News Analysis by Claire Delfin

P-Noy told: Walk the talk against corruption. Photo courtesy of www.news.xinhuanet.com

With his campaign slogan “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap (When no one is corrupt, no one is poor),” Aquino vowed to lift Filipinos out of poverty by leading a graft-free government.

Millions of people are now poised waiting for the 15th President to deliver what he pledged during his campaign.

Just as with columnists in the mainstream media, bloggers are already poised over their keyboards ready to monitor and rate his performance: “He owes it to me and to the millions of voters out there the earnest fulfilment of his promises,” wrote Dine Racoma - one of countless citizens now using the Internet to follow the fortunes of the new administration.

Time is key

Aquino has six years in office, but time is of the essence according to the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPeg), a University of the Philippines-based public policy center working to promote people empowerment in governance.

“The economy is in bad shape, joblessness is at its worst since the past 50 years, corruption has become endemic with billions of pesos lost every year,” the Center found in its Issue Analysis No. 05. “There has been no effective governance, with the system of accountability and justice system rendered toothless and the dynasties-dominated Congress less equal than – and virtually a rubber stamp of – the president.”

Aquino says he is well aware that the clock is ticking and promised to deliver on his campaign slogans during his inaugural speech. A key part of his plan is finding the right people to lead the various government agencies. “Secretary de Lima,” he famously said of the newly appointed Department of Justice head, “you have your marching orders. Begin the process of providing true and complete justice for all.”

Similarly he has pledged a step change in those agencies tasked to collect revenues for the government – the bureaus of Internal Revenue and Customs – two agencies which have suffered serious corruption problems in the minds of many Filipinos.

Newly-appointed Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares has vowed to hit the revenue target set by President Aquino in the midst of a huge budget deficit.

She was quoted by the media as warning tax evaders that it would not be “business as usual” and vowed that every centavo of tax collected would go to the government and not to anyone’s pocket at the BIR.

In an attempt to put a closure on the practices of the past, the new chief executive announced the creation of the Truth Commission with former chief justice Hilario Davide, Jr. at the helm and with a brief to look into alleged anomalous transactions during his predecessor’s nine-year stint in Malacanang Palace.

Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and several top officials have been accused of corruption and misuse of public funds– claims which are adamantly denied.

Oligarchs

Yet some analysts believe Aquino’s campaign slogan “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” is not entirely accurate and that poverty in the Philippines springs not so much from corruption as from class rule and exploitation.

National Artist for Literature Francisco Sionil Jose summed up the thinking of many people in his open letter to Aquino published by The Philippine Star: “The most formidable obstacle to our progress [is] — the Oligarchy to which you and your family belong,” he wrote. “To succeed, you have to betray your class.”

Aquino comes from the powerful political clans of the Aquinos and Cojuangcos, whose roots date back to the 19th century. The Aquino-Cojuangco clans have so far produced two presidents, several senators, congressmen and local officials. Two of them were his own parents — Benigno Aquino, Jr., who was a senator, and Corazon Cojuangco Aquino who ascended to the presidency via a popular people revolt that ousted the Marcos regime.

It is also worthwhile to note that the forces behind Aquino’s campaign are actually factions of the elite class—the Liberal Party (historically a party of the landlord class), influential political dynasties, media owners, and the corporate elite based in Makati.

CenPeg claims that some of his supporters belong to the 20 richest Filipinos whose net worth of PhP 900 billion (USD 20 billion) is equivalent to the combined income of the poorest 11 million families.

“With a president whose hands will be tied to compromise deals and powerful pressure groups, it would be a long shot whether Aquino will lock horns with the systemic problem of corruption,” says CenPeg.

Political dynasties

Except for the automation used in the elections, there was little new in the last elections.

The system was heavily marred by vote buying and fraud. And name recognition and branding still seemingly counted for a whole lot more than economic plans or ideologies.

Families and patronage rather than parties or platforms still seem to matter the most.

Political clans kept their dominance with 130 seats or 60 per cent of the regular membership in the House of Representatives taken by members of political families. The new Senate will see 16 out of its 24 members coming from political dynasties.

The Marcoses are back in full force: Ferdinand, Jr. is a new senator, mother Imelda, now 80, is also back in Congress, and sister Imee is the new Ilocos Norte governor.

And the outgoing president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is of course back as a congresswoman from Pampanga. So too is her son Dato Arroyo as Camarines Sur representative and brother-in-law Iggy Arroyo as re-elected congressman from Negros Occidental. Mikey Arroyo meantime is trying to claim back his congressional seat through the partylist Ang Galing Pinoy.

