An undemocratic democracy
THE senatorial lineup for the 2025 midterm elections under the administration coalition of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. introduced to the public last Sept. 26, 2024 is indicative of how undemocratic Philippine democracy has become.
Let me explain.
The University of Pennsylvania's Center for High Impact Philanthropy has identified "five elements of civil society that reinforce each other and act in concert toward creating a strong democracy." These five elements are: 1) empowered citizens; 2) fair processes; 3) responsive policy; 4) information and communication; and 5) social cohesion.
For the first element alone — empowered citizens — the Philippines already has a failing mark, and the Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial slate announced by President Marcos for the 2025 midterm elections is proof why. The Filipino people are disempowered by the institutionalization of oligarchic Philippine politics.
Let us go through the list of senatorial candidates announced by the President:
1. Interior Secretary Benjamin "Benhur" Abalos Jr., technically a "new name" in the senatorial derby, but his family has lorded over the city of Mandaluyong since his father, Benjamin Sr., was appointed officer in charge mayor of the then-municipality of Mandaluyong in 1986 by President Corazon "Cory" Aquino. Benhur served as city councilor in 1995, mayor from 1998 to 2004 and from 2007 to 2016, and representative of the lone district of Mandaluyong from 2004 to 2007. After reaching the constitutionally mandated three consecutive term limit in 2016, Benhur was replaced as mayor by his wife Carmelita or "Menchie" (until 2022) and his father Benjamin Sr. (the incumbent) as he pursued entry into national politics.
2. Makati Mayor Mar-len Abigail "Abby" Binay is essentially aiming to succeed her sister, Sen. Maria Lourdes "Nancy" Binay, who is about to finish serving two consecutive six-year terms in 2025. Their father, Jejomar Binay, was a longtime mayor of Makati and the country's vice president from 2010 to 2016.
3. Sen. Pilar Juliana "Pia" Cayetano is a reelectionist gunning for her fourth six-year term. Her brother, Alan Peter, is also an incumbent senator on his third (non-consecutive) six-year term.
4. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson is seeking a return to the Senate after losing in the 2022 presidential elections; Lacson is aiming for a fourth six-year term as senator in 2025.
5. Sen. Manuel "Lito" Lapid is a reelectionist aiming for his fourth six-year term overall.
6. Sen. Maria Imelda Josefa Remedios "Imee" Marcos is a reelectionist gunning for her second six-year term; she is the President's older sister, and their father was a strongman who sat in Malacañang from 1965 until his ouster in 1986.
7. Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao is a boxer-turned-politician seeking a return to the Senate after an unsuccessful campaign for the presidency in 2022.
8. Sen. Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. is a reelectionst seeking his fourth six-year term overall; his father Ramon Sr. was a two-term senator from 1992 to 2004.
9. Vicente "Tito" Sotto III is seeking a return to the Senate after a failed run for the vice presidency in 2022; he is gunning for an unprecedented fifth six-year term overall.
10. Sen. Francis Tolentino is a reelectionist.
11. Erwin Tulfo is party-list representative representing ACT-CIS and is the brother of incumbent Sen. Rafael "Raffy" Tulfo (a first-termer).
12. Camille Villar is a two-term representative of Las Piñas and is the daughter of outgoing senator Cynthia Villar (a two-termer) and former senator Manuel "Manny" Villar (a two-termer from 2001 to 2013), and sister of incumbent Sen. Mark Villar (a first-termer).
The Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial lineup is a veritable who's who of political oligarchs collectively disempowering Filipinos by keeping the Senate off-limits to ordinary citizens.
Political families have for decades treated the Senate as their private playground. The Villars, Cayetanos and Ejercito/Estradas have two members each among incumbent senators. The Tulfos want to be the latest family to have two members serving in the Senate simultaneously.
Worse, political oligarchs have banded together under the coalition banner of President Marcos, who himself sits at the head of a large political family spanning national to local politics. Marcos' first cousin, Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, is the incumbent speaker of the House of Representatives.
As I wrote in last week's "The political cost of impeachment" (TMT, Sept. 27, 2024), the culprit in the rise of oligarchic, anti-democratic politics in the country was accelerated by the introduction of the multiparty system in the 1987 Constitution.
The multiparty system essentially encouraged political families to flout and enfeeble party politics. In the decades after EDSA 1986, family-organized political parties mushroomed to serve as a vehicle to entrench traditional politicians in national and local politics:
– Hugpong ng Pagbabago founded by then-Davao City mayor (and now vice president) Sara Duterte.
– People's Reform Party established by the late senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
– Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (formerly Partido ng Masang Pilipino) of former president Joseph Estrada.
– Former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña's Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan.
– A plethora of party-list groups aimed at providing traditional politicians an alternative path to a seat in the House of Representatives (i.e., Tingog Partylist of Speaker Romualdez and ACT-CIS of the Tulfos, etc.).
Elections in the country have become increasingly oligarchic with ordinary citizens crowded out of the process, steadily marginalized to the point of invisibility.
Citizens still cast their votes, but they have no real choices as professionals, academics and other nontraditional politicians (political families) are discouraged from participation because of the astronomical cost of political campaigns and other barriers to citizen empowerment. Political contenders from top to bottom have almost exclusively come from the ranks of political families (traditional politicians), celebrities (i.e., entertainers, athletes, social media personalities, etc.), journalists and other high-profile personalities with individual means, rather than from among empowered ordinary citizens.
As I pointed out in "The political cost of impeachment," when traditional/oligarchic politicians take their seats in the legislature, their main agenda in brutal terms inevitably gravitate toward extracting maximum political and economic (financial or otherwise) concessions from Malacañang in exchange for their support of presidential initiatives, many of which are not necessarily statesman-like in their motives.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of legislators deliriously latch on to the impeachment agenda of Malacañang dating back to the time of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, not as a tool of accountability for certain officials of the government but for partisan political motives and purposes. Consequently, the Filipino people are close to reaching their boiling point in terms of disenchantment with Malacañang and the legislature.
Rodrigo Duterte was the last genuine political outsider to mount a successful campaign at the highest levels of Philippine politics and may be considered the last vestige of a working democracy in the country.
Mounting public frustration over the oligarchic nature of politics makes the Philippines a veritable ticking time bomb set to explode with the right set of incendiary circumstances. The explosion, when — not if — it comes will be catastrophic. It makes me melancholic thinking about this inevitability.
Now is an unhappy and frustrating time to be a Filipino.
