ZOMBIES, TRAPOS AND THE MERCHANDIZING
OF
POLITICAL PATRONAGE
By
MANUEL E. VALDEHUESA JR.
OF
POLITICAL PATRONAGE
By
MANUEL E. VALDEHUESA JR.
Mr. President, Mme. Executive Vice President, School Deans, Department Heads, Faculty & Staff, Director, Editors & Staff of Capitol University Press, Honored Guests, Friends:
Thank you all for helping launch this modest volume. It used to be that one had to go to Manila to get a book published. Not so anymore. So I am thankful for the visionary leadership of Capitol University. As an old hand in development and publishing circles, I can say that it is a good sign when a university undertakes a publishing program; for it is the universal mission of a university to advance knowledge. It does this through research, then seeing to its utilization, or by publishing the research findings.
To advance knowledge was what drove me to write this book. I wanted to share my observations about our political culture -- which is under siege from all quarters by modern-day barbarians, charlatans and despoilers of our common wealth. They are better known as traditional politicians, or trapos. Some of what I write may be a hard to swallow; but I share them to provoke discussion, perhaps action. It matters little whether you agree with me or not; what’s important is that our ideas, yours and mine, can now form a stream of consciousness that might lead to building a consensus.
Consensus is important in a city. It is important in the same way that a vision and mission statement is important in a corporation. Consensus is what binds a diverse, multicultural community. It provides the basis for a common vision towards equitable sharing of burdens and rewards, towards peace and development, towards progress.
Consensus is important for a sense of community to develop -- the sense that tells us we have common interests, we belong together, that therefore we need to work together. Out of consensus arises political will, a sense of direction, or a purpose for cooperation. Without it we can hardly call ourselves a community; we are just a bunch of people thrown together by accident of geography, or by the lure of Piso-Piso land grants.
Consider the condition of our city. It is in the throes of anarchy and chaos: squatters everywhere, filthy sewers and public facilities, unruly traffic, poor sense of law and order, rampant discontent accompanied by rampant gambling. We have no coherent vision or direction as a community. Huge projects get built and no one knows why except that it’s the mayor’s or the vice mayor’s fetish; no one knows how much it costs, either; not least, no one knows how much is pilfered or pocketed. This is a government that does things in defiance of rather than in pursuance of the people’s wishes. It is an oligarchy.
It is happening because the popular will is not articulated and the citizens fail to protect their interests. It is abetted by the breakdown of consensus-building mechanisms such as the puppet City Council and the inert City Development Council. So the citizens are not heard or represented in decision making. They are simply manipulated, pushed or pulled every which way without consultation or consent. The oligarchs are in control. They hold the key to the treasury and the apparatus of the bureaucracy.
Wielding the power of patronage and dole out, they keep the majority of our populace under their spell. So the rule of law is no match against the tyranny of numbers. They can legitimize illegal acts. They can railroad legislation and rig elections. Because the majority encompasses squatters, people that vote but do not pay taxes, taxpayers are marginalized or taken for granted.
Pandering to the squatter majority emboldens them to purchase land at market rates, then give the same away at the ridiculous fee of one-peso per lot. This dole out strengthens trapo stranglehold on government even as it weakens the city’s economy. Giving the lots away to the penurious and underemployed decommissions large tracts of land and places them beyond the reach of the taxman. Since there’s no way one-peso can reimburse the fabulous rates at which the land is bought, the city is bled financially. This cavalier handling of our common wealth is irresponsible and ill-motivated profligacy.
But no one complains except a solitary voice or two. Everyone else is silent, everyone feels helpless, or defenseless over a class issue that prejudices all taxpayers, saddling them with the burden of government upkeep while the rest get a free ride for their votes.
The taxpaying citizens are voiceless, so they are helpless. They lack political will, so they are readily manipulated. They labor under a captive system, so it is open season for abuse, opportunism, and corruption. That’s how these trapos launch huge projects like markets and bridges without consultation or due process. That’s how it turns out that the criteria is based on how much in kickbacks and commissions a project will earn. That’s how public interest is betrayed year after year! The government is privatized.
The abuse has become so pervasive and shameless that even pigs are roasted, cakes are baked, and priests and churches are contracted to snare unwed couples into mass weddings. No one seems to realize how this hypocritical gimmick yields a bonanza of grateful supporters, followers, campaigners, and voters on Election Day.
Lets face it: A whole new trapo industry has emerged around the merchandizing of political patronage. Every bit and morsel of public works and social services is converted into private tokens bearing the names and faces of the trapos.
They have brought corrupt practices to unprecedented heights of shamelessness. Hardly a week passes but that there’s a political gimmick in progress – a medical mission, a feeding program, a mass wedding, distribution of health cards, circumcision or haircut, name them! These instruments of patronage and corrupt electioneering are a plague upon our political system. No road, pavement, or building is built but that it must bear the name and face of a trapo or the label of a company that donates big to campaign chests. Now anyone can avail of medical services by simply signing away his vote to a trapo patron.
