Sonny Angara on political dynasties, New York, Cayetano vs. Enrile & Gigi Reyes

A mid the recent controversies in the Philippine Senate, we asked the 40-year-old Aurora Congressman Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara to clarify some issues because he and his father, Senator Edgardo “Ed” Angara, are personally close to both the clashing Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senate Minority Floor Leader Alan Peter Cayetano. I also learned that Senator Angara stood as godfather in the wedding of Enrile chief of staff Atty. Gigi Reyes and her ex-husband Atty. Inky Reyes. 

Here are excerpts from our exclusive Philippine STAR interview with this alumnus of the London School of Economics and Harvard Law School:

 PHILIPPINE STAR: A reader, architect Kakuen Chua, e-mailed me that for this coming Chinese New Year starting Feb. 10, the three luckiest birth signs in the Chinese zodiac will be those of Rat, Ox and Horse. I’m not superstitious, but I researched that you’re a Rat, so this is your lucky year?

 SONNY ANGARA: My wife Tootsy said the same. I hope it’s true, because it’s an election year and the Senate race is quite tight. By the way, I’m co-author of the bill on the Chinese New Year as a holiday, it will soon become a law. We are one of the few countries in this region that does not recognize it as a holiday. It can help ease tensions, without detracting from our Philippine territorial rights.

 President Noynoy also made Chinese New Year a holiday last year. You studied at Harvard and also at the London School of Economics, where US President John F. Kennedy and I think also Bill Clinton studied?

 I took my undergraduate studies there from 1991 to 1994. Yes, JFK went there, but I think Clinton studied at Oxford and not at LSE. Among our famous alumni, would you believe one  of them is Mick Jagger, the lead singer of The Rolling Stones? LSE also has 16 Nobel Prize winners among alumni and staff. It’s not a typical campus town environment, because LSE is located in the city, that’s why so many professionals choose to teach there.

 What’s the difference between the English system of education and ours here?

 There’s much less spoon-feeding in the British system, compared to our Philippine system. They encourage critical thinking.

 I heard that UP, where you’re on the Board of Regents, has less spoon-feeding too?

 Even at UP. The British system is really less spoon-feeding. I spent a semester at UP. Like in economics at UP, they’ll give you the viewpoint, like the orthodox way. In LSE, they’ll give you a book list of about 20 pages — books and articles you need to read. The exam is written, but every two weeks you have to see a tutor and submit an essay. It’s a mix of personalized teaching and lectures.

 You studied international relations at LSE. You could have been a diplomat?

 Yeah, actually… I worked for the Philippine mission in the United Nations for three to four months, as an apprentice. Our envoy then was Ambassador Felipe Mabilangan. That was after college and before law school.

 How was life in New York then?

 The New York City where I lived then wasn’t the New York now, which is safer. It was still the New York City of old, with a very high crime rate. Ironically, New York is now one of the safest cities in the world, and it started with then Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s reforms based on the “broken windows” theory.

 What is that theory?

 The “broken windows” theory states that when criminals see broken windows, it will have a bad effect not only on the criminals but also on the whole community because they see small crimes are not being punished. It was the resolve of Mayor Giuliani that even the smallest infractions of the law shall be punished, to set the example. And since then, New York City was transformed from one of the scariest to now one of the safest big cities in the US. 

New York’s various places like Central Park, Harlem, Brooklyn, there’s a place known as Alphabet City in downtown that was a drug haven before — all these have been gentrified. That’s the result of former Mayor Giuliani’s outstanding leadership. The “broken windows” theory should be applied here in the Philippines, especially in places like Mindanao.

 On politics, I heard your dad Senator Edgardo Angara stood as godfather at the wedding of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s chief of staff Atty. Jessica “Gigi” Reyes and her ex-husband Atty. Rodolfo “Inky” Reyes? You know them?

 I don’t know about that, but I knew that Atty. Inky Reyes used to be with my father’s ACCRA law firm. Yeah, I know them, but we’re not close.

The recent conflict between Enrile and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano has brought into the public and the media that old rumor that Enrile allegedly has or had an affair with his chief of staff. Your comments?

 Well, that’s a very sensitive matter which is personal to the people involved. My rule in politics, with respect to these kinds of matters, is to always stay away from personalities and personal issues.

We also have a rule in Congress or parliament, we don’t engage in name-calling. That’s why in the legislature, we don’t talk to each other and we don’t address each other personally, we talk through the presiding officer always. That’s why people say: “Mr. Speaker” or “Mr. Chairman…” We never resort to name-calling. You also don’t accuse your colleagues of improprieties. I keep all my dealings in politics strictly professional, non-personal.

 What is your take on Senate President Enrile accusing a deceased person of allegedly not paying his financial debts, to get back at Senator Cayetano?

 I think Senate President Enrile already apologized for it, because it was made in the heat of the moment. And then, legally, in the courts, there’s a rule called the “dead man’s statute,” where you cannot bring up or cannot use in evidence when what is involved is a dead person because he or she could not defend themselves. So, in general, that’s inadmissible in court. I’m talking, Wilson, in general, not particularly about this issue.

 I heard you and your family know very well both the late Senator Rene Cayetano and also Enrile?

 Yes, the late Senator Rene Cayetano was a former law partner of my father and also a classmate of my father at the University of Michigan. They were very good friends. I used to attend children’s parties and other family gatherings of the Cayetanos. My father’s close to both Enrile and Cayetano.

