Democratizing Democracy in The Philippines: October 2016
Democratizing Democracy in The Philippines: October 2016
Democratizing Democracy in The Philippines: October 2016
net/publication/309390546
CITATIONS READS
0 9,286
1 author:
Sherlito Sable
University of Southeastern Philippines
14 PUBLICATIONS 0 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
Developing research and extension model for Philippine colleges View project
Tunnel Effect Reverse: Peace, Security, and Development in the Philippine Policy Framework View project
All content following this page was uploaded by Sherlito Sable on 24 October 2016.
This paper examines what the research communities say about the Philippine
democracy based on their findings, the deficiencies underlying its democratic practice,
and what reforms could be introduced to improve its democracy using taxonomic analytic
review. The current attributes of Philippine democracy from the very start until today are:
nominal democracy, democracy on the surface only, institutionally weak to make
democracy work, oligarchic interests pervade in the system, burgeoning of power and
affluence of the political elites making wealth inaccessible to the poor, unaccountable
decision-makers, absence of political equality in the allocation of powers among political
parties, and governance weakness with illusive representation in the very heart of policy
making. It is defective because its democratization did not emanate from the domestic
and sovereign project of the governed that will build arrangements to strengthen diversity
and social harmony and consent due to the fact that it is a blue print copied from the
colonial powers, rootless and ruthless because it did not evolve from the democratic
aspirations of the citizens and culture of complacency & lethargy due its failure to
articulate public voice that will chart out their destiny. To democratize Philippine
democracy, there is a need to bring democratic norms and ideals down to the level of
smaller units, and allow local units to articulate self-rule of their territories as states under
a federalized regime with due regard to the norms of shared responsibility, shared
economy, shared values, and shared leadership in governance.
Introduction
In this paper the author presented first what the research communities say about
the Philippine democracy based on their findings, the deficiencies underlying its
democratic practice, and what reforms could be introduced to improve its democracy.
show the conceptual range of findings and provide a foundation for the development of
conceptual descriptions and models, theories, or working hypotheses.2 Thus this paper
From 2008 to 2010 according to the democracy index report of the economic
intelligence unit of the Economist3 the Philippines ranked number 74 in 2010 and 77 in
1
Sandelowski, Margarete & Julie Barroso. 2007. Handbook for Synthesizing Qualitative Research. 11
West 42nd Street New York, NY 10036: Springer Publishing Company, Inc.p.199.
2
IBID, pp.199-200.
3
The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2010.
https://graphics.eiu.com/PDF/Democracy_Index_2010_web.pdf. Retrieved Sept. 15, 2016.
3
2008 with a 6.124 score in 2008 and 2010 respectively. The score signifies the Philippines
has a flawed democracy5. Specifically, the Philippines have a low score in the democracy
democracy index report in 2008 to 2010 showed that the Philippines’ democracy was
came to the fore because of a number of structural problems that continues until today.”
In this study, mentioned was made by Anthony that there are a good number of constrains
that hampered the Philippines to reach its journey to fully democratize itself. These
instability, poor infrastructure, and widening gap between rich and poor.8 Deep political
cleavages refer to the deeply rooted divide in political views among the politicians9. One
4
The index values used by the economist intelligence unit are used to place countries within one of four
types of regimes 1) Full democracies--scores of 8-10, 2) Flawed democracies--score of 6 to 7.9, 3) Hybrid
regimes--scores of 4 to 5.9, 4) Authoritarian regimes--scores below 4. Threshold points for regime types
depend on overall scores that are rounded to one decimal point.
5
Flawed Democracy is defined by the Economist Intelligence unit as countries having free and fair
elections and even if there are problems (such as infringements on media freedom), basic civil liberties
respected. However, there are significant weaknesses in other aspects of democracy, including problems in
governance, an underdeveloped political culture and low levels of political participation.
6
Democracy indicators were free and fair elections, respect of basic civil liberties, functioning of
government, developed political culture, political participation.
7
Anthony, Mely Caballero.2004. Where on the road to democracy is the Philippines? Nanyang
Technological University (Singapore). Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies. A Discussion Paper
(UNISCI)
8
IBID, p. 2.
9
Concise Oxford Dictionary.
4
of which is the fact that those who won in the elections were oligarchs who were running
for public office due to their oligarchic interests10. From this vantage the poor were
merely attendants to the achievement of the elite’s desired goals. This has become the
national policies, political instability, poor infrastructure, and widening gap between
democracy and its measurement concludes that by no means can the Philippines be
brought to the fore the result that Philippine democracy is just a democracy of formality.