Our lawmakers are accelerating our social deterioration down the depths of corruption and retrogression. And their conniving partners in the executive branch are serving as pimps, pushers, and merchandizers of pork barrel. Everywhere there is credit-grabbing – for what? -- for squandering the people’s money! How we have gone far far away from our role models like Pres. Ramon Magsaysay, Vice Pres Emmanuel Pelaez… and yes, Ninoy and Cory.
They had integrity, delicadeza, gravitas. They made us feel decent; they made us hope in democracy; they made us believe in autonomy and self-help; they made us care about duty and honor, about God and country. Who do we have today? Demagogues, charlatans, free-loaders, plunderers, power-greedy oligarchs. In their posturing, they only succeed in portraying our society as Asia’s most corrupt. Instead of instilling pride, they make us feel dirty, indecent, and embarrassed about our nationality.
In the 1950s, Ramon Magsaysay “The Guy” stirred up the masses and awakened their sense of sovereignty, including mine while I was still in high school. He opened our eyes and made us aware of our dignity, our rights, and our inherent power. In doing so, he empowered us and brought us the light of hope during that dark period in our history.
After we lost Magsaysay in a plane crash, others picked up his torch – notably, our Maning Pelaez, who showed how a provinciano from a small town called Medina can be a class act on the world stage and rise to the pinnacle of national politics without resort to guns, goons, or gold as many did and do to this day. He was our beloved congressman, senator, vice president, secretary of foreign affairs, peace negotiator, representative to the United Nations, and ambassador the United States: the quintessential statesman.
Close to home, we had Tinying Borja, beloved mayor of Cagayanons. He showed how even a lowly City Hall can be a staging point for statesmanship and win respect not only for himself but for his constituents. Although our city then was still a fledgling urban community, it hosted ambassadors and Magsaysay Awardees who came to see what sort of people lived in the nation’s best managed urban center of that time. Justiniano R. Borja was and is the pride of Cagayan de Oro.
Not long after Tinying Borja died prematurely came Reuben Rabe Canoy. Reuben helped us define a vision for a friendly city. He gave the neighborhoods of our nation a sense of identity and power by conjuring up their ancient roots as self-governing barangays. He then reinforced the barangay’s role by his broadcasting mantra that “an informed citizenry makes democracy strong, while indifferent and neglectful citizens imperil freedom and liberty.” The rebirth of the barangay is Reuben Canoy’s enduring legacy to Filipino nationhood.
Where are there leaders today with a vision and statesmanship such as they had? Who is there that we can look up to as an icon for good, honest, honorable governance? Is there a leader in our city, in our region, in our nation who makes us feel proud, who makes us feel honored, or inspires us by his honesty, ability, or statesmanship?
Trapo leaders are not entirely useless, however, if only because they serve as examples of how not to govern and whom not to vote for. They have their uses. They inspire journalists to write of corruption, of manipulation, of dynastic ambition and monopoly, of greed or lust for power. They provide for their families and enrich their cronies. I don’t even have to name them here, for they are already well-known.
They save us the trouble of identifying them by their habit of plastering their names and faces on billboards, streamers, vehicles, even garbage bins. They reveal themselves by festooning our sidewalks, the overhead cables, and the sidings of government-supplied vehicles with their shameless names and faces. Their postings and hangings hang like dirty laundry throughout the landscape. And to add insult to injury, these are produced and installed entirely at our expense. Let those tarpaulins and billboards be your reminder not to re-elect them!
But, to be realistic, my suggestion may serve no practical purpose. With all the flattery and lionizing they get from civil society groups in hopes of getting a share of their pork barrel, they’ll probably get re-elected. They’ll win again because people who claim to dislike abuse or betrayal pander to them, surrender governance to them, and let their minions get away with corruption right in the community’s backyard -- in their own barangay, where the election precincts are staked out long before elections so the zombies can be herded smoothly into them.
So who are the zombies? They are us! They are our neighbors! They are everyone else, devout or unbeliever, who surrenders the government of his barangay to trapos big and small! These zombies, starting with ourselves, need to wake up and snap out of the spell cast by the trapos using patronage and graft and corruption
We cannot afford to let this privatization of government and the appropriation of its resources for personal vainglory go on without risking decline into a failed state.
Thank you for listening. God Bless you. God bless Cagayan and Misamis Oriental, God bless the Philippines!
_____________________________
6 November 2009, Museum of Three Cultures, Capitol University, Cagayan de oro City
May this article, provoke discussion and perhaps action that might lead to building a consensus to all of us Filipinos. May we be enlightened.
