections because of their entertainment value.
During the campaign, candidates come to town, especially sleepy small towns, with movie stars and dancers in sexy attire in tow, to rouse the townsfolk and provide them with a change of pace from their ennui. We love elections because money from politicians flows down to the grassroots even for just this one time in three years (elections here are in three-year cycles). The amounts politicians hand out to prospective voters are generally small but its money nevertheless (and cause inflation). And so, the townspeople are happy when candidates invade their communities with their goodies and booties.
This year’s crop of senatorial candidates is not only not inspiring, it’s downright abominable (senators are voted into office nationally, meaning they’re the only candidates, along with the president and vice president, who are voted on by all the people). First, the list of candidates is dominated by relatives of either incumbent senators or former senators. Second, the coalitions of parties contesting senatorial positions against the ruling majority coalition of President Benigno Aquino III are insisting that they’re not opposing Aquino’s slate.
Political families here have dominated the scene for most of Philippine history. Political warlords in strategic fiefdoms around the country have imposed themselves on the people for a long time, controlling power and resources in the country. Members of the same families take turns running for office, effectively shutting out other prospective and capable candidates.
In this coming senatorial election, the half-brother of an incumbent senator (they’re sons of a former president, whose wife is also a former senator and whose mistress is the mayor of the city where the president lives; I know, it’s so involved and complicated!) also wants to get into the Senate. Sons of two senators are on the ballot. The son of another former president, who had been a senator before, wants to return to his old haunt. A number of former senators, too, want a comeback. A cousin of President Aquino is also running. And so on and so on.
Are there no new faces? The people cry out. What this is doing is it further concentrates power in a few, which then comprise the political elite. Worse, in this country, the political elite and the economic elite are often the same people, or at least some members of one are also members of the other, and vice versa. So, the net result is, if you have scant financial resources, you don’t have an established political name, and you don’t have a connection to the ruling politicians, you have no chance of ever getting elected even though you may have the best intentions, ideas, and professional abilities to help the people. That’s Philippines politics in a nutshell.
The “opposition” here, led by the current vice president, Jojo Binay, claims that it’s fielding its own senatorial lineup but not in opposition to President Aquino’s coalition lineup. Now, how can that be if you’re putting up your own ticket against the President’s?
It’s gimmickry, pure and simple.
The President is currently enjoying high popularity among the people (so is Vice President Binay; in fact even more popular than the president). So, cleverly, the vice president, who has announced that he’s running for president in 2016, doesn’t want to be seen as anti-Aquino. So, even though he’s fielding his own senatorial candidates against the President’s, he tells everyone that he and his colleagues are not in opposition to the president. Clever, but disingenuous. You cannot run against someone and claim at the same time that you’re not an opponent of that someone.
Again, politics, Philippine style.
So, the election season has started, even though the actual campaigning won’t start till next February. Once again, the politicians have managed to disappoint thinking and discerning Filipinos with their antics. The worst aspect of this is the tightening grip of political families on power, from top to bottom.
On the subject of political dynasties, I think Mr. Aquino made a mistake in allowing a cousin of his to run under his (the president’s) senatorial ticket. Political dynasties are prohibited by the Constitution, although everybody simply ignores it (how can this be implemented when political families control all government, including the legislature, where, as directed by the Constitution, an enabling law must be enacted to ban political dynasties?). The President, in line with his reform agenda, could have set an example by disallowing his cousin to run, if only to prove that he isn’t a traditional politician (cleverly shortened here to “trapo,” the local word for rag). Instead, Aquino chose to be just a typical Filipino political kingpin.
So there.