So what’s with these political dynasties?

CenPeg says it is this politics of political dynasties and oligarchic parties in the Philippines that “has always been against change as it is beholden to elite interests as well as foreign powers.”

It maintains that political dynasties are bound to the presidency by the system of patronage that the latter dispenses in terms of pork barrel distribution, appointments, preferential treatment in local government revenues and development projects, as well as other perks and privileges. These are among the major machineries that promote corruption.

Political alliances are then formed by a mere politics of convenience. “This quid pro quo politics makes the president strong and provides resiliency and recovery to political clans.”

CenPeg adds that even as rivals, political dynasties maintain a history of reconciliation so long as these are for their own interests.

It points to Aquino himself who while being a member of Congress, aligned with Macapagal-Arroyo on the Hacienda Luisita massacre issue and voted against the opening of the “Garci tapes” linking the incumbent president to electoral fraud.

Economic base

To sustain political dynasties, material or economic base is important.

In the past, landlords and mining and logging concessionaires amassed more wealth by bankrolling the grab of political power.

In recent decades, new politicians are sent to government by the wealth provided by trade and commerce, banking, telecommunications and media, food and beverage chains, real estate, corporate law, and other new industries.

“The accumulation of material wealth has always been nuanced by a system of land-grabbing, exploitation and oppression, as well as the misuse of political authority and corruption thus making income inequalities more severe and economic crisis more pervasive,” CenPeg analysis states.

It adds: “Aquino III is both a product and representative of the ruling class of political dynasties and is basically, therefore, aligned with his class interest… Realpolitik dictates he not only needs the support of powerful endorsers but must dance through the music of traditional politics of trade offs and compromises if he aims to complete his six-year term.”

Walk the talk

Prof. Bobby Tuazon, CenPeg director for policy studies urges Aquino to “walk his talk.” If he is to lead by example, Tuazon says, then Aquino “should match what he says with an immediate action by distributing the family-owned Hacienda Luisita back to its rightful owners - tenant farmers and farm workers.”

Tuazon says the sugar plantation was turned over to the Cojuangcos as a political trade-off way back in the late 1950s by President Carlos Garcia on condition that after a period the hacienda should undergo land reform and be distributed to its tillers.

That was not done and after decades of hard struggle by the farmers highlighted by the massacre of striking farmers in 2004, the plantation remains under the hands of the Cojuangco-Aquino family, he adds.

Tuazon is also not impressed with Aquino’s move to recycle old faces – former Arroyo officials who will now occupy key positions.

“Top in the agenda of curbing of corruption is the appointment of all high officials in his cabinet and the rest of the government bureaucracy with an impeccable record of public service that is untainted with corruption. But that is hard to do,” he says.

CenPeg is also less excited about Aquino’s Truth Commission.

For one, its independence, being headed by a former Arroyo appointee, is under question. Davide served as a permanent representative of the Philippine mission to the United Nations and had sworn Arroyo to the presidency in 2001 upon the ouster of then President Joseph Estrada. But it was President Corazon Aquino who appointed Davide to the Supreme Court.

Second, like in the past commissions, the new Davide-led body will investigate but can only recommend the prosecution of perpetrators. So, what happens after that is an entirely different story.

“Aquino III needs all the political will and support he can muster just to overhaul the Arroyo-appointed Ombudsman and other legal bodies so that the judicial process can move forward,” CenPeg says in its Issue Analysis No. 07.

Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez who reportedly has close ties with Macapagal-Arroyo has already said that she will stick to her position and complete her fixed seven-year term, which will end on December 2012.

All previous presidents after Marcos had promised to fight corruption, reform the country’s governance system, initiate genuine land reform, provide decent wages, and uphold human rights, among other basic reforms.

But they all failed the people - precisely because all of them have been linked to these maladies one way or the other. Even Aquino’s mother Corazon pledged to address all such problems in 1986.

The presidency is a powerful institution and its vast powers can be used in accordance with law to deal with corruption. But CenPeg says, “This requires not just a political will but also constructive confrontation with the occupant's own allies and powerful political dynasties that encourage – actually benefit from - corruption.”

The question really is, will he do it?

It would indeed be interesting to see how the new president will be able to transcend his class background and political orientation. Otherwise, like pie crusts, his promises may so easily be broken. Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project

(The author is a senior correspondent of the GMA Network, Inc. )