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“No country in Asia has had more experience with democratic institutions,” says a new University of Wisconsin Madison study. But survival of Philippine “cacique democracy” is increasingly problematic.
Sapped by Marcos’ dictatorship, frail institutions are battered by the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s “raze everything” drive to keep power. And the opposition’s “scorched earth” campaign to wiggle into power fizzles among citizens disillusioned by token reforms.
Political scientist Paul Hutchcroft makes these points in “The Arroyo Imbroglio in the Philippines.” In 1998, he authored the book Booty Capitalism: The Politics of Philippine Banking.
Business supports Ms Arroyo due to gains from her economic policies, the study says. She also continued peace negotiations with major Muslim secessionist groups.
Except for the martial-law-stretched tenure of Ferdinand Marcos, no president held Malacañang longer than Ms Arroyo. Despite “this longevity,” she “found political legitimacy to be elusive,” Hutchcroft asserts. “High hopes for democracy, voiced in the mid-1980s, gave way to disillusionment with the country’s low quality of governance.”
Ms Arroyo “effectively wields the presidency’s substantial powers to keep herself in office. She exhibits no qualms about further undermining the country’s already weakened political institutions,” the study states. “Battered by scandal after scandal, longstanding democratic structures have become increasingly imperiled.”
A hangover from US colonial-era policies persists. Governor General William Taft wooed landlords away from insurgents with a “policy of attraction.” Today’s oligarchs are recycled Spanish colonial elites. Sociologist John Carroll, SJ, notes that later-generation oligarchs emerged from the middle class. They are equally self-seeking.
Avaricious politicos swamped fledgling state agencies. And a “cacique democracy” emerged. “Its genius was the capacity to rotate power, at the top, without effective participation of those below,” observed Benedict Anderson.
When citizen franchise expanded “the oligarchy was well-entrenched. Challenges from below faced monumental odds…. Taft evoked images of New England-style deliberative democracy. But the end result (was) a Philippine version of Tammany Hall.”
Thus, political parties evolved as vehicles of patronage, notes political scientist Nathan Quimpo. “(They) can be set up, merged, split, reconstituted, regurgitated, resurrected, renamed, repackaged, recycled, refurbished, buffed up or flushed down the toilet anytime.”
Where institutions are brittle, leadership styles mould political outcomes. Joseph Estrada was a populist self-aggrandizer. He “redistributed wealth in favor of his family and friends” – until ousted. Ms Arroyo is “the great compromiser.” She’ll “accommodate anyone able to help her retain the presidency.”
Fernando Poe Jr.’s death left the opposition without a rallying figure. Doubts on Vice President Noli de Castro’s capabilities persist. The president did “a masterful job of cultivating the loyalty of key generals.” She also turned a blind eye to summary executions and human rights infractions, some by military men. She splurged public funds and exploited weaknesses, as in the Commission on Elections.
The “Philippine ballot is probably one of the most archaic in the world.” Officials “face the gargantuan task of counting almost a billion preferences” in tallying 30 million ballots for 25 to 30 positions. “Comelec was fabulously incompetent (and often very corrupt).”
“This process is highly susceptible to fraud,” as Maguindanao proved. There, Ms Arroyo’s allies delivered a sweep. Hutchcroft credits Governor Andal Ampatuan for this feat. “He commands a substantial paramilitary force and has a reputation for using violence…. Whatever the president wants, he will follow…. And 12-0 is what Ma’am wants…”
“Ampatuan cuts deals for his own benefit as well,” the study adds “Ranking of individual candidates depended on how much they would pay up.” They underscore that elections have become financially prohibitive.
“It’s the drug lords and the gambling lords… who finance the candidates,” the study quotes then Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. “So from Day One, they become corrupt. The whole political process is rotten.”
Ms Arroyo backpedals from personal accountability. She pins the blame for today’s turmoil on the system instead. This tack won’t ease the strain on democracy, the study argues. That can only come from radical reforms.
In “Democracy 102,” columnist Alex Magno lucidly argues: “This self-serving order has to be challenged outside its operative rules.” How? The regime’s “patent political opportunism,” in 2007, to foist Charter change for its advantage “turned much of the public against constitutional revision,” Hutchcroft notes. It is unlikely any overhaul of basic structures is possible until after 2010.
Incremental reforms, targeted to spur meaningful social change, hold greater promise for success, the study says. Start with modest electoral reforms for now.
The nationwide election of senators should be made regional. The present system “forces each candidate to cut his or her own deals with local power holders throughout the archipelago.” And the Lower House’s party-list system, with its three-seat cap, should be overhauled to allow greater numbers under parties.
Today’s scorched-earth politics erodes an already shaky structure. Filipinos must build a democracy that “demonstrates responsiveness, not just to the privileged few but to the citizenry as a whole” – for once.