 Your father and Enrile were also colleagues in law practice?

 Yes, they’re also close, because Enrile and my father worked together before in the law firm of Enrile’s late father Alfonso Ponce Enrile. That law firm is now called the Siguion Reyna law firm, it used to be called the Ponce Enrile Perkins law firm. My dad and JPE used to be officemates.

 Even his critics say Enrile has a sharp legal mind.

 JPE, he really studies. He’s an example to young lawyers and other professionals. Even in his old age, he continues to update himself with the law, because the law is constantly changing and reflects developments in our changing world. You must be continuously studying and updating yourself, otherwise you will be left behind.

 Your assessment of the late Senator Rene Cayetano?

 The late Senator Cayetano was very good in public relations, magaling siya makisama (he was very good at maintaining good relations). I know his children Senator Pia, Senator Alan, the director Lino and also Renren — they were all brought up very well. They are all achievers in their own ways, and they reflect well on the late Senator Rene Cayetano. I also know his wife Tita Sandy, she’s also an education advocate because she runs a pre-school.

 I hear senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Chiz Escudero, Bong Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada and Bongbong Marcos are possible candidates for vice president in 2016?

 I think all these names you mentioned are viable contenders, not just for the No. 2 highest position, but also for president in 2016 because we are still three years from the next presidential election.

 Why do you say so?

 If you look back at January 2007 — which is the point we’re in right now, or three years and five months before the next presidential election — President Noynoy Aquino was not even a senator yet at that time. He was still a congressman. He probably didn’t realize that, in three and a half years, he’d become the next leader of the country.

So what we might be seeing now is some kind of generational shift in our politics, where people occupying the highest political positions in our country are younger persons. P-Noy is only soon turning 53 years old.

 I agree that many young politicians are rising, but how do you react to complaints about the political dynasty issue? Many of the senatorial candidates have the same old political surnames. Is this still true democracy?

 I believe a political dynasty is not in itself bad; many are bad, but there are also some good ones like the Aquinos, the Tañadas, the Cayetanos and the Magsaysays. 

 Your comments to those people campaigning against political dynasties?

 What’s actually good about the anti-political dynasty movement is that it is encouraging our voters to be more discriminating in their choices. It’s no longer automatic that people vote for the relatives of famous political families, but the voters’ immediate reactions will now be “No.” At least, their thought processes are working to weigh the positives and negatives of each candidate, and that can only be a good thing for our democracy.

 Is our political democracy dysfunctional, and do we need more structural reforms via changes in our Constitution?

 On positive changes, maybe down the line, but I think there’s no need for radical changes.

 Do you think that developing nations should push economic development and economic democracy first before embracing political democracy, similar to many Asian societies like those under Mahathir, Lee Kuan Yew and others? Don’t you think our Philippine society seems more oligarchic than truly democratic?

 Yes, Mahathir and Lee Kuan Yew have criticized political democracy as bad for developing nations. Well, there’s no one-size-fits-all theory of government. We, as a country, are a product of very unique cultural and historical factors.

We’re the first democracy in Asia, but our economic structure is far from democratic or egalitarian. Some political scientists have said that countries colonized by Spain have weak public institutions, whereas countries that were colonized by the British have strong public institutions. Look at Singapore and Malaysia, they have strong and independent civil service.

 I think it was in a book by Alfred McCoy on rent-seeking political clans where I read that the late political and business leader Eugenio “Eñing” Lopez, Sr. had himself written while at Harvard that public institutions in the Philippines are indeed weak? Is this one reason oligarchic clans traditionally lord over our politics?

 I believe Don Eñing Lopez was then a classmate of Senator Lorenzo Tañada at Harvard… Yes, it’s a factor, the big economic factors before were the landlords, our economy was controlled then by large interests. We’re a product of our history. Before, the landlords were the most powerful, then in the 1950s and 1960s there were the sugar producers, those were the interests that could make or unmake presidents. Now no more, influence is more dispersed, but still there is a need to address inequalities in our society.

 Are you still optimistic about our brand of politics, after the recent Senate mudslinging, plus charges of massive and also systemic corruption in recent years?

 I’m hopeful for the future, but these are many things the government can and must do to make our democracy function better and more efficiently in order to benefit more of our people.  

 You’re the only son of a powerful and successful leader. Why are you not swellheaded like other scions of political clans?

 My father brought us up that way. He also didn’t give us much material things. He said that if you want something, you have to work for it, except with books. Basta (as long as) bookstores, it’s unlimited what we can have. That’s the only thing our father would shop for us in an almost unlimited way — books.

 I remember years ago, when we were at Barnes & Noble in the US and my father was buying many books, a saleslady asked us: “Do you own a bookstore or a school?” Once on a trip abroad, our many books made our luggage too overweight for our flight, we had to send them via door-to-door balikbayan boxes.

 Who has more books, you or Senator Ed Angara?

 Maybe it’s a tie (laughs)… Actually, maybe he has more because he’s older than me. On our dad’s love of books and emphasis on education, I was lucky in that sense, our father was really willing to invest in our knowledge.

Not many people in our society have access to books and the best educational opportunities, that is why I believe we in the government should step in and do much more to provide educational opportunities.

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