Friday, June 01, 2007 Editorials: Money politics and poverty
THERE is this report about a campaign pin the size of an ordinary cookie and bearing an inscription in the vernacular of a slogan that meant in English “They cannot buy me.”
The pin was placed atop the coffin of the slain barangay captain of San Juan Bautista in Guagua, Pampanga.
Bautista was one of the loyal leaders of Pampanga governor-elect, Fr. Ed Panlilio.
Two motorcycle-riding men shot the barangay leader last Monday in front of his house.
Monetary contest
What the slain barangay head had profoundly stood for in wearing the campaign pin, and probably dying for it, too, is the basic weakness of this republic’s supposed democracy.
Politics in Pampanga, President Arroyo’s home province, can easily be considered as microcosm of this nation’s politics. It is essentially populist, nurtured with the tradition of getting material rewards for a vote.
The practice, which has become a basic component of Philippine politics, has sadly made our elections a monetary contest among candidates, making the whole exercise expensive.
Thus, our elections have become a battle of who has the most cash.
Senatorial polls
Some, if not all, senatorial candidates of the just concluded midterm elections, for example, could not deny that they spent untold millions of pesos for their respective campaigns.
One candidate, who lost even if he spent more than P150 million on TV placements, can attest to the fact that money politics may eventually become the undoing of our democracy.
All these years, our leaders have been vowing to rid the government of graft and corruption, of fighting the nagging poverty hounding more than half of the Filipinos, of developing the nation’s economy as a way of improving the quality of life of the average family.
And yet, none of these aspirations, these promises, have been fulfilled.
Instead, poverty has continued to be bedfellow of more than half of our people.
President’s vow
Not very long ago, President Arroyo issued a vow to combat poverty in the republic.
But rather than coming up with solid programs of livelihood assistance to the many, she revealed instead the government’s inability to grant what the poor most need to move forward—material help.
And so, poverty has remained a constant companion of our many poor.
Indeed, for as long as change for the better does not happen, our politics will continue to be “captive” of money.
