Perpetuating the system

Noynoy Aquino called in his famous mom, sis and brother-in-law. Ralph Recto brought along his famous wife. Richard Gomez showed his famous self to screaming fans, throwing in his famous wife for good measure.

They were the candidates who drew the largest crowds as they filed their certificates of candidacy at the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

And who can blame the crowds? Kris, Ate Vi and Lucy are certainly more delightful company than several of the candidates who showed up at the Comelec and kicked off a long summer of glad-handing.

A certain fraction of voters – people who worry about where their taxes go and care about where the country is headed – will pick senatorial candidates based on competence and integrity.

A much larger group will pick their candidates based chiefly on name recall. Many of these voters do not earn enough to pay taxes and feel no personal stake in the way public funds are spent. And who’s to say that these voters don’t know any better? They’ve seen what geniuses like Ferdinand Marcos can do to their country. At least entertainers know how to entertain and can make voters forget their troubles, even for a while.

An equally large group, which includes taxpayers and the rich and educated, will vote based on shortsighted self-interest.

In progressive societies, citizens realize that what’s good for the country is often also good for the individual; national interest becomes a larger expression of self-interest. In dysfunctional democracies such as ours, self-interest has narrow parameters, based on personal or extended family ties. If a person votes for a friend of his relative’s friend, will he have a better chance of getting the job or promotion he wants? Will his resort get pork barrel financing for a paved road?

Campaign managers study the numbers and naturally decide to go for the majority vote, by working on name recall and myopic self-interest. Competence? The inept can get the right congressional staff. Integrity? Nothing but spin; there are no angels in this country.

It’s realpolitik. Live with it, or take a caregiver’s course and pack your bags for Ireland.

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You can’t entirely blame politicians for resorting to tested formulas for winning. When candidates start talking about issues and outlining their work priorities if elected, we dismiss everything as rhetoric and motherhood statements.

I sat down recently with members of a party-list group who declared that they stood for family values as well as social justice for the poor and marginalized. They were probably sincere and committed, but my automatic reaction was, who doesn’t stand for those values?

When a candidate starts talking about poverty alleviation and family togetherness, your eyes roll up in boredom or disbelief and you mutter under your breath: "Oh, give me a break." The response is Pavlovian.

When a candidate takes out a newspaper ad, outlining his views in deathless prose and giving good arguments for his election, you admire the great ghostwriter or spinmeister, not the candidate.

When there is so much cynicism and mistrust of politicians, why should candidates expend too much energy selling competence and integrity at the expense of name recall?

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Another problem for the Filipino voter: there aren’t too many divisive issues that can make decision-making easier. Both administration and opposition candidates support the same motherhood causes. No one will be caught dead espousing new or higher taxes for fiscal discipline during a campaign, even if they intend to support such measures once elected.

In the United States, the fiasco in Iraq spelled doom for the Republicans in the congressional elections.

Inspired by the Republicans’ defeat, the Philippine opposition is hoping that the May elections will be a referendum on the Arroyo administration.

But the senatorial slates can be confusing, and most people are unlikely to vote on party lines. Instead, people will pick individual candidates from both the administration and opposition, with some going for independent candidates.

This has always been the case in this country. It is not unusual for the president and vice president to come from rival camps. Filipinos also know that when the votes have been counted, alliances could once again shift. So why bother about party affiliations?

No one is sure where the allegiance of Senate President Manuel Villar, who led the impeachment of Joseph Estrada, and Sen. Francis Pangilinan of the opposition’s "Grand Coalition" really lie.

Erap’s followers may also become confused, with Fernando Poe Jr.’s former campaign manager Tito Sotto and ally Tessie Aquino-Oreta joining the administration’s "Team Unity."

The Grand Coalition did manage to send a clear message of regime change as one of its platforms, by including coup plotter Antonio Trillanes in its lineup. But mindful of the public’s rejection of coup attempts and people power in recent years, the opposition’s masters of spin watered down the message, saying they were not just after the ouster of President Arroyo.

The administration cannot seize the opportunity, opened by Trillanes’ candidacy, to say that it stands for the eradication of the coup culture and the creation of a professional military. Appointing Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. (now embarked on a PR blitz for acceptance) to the defense post went against one of the key recommendations of the commission that was formed to draw up military reforms following the mutiny led by Trillanes.

No camp can campaign on a platform of integrity; both slates include candidates widely seen as crooks, charlatans and opportunists.

Though there are only two main parties in the Senate race, the Filipino voter will not confine himself to a single slate. Instead he will pick individual candidates regardless of party affiliation.

In a land of men, not laws, elections are based on personalities, not issues or the vague platforms of ephemeral political parties.

For lack of better alternatives, we perpetuate the system. It is just another reflection of a society that is stubbornly resistant to change. It is a system that feeds on itself.