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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Dynastic Politics
By Antonio C. Abaya Written May 06, 2007 For the Standard Today, May 08 issue It is still one more week before Election Day, yet some 95 people have already been shot dead in election-related incidents, according to the Philippine National Police. I do not know if this is a record, or is just par for the course, but I can bet my last sample ballot that nothing like this ever happens in Malaysia or Singapore or Thailand or Indonesia . The question has to be asked: Why not? Offhand, I can surmise that gun control laws are strictly enforced in Malaysia and Singapore . I do not know if such laws exist in Thailand and/ or Indonesia , although it can be reasonably assumed that during their years under military governments, Thailand (1980s and at present) and Indonesia (1965 to1998) did put a tight lid on gun ownership. But I think the phenomenon of election violence in the Philippines goes beyond gun ownership I think it is also a function of social and political values that influence Filipino society, to an extent unheard of in Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai or Indonesian society. Why are we so prone to election violence, while our neighbors are not? By all accounts, we Filipinos were introduced (by the Americans) to the concept of electing our leaders much earlier than our neighbors were by the British and the Dutch. The Philippines Assembly, precursor of today�s legislature, was convened in October 1907, with assemblymen chosen, presumably, in more or less open elections. I do not think the British and the Dutch gave their colonial subjects the privilege of suffrage that early, if ever at all. (Thailand or Siam was an absolute monarchy until 1932.) I understand from those who were already young adults in the pre-World War II days, such as former Supreme Court Justice Isagani A. Cruz, that elections in those days were hotly contested, but peacefully conducted. Electoral violence seems to be a post WWII phenomenon. My earliest recollections of elections were those in 1949, when �the birds and the bees� voted in Lanao, and dead people�s names showed up in voters lists to be counted in the electoral exercise. Somewhere along the way, from 1907 to 1949, Philippine political democracy lost its moral moorings and spun out of control. Some will blame it on the dog-eat-dog environment during the Japanese Occupation. Others will blame it on the alleged greed of the so-called elite in clinging on to power. The Communists, predictably, will blame it on American imperialism. Whatever the correct explanation or explanations may be, very few will deny that Philippine democracy is in deep sh*t, and there is no reason to believe that it can cleanse or regenerate itself anytime soon. The extraordinary mess that stares us in the face every election time is a combination of electoral laws cavalierly disregarded, Comelec rules flagrantly violated, elementary justice denied, ordinary decent behavior discarded, as the trapos and their predatory dynasties and retainers hound and hunt down their political enemies in their relentless campaigns to seize and monopolize public offices . We Filipinos have broken, stretched, twisted, deformed, massaged, finessed, violated, diluted, mangled, disemboweled, prostituted, distorted, bled dry, and disfigured beyond recognition every noble political idea ever conceived and developed in Western civilization over the past 3,000 years. And there does not seem to be any end to it. The computerization of the electoral process, which would have drastically reduced the institutionalized cheating, has been in the works for the past ten years, but has been delayed and postponed, again and again, at the last minute for various reasons. The 1987 Constitution called for the dismantling of political dynasties, yet every effort in Congress to discuss the matter for the purpose of enacting laws to fulfill the constitutional mandate has been stifled by, who else, the political dynasts in Congress. That dynastic politics is at the root of much of the political violence that ravages our country was amply demonstrated by two murders last week. In one incident in San Carlos City , Pangasinan, Mayor Julian Resuelo, who had served the maximum three terms as mayor and was running for vice-mayor, was shot dead. His son, Julier Resuelo, who is the incumbent vice-mayor, is running for mayor. With the murder of the elder Resuelo, a brother of Julier is being fielded to replace their father as candidate for vice-mayor. I do not know how many other Resuelos and their in-laws are running for municipal councilors in San Carlos City . Two days later, in Cebu Province, municipal councilor Rogelio Ilustrisimo, who had served the maximum three terms as mayor of Santa Fe town in Bantayan Island and was running for mayor again, was shot dead in the Comelec premises in Cebu City. He was running to replace the incumbent mayor, his own son Roger Ilustrisimo. Again, I do not know how many Ilustrisimos and their in-laws serve as municipal councilors in Santa Fe . You can see variations of this theme in Abra, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Pampanga, Batangas, Masbate, Camarines Sur, Iloilo, Lanao, Agusan, Surigao, Bukidnon, Makati City, Mandaluyong City, Pasig City etc ad nauseam. The theme is the same: political dynasties winning or controlling public offices at all levels of government, because there is no enabling law that prohibits them from doing so. And the outs who are trying to get in, resorting to violence, including murder, to pry them out of those offices. Not out of any sense of distributive justice, but to enable them to have their chance to feed at the trough. In the Philippines , public offices are seen as windows for rent-seeking and the magic door to fabulous wealth. And Philippine media apparently do not see any connection between dynastic politics and electoral violence. During the week of the Resuelo and Ilustrisimo murders, Joel Rocamora and Leah Navarro discussed with the usually astute Korina Sanchez the presence or absence of policemen in political hot spots. But no mention of dynastic politics. My favorite anchor Ricky Carandang discussed barangay and party list groups with his guests. But not a word about dynastic politics. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in www.tapatt.org and acabaya.blogspot.com. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |