ISSUE ANALYSIS No. 11
June 19, 2007

Shepherding the Flock for a Better Future

It takes more than a “moral alternative” and religious preaching to be able to take a gutsy position on big issues. The flock should be shepherded into the mass movement for social emancipation that has long taken roots.

The shame and indignation that greeted the May 14 mid-term elections was not as heavy in at least two of the country’s 81 provinces. As the dust of dirt politics settled in Pampanga and Isabela, a flicker of hope came upon the two provinces’ inhabitants. In the first province, a Catholic parish priest, Fr. Ed Panlilio, was elected governor – a first for the whole Philippines. A former broadcast journalist, Maria Gracia Cielo “Grace” Padaca, was reelected also as governor in the second. The two provinces share common characteristics that are also a national trademark: they have been ruled for generations by political dynasties and jueteng (or illegal numbers game) politics is very much alive.

The election of Panlilio, 53, and Padaca, 43, was considered a slap in the face of President Gloria M. Arroyo. Fr. Panlilio’s rivals in the native province of Arroyo – Mark Lapid and Lilia Pineda – were allies of the President. The Dys, who have reigned over Isabela for four decades, were also supporters of Arroyo.

Their election loomed large as a landmark where traditional and jueteng politics gave way to emergent non-traditional figures. It dawned upon cross-sections of the population not only in the two provinces but also across the country that dynastic rule – and the corruption and inept leadership that go with it - can be temporal and that, given the chance, “moral alternatives” can make a good showing in an election perennially marred by fraud, intimidation and other acts of violence.

Pampanga (pop.: about 1.9 million), despite its Clark special economic zone, an international airport, hotels and resorts, is basically a province still locked to its feudal past. Farming and fishing are the two main economic activities. But low incomes are turning many communities into one of the country’s major sources of migrant workers. Since 1946, the province had been ruled by one political clan after another, with most leaders preoccupied with courting the incumbent President’s favor even as majority of the people wallowed in poverty and exploitation.

Lackluster performance

The most recent political family to lord over Pampanga was that of action actor Lito Lapid and son Mark who became governors in 1995 to 2007. Despite the Lapids’ lackluster performance, Mark ran for reelection in the May elections with Lilia Pineda, wife of alleged jueteng lord and presidential friend, Bong Pineda, also pushing herself into the gubernatorial derby. Peeved by unjustly being given no choice, many Kapampangans looked for a way out of this predicament.

Roland Simbulan, a University of the Philippines professor who hails from Betis, Guagua, where Fr. Panlilio served as a parish priest, says that the latter – “Among Ed” to friends – had no intention to run for governor but that he was pushed by middle class families, businessmen as well as lowly farmers as the alternative candidate against Lapid and Pineda “who were widely perceived to be either corrupt or partners in dirty jueteng money.” Fr. Panlilio served for more than 10 years as provincial director of the diocese’s social action centers especially during the difficult years of the Mt. Pinatubo volcanic and lahar crisis.

Panlilio, Simbulan notes, personified a leadership that is “respected, accountable, and transparent” and is also disinterested in power and money in contrast to the tainted politics of the Lapids and Pinedas.

Like Pampanga, Isabela (pop.: 1.3 million) lives on agriculture, is a producer of rice and corn, and a hub of trade and commerce. The Dy family dynasty is alleged to have thrived on illegal logging and jueteng. Padaca, known in her province as a fearless radio commentator, first ran for a House seat in 2001 and lost but finally wrestled the gubernatorial post in 2004 from Faustino Dy, Jr., son of family patriarch Faustino, Sr. The province gave her a second mandate as governor last May 14 against opponent Benjamin Dy, 54, another son of Faustino, Sr. In both elections, Padaca, who is physically handicapped since the age of three, was supported by church groups and grassroots organizations.

Panlilio’s and Padaca’s electoral victory may be quixotic or likened to a David fighting Goliath but it does not signal the end of traditional politics in their provinces. Pampanga remains Arroyo’s bailiwick with most of its mayors and congressmen, including son Mikey Arroyo (second district) her henchmen. “Among Ed’s” election does not herald “politics of change,” either. His election still showed the marks of personality politics and charisma which is unlike alternative politics where ideology and program count more, Simbulan opines.

Despite Padaca’s win, the Dy dynasty remains solid in Isabela. Grandson Faustino Dy III was reelected congressman (3rd district) while Caesar Dy, a son, will continue as mayor of Cauayan.

War against corruption

The two have declared war against jueteng, illegal logging and corruption. In effect, it was a declaration of war against the ruling dynasties. It remains to be seen how far they can wage such a campaign and how far they can muster the support of the town mayors: 22 in Pampanga and 37 in Isabela. Right now, Panlilio continues to receive death threats while a number of his supporters have been gunned down. Last time we heard, Padaca promised to continue her priority program of farm-to-market roads and develop modern fisheries and tourism in the province.

An election may unseat a political lord but it may not necessarily bring down the fiefdom that he represents. Panlilio and Padaca need to paddle through rough waters where the infrastructures of patronage politics as well as jueteng and illegal logging remain strong and threatening.

For change to come in these provinces, leadership should transcend crusades for a clean government and must lock horns with the roots of poverty and social injustice that run deep with peasant struggles rising every now and then only to be quelled with an iron hand by government. For instance, Pampanga’s dire social and economic conditions have produced bloody struggles for land distribution the most contemporary being the Huk rebellion in the 1950s which led to several peasant massacres perpetrated by government forces and, since the late 1960s, the New People’s Army (NPA) armed movement.

The province, which used to host the U.S. airbase at Clark in Angeles City, has also hundreds and possibly thousands of people who continue to suffer from the toxic contamination of their communities caused by decades of airbase operations. Clark is still being used by U.S. forces as part of their Balikatan war exercises under the U.S.-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). Certainly, it would take more than a “moral alternative” and religious preaching to be able to take a gutsy position on these issues. The flock should be shepherded into the mass movement for social emancipation that has long taken roots in the province.

Strong mass support

Within the purview of reformist politics, Panlilio and Padaca need a strong mass support for a people-oriented development to take off. But development cannot move without breaking the yoke of landlord power that continues to enslave peasants and makes poverty endemic and without drawing the support of local leaders of whom many still lick the boots of their political patrons and crime lords. To remain true to form, they need to initiate lasting solutions to the basic problems of their constituents while parrying efforts by the traditional politicians to pull them down.

Compared to the feat achieved by Panlilio and Padaca, a different case happened in Davao City. Nenita Orcullo was up against multinational banana companies when she ran for reelection to a council seat in the city’s third district. Five months before the May elections, she authored a city ordinance that bans the aerial spraying of pesticides in the city’s banana plantations following reports of hazards to human health and the environment.

Reports said the banana companies campaigned against Orcullo using fraud and vote buying. Beaten but undaunted, she warned other councilors against caving in to the companies’ pressure politics.

Whether in Davao, Pampanga or Isabela powerful interests, be they business or political, still hold sway and danger always lurks whenever one takes the side of the people. It is up to the likes of “Among Ed” and Grace Padaca to use the power entrusted to them by the electorate solely for advancing the people’s interest.