He argued that,
10
Carlton, Eric.1996. The Few and the Many: A Typology of Elites.(Brookfield, VT: Scolar Press 1996,
pp.4–21. Elite theory has shown that some elites are indeed defined by their relationship to the means of
production. Others, however, have become elites as a result of their access to other power resources, such
as official positions in the government. See also in See C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (New York, NY:
Oxford University Press, 1956), pp. 259– 62. Elites emerge whenever coercive power, mobilization power,
official positions, and/or political rights are “… distributed in highly exclusive or concentrated ways.”
Winters, “Oligarchy and Democracy in Indonesia,” p. 13.
11
Pandora's Box is an artifact in Greek mythology, taken from the myth of Pandora's creation in Hesiod's
Works and Days. The "box" was actually a large jar given to Pandora("all-gifted, all-giving"), which
contained all the evils of the world(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/).
12
Miranda, Felipe, et.al.2011. Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy. U.P. Complex,
Commonwealth Avenue Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippipnes: CHRP and United Nations
Development Program.p.182.
13
IBID, p.23.
5
of the state in the furtherance of their ends. The probable outcome of this democratic
façade is the burgeoning of power and affluence of the political elites making wealth
“…the last fifteen years of studies on the state of the Philippines’ progress
toward democratization qualitative, quantitative, or a combination of both
collectively paint a portrait of a nation struggling to prove itself worthy
of its claims to be a democratic state”.
In the same vein, Reyes mentioned in his argument that the Philippines is still
struggling to become democratic. There were discernable evidences that the Philippine
makers and political equality of those who exercise that control.”17 Reyes implied the
persistent issue of holding decision makers accountable to their decisions while the
14
. Hellinger, Daniel, Judd, Dennis R..1994.The Democratic Façade. Reno, NV, U.S.A: Wadsworth Pub
Co. The concept that it is a fallacy that the common man has any say in the big decisions made in the
country
15
Foucault, Michel. 1990. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (Translated from the French by
Robert Hurley. 1978). London: Penguin Books. See also: It is defined by Foucault “…as the strategies in
which they take effect, whose general design or institutional crystallization is embodied in the state'
apparatus, in the formulation of the law, in the various social hegemonies.”Pp92-93.
16
Reyes, Miguel Paolo P. Rating Philippine Democratization: A Review of Democratization Metrics.
ASIAN DEMOCRACY REVIEW Vol. 1 (2012): pp.182-198 Third World Studies Center, College of
Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines-Diliman. ISSN 2244-5633.
17
IBID. p.193.
6
second emphasized more of political equality in the exercise of such control. Political
Intelligence Unit Report (2010), Miranda (2011), and Reyes (2012), Dressel (2011)
raised the argument of extensive oligarchic politics dominating the state, governance
in the Philippines.
Synthesis
interests pervade in the system of democracy, burgeoning of power and affluence of the
18
Political Equality from the point of view of the author refers to holding all political parties equal
regardless of party affiliations.
19
Dressel, Björn.2011. The Philippines: how much real democracy?Australian National University (ANU),
Canberra, Australia. International Political Science Review. ips.sagepub.com DOI:
10.1177/0192512111417912. Academia.edu.
7
governance weakness, and illusive representation in the very heart of policy making.
In this section the author would like to present how deficient democracy is in the
20
Foucault, Michel. 1990. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (Translated from the French by
Robert Hurley. 1978). London: Penguin Books. See also: It is defined by Foucault “…as the strategies in
which they take effect, whose general design or institutional crystallization is embodied in the state'
apparatus, in the formulation of the law, in the various social hegemonies.”Pp92-93.
21
Foucault, Michel. 1990. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (Translated from the French by
Robert Hurley. 1978). London: Penguin Books. See also: It is defined by Foucault “…as the strategies in
which they take effect, whose general design or institutional crystallization is embodied in the state'
apparatus, in the formulation of the law, in the various social hegemonies.”Pp92-93.
22
IBID. p.193.
23
Foucault, Michel. 1990. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (Translated from the French by
Robert Hurley. 1978). London: Penguin Books. See also: It is defined by Foucault “…as the strategies in
which they take effect, whose general design or institutional crystallization is embodied in the state'
apparatus, in the formulation of the law, in the various social hegemonies.”Pp92-93.
8
economists. The author randomly selected literatures, for the purpose of taxonomic
analysis, that are relevant to the question on the deficiencies of democracy and relate it to
on the question whether the Philippines in the actual practice is consistent with the
diversity, opposition, and which aims at building social consensus.” This brings to
the fore the concept democratization as an evolving project of the sovereign state
in building arrangements that will strengthen political diversity and social consent.
emerging norms that will strengthen social consent. The conceptual synthesis of the
24
Luckha m , Robin, Anne Marie Goetz, et.al. 1998. Democratic Institutions and Politics in the Context of
Inequality, Poverty, and Conflict. Institute of Development Studies. WP104. University of Sussex,
England.
9
mechanisms that will facilitate diversity and social consensus. It appeared on the
analysis of Miranda25, Reyes26, and Dressel27 that Philippine democracy has not
peculiar to oligarchic democracy embedded in the power structure of the state. The
formal institutions of Philippine democracy are peopled by oligarchs since it has been a
republic in 1898.28 Hence, it could be surmised that until today (1998 to early 2016)
democracy in the Philippines is just a façade and representations were just at the level of
rhetoric.
that the kind of democracy the Philippines has adopted came from its sponsor, the
Americans. The Political institutional norms of the Americans were implanted to the
25
Miranda, 20011.
26
Reyes, 2012.
27
Dressel, 2011.
28
Kimura, Matasaka.2003. The Emergence of the Middle Classes & Political Change in the Philippines.
Journal of Developing Economies(June,2003).pp.264-84.
29
Teehankee, Julio.2002. Electoral Politics in the Philippines. Journal of Electoral Politics in Southeast.
And East Asia. Singapore: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
10
DNA of the Philippine politics. This is where the politicos of the Philippine Republic
inhibited the practice of Pork barrel in the national budget. Paredes (1989)30 as quoted by
development predicated on the interest, influence and power of the colonial authorities.”
when it is consistent with the Philippine cultural heritage and Filipino Political
aspirations. Ruthless democracy is characteristic of the fact that only the oligarchs benefit
from it.
30
Paredes, R.R., ed. 1989. Philippine Colonial Democracy. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University
Press.
31
Rootless democracy refers to a democracy that is not reflective of the Filipino aspirations, while ruthless
democracy simply manifests the fact that only the oligarchs benefit from it.
11
of the citizens. Democracy being highly oligarchic and highly procedural in praxis
unwittingly developed among the governed the notion that those institutional problems of
government is systemic and part of what democracy is all about and it is a way of life
from which nothing else can be done but just accept it as “it is just the way it is…” The
Filipino democratic aspirations metamorphosed during the Spanish regime from which
the country was under the colony of Spain in three hundred thirty three years from what
history called Indio identity of the Filipinos during the Spanish regime. Then the
Americans came implanting liberal democracy exactly similar with their democratic
Independence was granted by the Americans in 1946 but not the fundamentals of liberal
democracy. The Philippine constitution of 1935 was basically a Xeroxed copy of the
reflect the sovereign will of the Filipinos but the injected DNA of liberalism remained
intact. But what are the democratic aspirations of the Filipinos? Until today the
Philippines is not treated as co-equal sovereign state among those once upon a time the
country’s colonizers, the modern day hegemony. The aspiration for a co-equal treatment
is one democratic norm that defines what democracy is. This aspiration remained elusive
among the marginalized sector of the Philippine society because the apparatus of the
oligarchs is still a disturbing phenomenon. Only the rich have the access to occupy the
helm of power from national to local elective positions. Only the few rich sector
benefited democracy. These have severe impact to the ordinary citizens. There is massive
32
Complacency and Lethargy a state of being satisfied with utmost passivity with how things are and not
wanting to change them.
12
insensitivity towards the evil of the nexus between greed and affluence in the political
sphere. What was learned from the three people power revolutions remained muddled
and uncertain. Given the highly pluralized culture of the Filipinos without mention on
how they value things in life, a highly centralized liberal democracy anchored on the
mythical character of representative democracy, they found much reason to just accept
the orthodoxy of politics although negating from their true aspiration of crafting their
own destiny.
Synthesis
(Luckham , Robin, Anne Marie Goetz, et.al. 1998) reviewed in this inquiry showed that
will of the state in order to build arrangements that will strengthen diversity, social
harmony and consent. Foremost was the stress made on the need for nationalistic
from the study of Teehankee(2002) the review outcome showed two major themes:
sponsored by the foreign powers. Thus, a systemic implantation of their ideological frame
was intentionally embossed in the very core of the Philippine Constitution. This implied
that the very constitution of the Philippines may have not been reflective of the true
Philippine cultural and democratic aspirations. In the same vein, the oligarchic attributes
of the Philippine democracy make it ruthless from which the people specially the
marginalized were systematically deprived of a place in the political sphere of the state.
