Can an Elected President Change Society?

Compared to the other candidates who are still left in the running, Nonoy Aquino would be a good pick for people who are hoping for better governance. And he can actually win, if the Yellow Fever could sustain its run till May 2010. No one should forget, however, that he comes from the mold of traditional politics. As a congressman and senator he behaved very much like our every day elective official. He has not made a mark as a maverick among his peers, much less as a reform-minded and progressive legislator. Nor has he shown leadership to the more vocal young oppositionists in the likes Chiz Escudero. But unlike any of them, he is bound, or perhaps feels morally obligated to carry on the torch of his idolized father and mother. Still there’s nothing in his personal and political experience that would make him depart from the ways of traditional politics. But even the best of traditional politics or the noblest of trapos could not save our country.

Traditional politics in the Philippines rests on the pillars of patronage as opposed to the politics of people’s empowerment. The politics of patronage actually corresponds to the kind of economic relations obtaining in Philippine society. An economy that is backward and based on monopoly ownership of land does not make a free and independent electorate, most of whom are impoverished peasants, subsistent farmers and rural workers. These people know by experience that their vote is the command of their masters and that elections have not changed things in their life. Without hesitation they would give their votes to the patron who can give handouts more than the others. At least during election seasons they can get an extra income.

In addition to that, the country’s middle class and intellectual elites continue to hold on to the illusion that good governance can be attained if only good men and women get elected through an honest, orderly and credible electoral process in its present form. Hence, the clamor for reform-minded candidates. This view is exemplified by former NEDA secretary-general Cilieto Habito’s support for the candidacy of Bro. Eddie Villanueva and his senatorial slate under his Bangon Pilipinas Party. Habito is moved by his belief that the “best way for men and women of goodwill to change our government is to be in it.” This same belief could have motivated Nick Perlas, a self-proclaimed activist and environmentalist to join in the fray.

The participation of these new players in the political arena and the successful run of Governors Panlilio of Pampanga and Grace Padaca of Isabela has served to reinforce the hope for real substantial change via putting good men and women in government. But as their 3-year term is about to end they have yet to show evidence that their ascendancy has made a dent on government, much less on empowering the common people.

The question to consider regarding the candidacy of non-trapos is not about winnability but rather whether the kind of change that is truly meaningful to the majority of the people who are poor can be achieved by putting them in government. I doubt very much that they can do it. I doubt that they would try to do it. I even doubt that they are thinking of doing it at all.

So, does putting them in government serve no purpose at all? Of course, it does – depending on what that purpose it does serve. It’s definitely better to have honest and good people in government. But having honest and good men in government can’t change government and society – given our kind of society. The real key to effecting substantial and meaningful change in society is the genuine and massive empowerment of the people – economically, politically and spiritually. The electoral exercise can be used as a battlefield for the people’s empowerment. Change won’t come from candidates who get the winning number of votes. There is change if and when the people achieve empowerment from their participation in the electoral process. In other words, what an election must accomplish is the people’s empowerment rather than the victory of certain candidates. It’s the electoral exercise, dummy, not the candidates. It’s not Eddie Villanueva or Noynoy Aquino but the masses of people who are energized, organized and mobilized to use their numbers to choose whoever they want to serve them. Then they can put on the table the agenda of government that they want.

Friends, an election is about people standing up to regain their powers from the politicians. I invite you to consider that as a proposition.