|
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Maxey: Toppling a dynasty
By Ram Maxey
Bar None
SHE moves about on crutches, this polio-stricken 40-year-old certified public accountant and former radio broadcaster. Still single, Ma. Gracia Cielo Padaca has done what had been deemed an impossibility. Running for governor in the province of Isabela in the just-concluded elections, Padaca is leading by a wide margin over incumbent Faustino Dy Jr., the leading light in the politically-entrenched Dy family whose late patriarch, Faustino Dy Sr., first ran and won as town councilor in 1961, the year the Dy dynasty began.
Since then, the Dys have lorded it over in Isabela politics, with Faustino Dy Jr. even now being the national chair of the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) founded by billionaire industrialist Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco. While the canvassing of election returns is still going on, everything points to a Padaca victory, although Dy says it still is premature to concede the victory to Padaca.
This surprising turn of events in Isabela could serve as an inspiration to others elsewhere in the country where political dynasties rule. A simple, physically-handicapped women has dared to challenge the powerful Dy family and is winning on all tabulations, be it the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) count or the slower but official Commission on Elections (Comelec) tabulation.
In many parts of the country, other families rule the political and economic life of their constituents as fathers or mothers hand down power to their children and other relatives in various elective positions - for better or for worse. Sometimes better, other times worse.
To a certain extent, in our part of the country we have seen vestiges of this Philippine phenomenon, although not as extensive as in Luzon and the Visayas. We have had the Almendras family whose influence has waned. Then there are the families Floirendo, Almario, Palma Gil, Dayanghirang, Rabat, Del Rosario, Garcia, Llanos, Bautista...to a lesser extent our very own Lopezes, Porrases, Villafuertes, Monteverdes, Dolors, Retas, Libradoses, you name them.
Political dynasties are not bad per se, although they can also really get out of hand and spell trouble for everybody. That's because there will always be bad eggs in some families who will in time show their true color. As there are benevolent dictators, so will there also be malevolent rulers. Generalissimo Francisco Franco who ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War was an example of the first category. The dictator Saddam Hussein of Iraq needs no introduction as an example of the other kind.
But what the certain victory of Ma. Gracia Cielo Padaca over the politically-entrenched Faustino Dy Jr. means is that, sooner or later, people get tired of seeing the same faces winning electoral battles with such monotonous regularity that there comes a time when the electorate opts for a change.
Perhaps this country needs more of the same.
(May 20, 2004 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