Greed and affluence have become a norm in the political competition. Lastly, the meta
analytic review result on Carlos, et.al. (2010) authors of the book “Democratic Deficits in
the Philippines: What is to be done?” of the Center for Political and Democratic Reform,
Inc. & Konrad Adenauer Foundation revealed a culture of complacency & Lethargy
among people due to failed democratic aspirations: co-equal treatment in the global
governance, equal access to political competition, and being at the mercy of the oligarchs
Schumacher in his book, “The Small is Beautiful”33 argued the need to change
paradigm in governance from bigger is better to small is beautiful. Such a paradigm could
be applicable in crafting the political arrangement for the citizens to optimally experience
democracy within the purview of their aspirations grounded on their culture and value
“We must therefore construct a political system so perfect that human wickedness
disappears and everybody behaves well, no matter how much wickedness there
may be in him or her. In fact, it is widely held that everybody is born good; if one
turns into a criminal or an exploiter, this is the fault of 'the system'…there is
33
Schumacher, Ernst.Friedrich. 1973. Small is Beautiful: A study of Economics as if People Mattered.
London: Vintage Books.
14
needs to be changed from a big system to a small system likened to a production system
of the entire economic system. Schumacher here argued that like an economic system
political system attains perfection when the smaller ones were perfectly articulated. There
is no such thing as perfect supra system or bigger system. It has to start from the small
units. Hence, from the stand point of democratization, it has to start from the smaller
units to approximate democratization of the entire system. The clamor of the citizens to
be vested of co-equal rights would be heard and they could maximally conduct check and
balance mechanisms, thus, holding their elected officials directly accountable to them. If
every small units of the state conduct the same with at least precision then the entire
summation of small unit of the state being democratized shall transform the state at the
national scale into a democratic state. Therefore, in democratizing the country it must
start from the small units. The small units of government could be a region or province
depending on how the law will allocate the extent of their democratic rights and
privileges. This is democracy from the bottom rooted from the culture and values of the
grassroots.
governance of the state. The first one is a direction of full concentration of power of the
34
IBID. pp.2-20.
15
state at the center with the intention to maximize control to minimize conflict in policy
issues affecting directly public life. The goal is to strengthen state power at the center
using procedures and institutions of government. This is what Kaldor, M. and Vashee, B.
It is a democracy that strengthens the filtering mechanisms before the state acts and
decides. The filterers are the Cratos/bureaus37 . The filterers’ job is to declare citizenship
action as something within the purview of the rules and procedures. The intention of the
but it brings about power concentration at the center legitimized by rules and procedures.
The danger of rent seeking behavior39 among those power occupants will unfold.
Political economists defined bribes as rent seeking. Tyranny of the central power here is
35
Kaldor, M. and Vashee, B. (eds), 1997, New Wars: Restructuring the Global Military Sector,
London:Pinter and Vejvoda, I., 1997, 'Democratization in Central and East European Countries',
International Affairs, Vol 73 No 1: 59-82 , 1999, New and Old Wars, Cambridge: Polity Press
36
IBID.
37
Power of the Office as mandated by law.
38
Officiality refers to having been declared official or passing within what the procedures require.
39
Murphy, K., Shleifer, A. and Vishny, R.W. 1993 ‘Why is Rent-Seeking so Costly to Growth?’, American
Economic Review, vol. 83, no. 2, pp. 409–14.
16
(1997) pointed out that, “this second democratic revolution not only increased citizen
cover economic and social as well as political entitlements.” This was criticized by
advocates of procedural democracy as anarchic. Populist democracy aims for full de-
concentration and dispersal of power at the center to the citizens. Norms like,
empowerment, participation, devolution and autonomy are the central themes of populist
democracy. The implementation of RA 7160 may have a tinge of hope for the advocates
of populist democracy. But the law is actually an oxymoron41. While the law provides
autonomy to the LGU’S it strengthens the supervisory and control powers of the DILG.
In other words, while certain functions were devolved to the LGU’S budgetary
requirements of those devolved functions are not provided. It only adds burdens to the
LGU’S. Control and Supervisory powers are the core themes of procedural democracy. In
the political sphere LGU’S are even used as machineries of the oligarchic politics of
ensuring majority votes during elections. The clamors, then of the massive spectrum of
the marginalized sectors for the realization of their democratic aspirations: co-equal
beings, right to craft their future destiny as communities are undermined. With this,
procedural democracy advocates view this as politically costly on their quest for power.
