A land of powerful clans

If the polls are to be believed, Senator Benigno Aquino III, will become the next president of the Philippines, entrenching a long standing tradition of political dynasties that rule the South East Asian nation.
Senator Benigno Aquino, is the son of the late President Corazon Aquino who came to power after her exiled-husband was shot dead at Manila’s airport in 1983 as he tried to return from US exile to fight Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship.
Benigno Aquino Sr.’s death turned him into a political martyr and his wife, Corazon, into the leader of a democracy movement that famously toppled Marcos with the “People Power” revolution of 1986.
“This election only shows how Philippines is a land of powerful clans,” said Herman Rial, a Vancouver businessman, who relocated to Canada in the early eighties.
“I am not even going to bother to vote….it’s all the same players with the same names and the same agendas,’ he said.
Aquino’s main rivals are Senator Manny Villar, a former defense secretary, Gilberto Teodoro, and deposed President Joseph Estrada, who was convicted of bribery, then pardoned by outgoing President Gloria Arroyo.
All of them come from powerful political families.
Aquino belongs to the political family of the Aquino clan in Tarlac, Villar belongs to the political family of the Villar clan in Las Pinas, Estrada belongs to the political family of the Villar clan in San Juan  and Gilbert Teodoro belongs to the political family of the Cojuangco\Teodoro clan in Tarlac.
Political analyst Bobby Tuazon with the Center for People Empowerment and Governance says the familiar names reflect the dominance of powerful families in the Philippines. He says it is a self-perpetuating problem that fosters corruption and prevents real democratic change.
“Bills have been filed to implement the constitutional provision doing away with the system of political dynasties,” Tuazon said, “but of course the filing of those bills came to naught, especially because, precisely because congress is dominated by the same political dynasties. So why kill yourself?”
Although the candidates promise change, Tuazon says this election is likely to result in more of the same.
On election day, scheduled for May 10, 2010, more than 17,000 offices will be contested across the country including the key posts of President, Vice President along with representatives to the House of Representatives, the Senate, and a range of provincial, municipal, and local offices.
All over the Philippines, it is common to see husbands, wives, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and other relatives holding key elective and appointed positions in governments.
National officials and political parties often align themselves with prominent clans in the provinces to ensure local support, especially during elections when everyone turns to the big families to deliver votes.
According to the Center for People Empowerment in Governance, there are about 250 political dynasties active in politics in the Philippines. Many of these families have private armies or the support of armed groups to protect their interests.
“These are the same families who belong to the country’s economic elite, some of them acting as rulemakers or patrons of politicians who conspire together to amass greater economic power,” the center said in a 2007 study.
Often the families protect their political and economic power at all cost - even resorting to violence against anyone who threatens their position or seeks to diminish their influence.
Sometimes, even family members attack each other in their turfs. In 2006, a legislator was assassinated outside a Catholic church in Manila and his cousin, the incumbent governor in their province, was accused of ordering the hit.
While the Philippine constitution prohibits political dynasties, an enabling law that would implement the ban is still pending in Congress, and many of the country’s lawmakers oppose it because they too come from political clans.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who herself is a product of an old political clan, as the daughter of late former president Diosdado Macapagal, has criticised the way politics is done in the Philippines.
“Over the years, our political system has degenerated to the extent that it is difficult for anyone to make any headway yet keep his hands clean,” she has said. “Perhaps we have strained the present political system to its final limit.”
Politicians from prominent clans often defend their continued rule, saying they take care of the people in their turfs.
But the Center for People Empowerment said the proliferation of political dynasties in the Philippines only highlights the “semi-feudal condition in the country, where wealth is accumulated and concentrated in a few families.”
“Political dynasties are a product of a society driven by income inequalities and lack of opportunities for the social and economic uplift of the majority of the people,” it added. “The more stagnant a rural society is the more entrenched the powers-that-be are.”
Meanwhile, the latest polls show, Senator Noynoy Aquino of the Liberal Party will come out winner by a wide margin according to a poll survey by Pulse Asia, a leading Philippine opinion research company.
In a poll survey conducted last April 23-25, Noynoy Aquino emerged on top with a high 19-point lead over his nearest rival, his biggest lead since the start of campaign last February 9.
There are 589,830 overseas Filipinos registered for the overseas absentee voting, which will run from April 10 to May 10.
Based on records from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, there are over 600,000 Filipinos in Canada, majority of whom are permanent residents.
Last month, a Filipino-American leader came to Vancouver to rally support for Aquino III and his running mate, vice presidential bet Mar Roxas.
A community leader from Surrey admitted that while many are interested to know what’s happening back home, very few are actually participating in the upcoming polls.
“It’s my fault actually. Hopefully, one day I’ll be able to do it. I think it’s a little bit too late already for the coming election. For so many years, we haven’t found the one and it seems that we were stuck there for so long. It’s kind of frustrating especially for us, Pinoys who went abroad,” said Narima Dela Cruz of the Surrey Philippine Independence Day Society according to Balitang America.
Philippine media also reported that 22 Canadian citizens, including representatives from churches, labour unions, academics, lawyers and a sitting Member of Parliament, Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway), will be in the Philippines as part of an international observers mission during that country’s elections.