Like Malaysia, poor are manipulated, elites prosper in Philippine polls

 

As I read the news about Ferdinand Marcos Jr being sworn in as the 17th president of the Philippines on June 30, I couldn’t help but think about the Marcos family’s reversal of fortune.

The son of Ferdinand Marcos, a dictator who fled the country following a people’s uprising in 1986, has been elected to the top position in the country. Marcos Jr’s mother Imelda – about whose extravagance, as the president’s wife, hundreds of articles have been written – sat proudly as he was sworn in.

My mind also went back to the 2004 Philippine presidential election and my earlier visit to that county in 2000.

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In late December 2000, I participated and presented a paper on journalism at an international media conference in Manila, and stayed on until the early part of January to cover the protests which led to the departure of President Joseph Estrada. I managed to interview vice-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo days before she took over from Estrada.

There were daily protests for and against Estrada, but mostly against. What I noticed was that although they were loud, the protesters were rather disciplined and while armed police were present everywhere, they generally left the protesters alone.

The protests were centred along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, or EDSA. This very road was also the focus of the non-violent revolution that ended the 20-year dictatorship of the elder Marcos in 1986. The People Power Revolution that caused him to flee also became known as the EDSA Revolution.

And the sustained protests that ended Estrada’s rule became known as EDSA 2.

In May 2004, I was in the Philippines to cover the presidential election which pitted Arroyo against movie star Ferdinand Poe Jr. Elections for the post of vice-president, senators and provincial positions were also going on simultaneously.

While there, I was able to notice many similarities between elections in Malaysia and the Philippines, and also some stark differences.

First though, let me state that the Filipinos are a friendly lot and they have music in their bones. Because many of them speak English, it is not difficult to find your way or seek assistance in the urban areas.

Despite sometimes having authoritarian presidents, elections have been held regularly, as befitting a democracy, since the ouster of the elder Marcos. The media is unafraid and many of their journalists and columnists remain unbowed despite immense pressure from the government, as happened during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte.

Journalist Maria Ressa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, is a shining example of this. She and her news site Rappler continue to fight the government’s move to silence free speech.

Also, unlike in Malaysia, many academics speak their mind and criticise the government if they think any programme or policy is detrimental to the nation’s growth or democracy.

Looking at similarities between the Malaysian and Philippine elections, the first thing that comes to mind is the promise of glory days by candidates and parties, and the spread of disinformation to discredit their opponents.

I realised very soon while there that Filipino politicians were not too different from their Malaysian counterparts. They were good manipulators of the emotions of ordinary people; they knew how to get them worked up; and they knew the tricks of keeping the poor deluded into believing that they were the saviours.

They also knew how to enrich themselves and their families and cronies – not necessarily by illegal means – while giving their constituents the impression that they were working hard for the people.

Just like in Malaysia, there are always complaints about the elections commission, vote buying and abuse of power and government instruments by incumbents. I heard these complaints in 2004 and it appears things have not changed in 2022.

The June 28 report of the International Observer Mission concluded that the 2022 elections failed to meet the international standard of a free, honest and fair election. It said the elections were marred by “a higher level of failure of the electronic voting system than ever before, along with a higher level of blatant vote-buying” and incidents of deadly violence.

Everyone I talked to in the Philippines agreed that politicians were corrupt and that corruption was rife in the country. Numerous Philippine presidents have been accused of or charged with plunder and corruption. Estrada, in fact, was jailed for it.

Malaysians too feel that politicians have been plundering the nation and using various government instruments or the help of top leaders to cover them up or escape punishment. Former prime minister Najib Razak is the first top leader to be convicted on various charges of corruption and abuse of power.

The biggest difference, at least to me in 2004, was the election violence and firm grip that elite families had on Philippine politics. Many of these politically powerful clans were not averse to using underhand tactics, even violence, to achieve power.

This is because, as in Malaysia, the spoils of elected office are tantalisingly attractive.

In the Philippines, everywhere you turn, there are clans and dynasties. And these clans dominate politics at all levels of society. About 80% of provincial governors belong to clans, and you cannot be president without the support of several of these powerful clans and dynasties.

I was shocked at the number of people being killed, especially in provinces far away from Manila, in the runup to the elections. Some of the clans even had private armies. Thank God, I thought then, that this did not happen in Malaysia.

In the first few days that I was there, I learned that 86 people – including 27 candidates – had been killed in election violence, which, I was told by local journalists, was a regular feature of political power play in the Philippines.

In one of my 2004 reports from Manila published in the New Straits Times, I noted that in the 1995 elections, a total of 171 people had been killed; in 1998, a total of 267 died and in the 2001 elections 269 people were killed. These were the official figures but people I spoke to told me the actual numbers were higher.

Probably the worst single incident, known as the Maguindanao Massacre, happened in 2009 when 58 people – including the wife, sisters and supporters of a candidate who were enroute to file his candidacy papers – were killed. A number of journalists in the group were also shot dead.

I reported about armed men snatching away ballot boxes or burning them. For instance, in the town of San Merino, armed men killed a policeman and wounded an official in front of the town hall where votes were being counted. They then proceeded to burn down the room where vote tallying was in progress. Also, the main election officers of San Merino and another town called Jones went missing.

This is something that does not happen in Malaysia, although suspicions have been raised in the past about ballot boxes being tampered with or army and police votes being transferred to certain polling stations to ensure top incumbent leaders win.

There was no change in the situation in the Philippines this year. Al Jazeera reported that between April 14 and May 13 at least 33 people had been killed and 19 others wounded in polls-related incidents ahead of village, or barangay, elections. I’m sure the overall total of election-related deaths would be higher.

Let me give three examples. According to reports, three men died in a firefight between supporters of Malabang town mayoral candidates Dagar Balindong and Al-Rashid Macapodi in Lanao del Sur on May 9. Six people lining up to vote at a polling centre – a school – in Barangay Buayan, Maguindanao, were injured when a bomb went off. Nine voters were injured when five grenades exploded outside a polling station in Datu Unsay municipality in Maguindanao province on May 8.

We in Malaysia must be grateful that gun ownership is banned and that there is monitoring of the guns owned by the few people who have licences for them. Let’s thank the police for that.

We should also be happy that we don’t have killings during elections. Malaysians should pride themselves on being peaceful, and in resolving disputes in more civilised ways. We should recognise too that our politicians don’t go to the extent of murdering or injuring rivals or their supporters. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.