Hence, the proposed model of bringing democracy at the local level is federalism.
40
Huber, E., Rueschemeyer, D. and Stephens, J.D., 1997, 'The Paradoxes of Contemporary Democracy:
Formal, Participatory and Social Dimensions, Comparative Politics, Vol 29 No 3: 232-242
41
Oxymoron is defined as a term that contradicts itself.
17
out that,
the constituent units, and shared rule at the federal level. Self-rule of the constituent units
is territorially defined for the governments of the constituent units, while shared rule is
“…federation represents a distinct species in which neither the federal nor the
constituent governments (state) are constitutionally subordinate to the other; each
has sovereign powers derived from the constitution rather than from another level
of government.”
The most import feature of federalism is self-rule. Self-rule of the states ensures
voice at the local level (constituent units). The long awaited democratic aspirations can
be articulated in the small units: provinces, regions). Self-rule is not just a political
variable. It is also associated with economic concepts, for example the phenomenon of
42
Móntes, Jr., Raphael N. 2006. Understanding Federalism. International Conference on Federalism and
Multiculturalism held last 3 to 4 October 2005.Available at http://localgov.up.edu.ph/feder-alism-and-
multiculturalism-montes-understanding-federalism.html, citing Gamper.
43
Watts, R.L.1999. Comparing Federal Systems. 2 nd ed. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University
Press.
18
enclave economy44 in the local level. They have potential economic resource base that
should be decided only by them that could bring about economic prosperity to the people.
In the context of Mindanao, Bangsamoro issues can be possibly addressed when they are
given the chance for a self-rule strategy under a federalized system of government. While
shared-rule at the federal level implies the need for the norm of co-responsibility among
the states to run the federal government. The doctrine of shared responsibility, shared
economy, shared values, and shared leadership come to the fore. Oligarchic and
grassroots politics are optimally converging in the deliberation of issues and problems of
the country.
44
An enclave economy is defined as an economic system in which an export based industry dominated by
international or non-local capital extracts resources or products from another country.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclave economy (retrieved Oct. 2, 2016).
19
Synthesis
The model argues that too much adherence to the practice procedural democracy
of rules of institutions, while on the other hand, relaxing the rules of institutions to
maximize citizen’s voice could also be prone to anarchy. There are also limits to populist
movements. There must be a point where both can have an optimal convergence. This
democracy from the very start until today are: nominal democracy, democracy on the
surface only, institutionally weak to make democracy work, oligarchic interests pervade
in the system, burgeoning of power and affluence of the political elites making wealth
the allocation of powers among political parties, and governance weakness with illusive
It is defective because its democratization did not emanate from the domestic and
sovereign project that builds arrangements to strengthen diversity and social harmony and
consent, rootless and ruthless democracy because it did not evolve from the democratic
aspirations of the citizens and culture of complacency & lethargy due its failure to
and ideals down to the level of smaller units, and allow local units to articulate self-rule
of their territories as states under a federalized regime with due regard to the norms of
governance.
21
References
Carlton, Eric.1996. The Few and the Many: A Typology of Elites.(Brookfield, VT:
Scolar Press 1996, pp.4–21
Kaldor, M. and Vashee, B. (eds), 1997, New Wars: Restructuring the Global
Military Sector, London:Pinter and Vejvoda, I., 1997, 'Democratization in
Central and East European Countries', International Affairs, Vol 73 No 1: 59-82 ,
1999, New and Old Wars, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Luckham , Robin, Anne Marie Goetz, et.al. 1998. Democratic Institutions and
Politics in the Context of Inequality, Poverty, and Conflict. Institute of
Development Studies. WP104. University of Sussex, England.
2005.Available at http://localgov.up.edu.ph/feder-alism-and-multiculturalism-
montes-understanding-federalism.html, citing Gamper.
Murphy, K., Shleifer, A. and Vishny, R.W. 1993 ‘Why is Rent-Seeking so Costly
to Growth?’, American Economic Review, vol. 83, no. 2, pp. 409–14.
Paredes, R.R., ed. 1989. Philippine Colonial Democracy. Quezon City: Ateneo de
Manila University Press.
Watts, R.L.1999. Comparing Federal Systems. 2nd ed. Montreal & Kingston:
McGill-Queen’s University Press.