On the way to church in a barrio where I grew up, we pass by a huge balite tree and reverently announce our presence and seek permission to pass through from the resident Kapre.

The belief in “anting-anting” a charm, jewelry or special object worn around the neck said to protect the wearer from evil and sorcery has become popular as ascapular. Originally, the scapular is an object worn by devout Roman Catholics to honor a particular saint emphasizing a pious way of life. I was given mine by the Women’s Catholic Association as a blessed object that will “protect me from the evil spirits” lurking in the night – especially from the “aswang and manananggals”and the fearsome “manti-anak” who could castrate me while I sleep.

This dualism pervades as well in other facets of our beliefs.

Take Democracy for instance. Introduced by the Americans after 300 years of Spanish Colonial influence, it was meant to instill in our political life a different concept of governance and thus widen the participation of a greater majority of our people towards the path of political maturity

. But what took root were the practices of our earlier culture perverted by the colonialists and emerged as political patronage. Inevitably our political system revolves around the practice of political patronage. And as what most political analysts and scientists have said, it explains why the Philippines has a weak democratic system.

We heard it from PNoy. “Patronage politics must end”. He said this in a recent speech delivered during the swearing in ceremonies of members of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) – a group comprised of incumbent governors, mayors and councilors.

“There is a need to put an end to patronage politics since personal favor-based leadership is the reason why corrupt politicians are being elected to office.” He said.

I couldn’t agree more with PNoy on this!

The President is referring to our local political culture, where politicians are seen as “approachable and compassionate”; and must show sympathy or goodwill via monetary contributions or donations.These in turn are translated by the beneficiaries as manifestations of “good governance and good political leadership”.This is of course a totally erroneous concept of governance.

Marcos elevated patronage politics during his earlier administration and practiced this to perfection during the martial years where “crony capitalism” came into our political lexicon. These “Patrons & Padrinos” were allowed to dip their dirty fingers into the public coffers and dispensed them to the chosen electors – thus a new sub-species of the oligarchy was born and another word appeared in the glossary “Kleptocracy”.

Subsequent practitioners of this sordid art of political patronage, Presidents ERAP and Gloria paled in comparison to the masters – the “conjugal dictatorship” of the Marcoses – but the two former presidents did a good job as acolytes, honing the practices further.

At the outset, it can be argued that the culture of Philippine politics only adapted to how it was operated beforehand. Also, a common mindset of Filipinos that says “Where there is money, there is power” was set in place. ]

That is why today, political patronage has become more pervasive and has instigated corruption. Our electoral processes for instance are the primary overarching environment and primary triggers – and paradoxically, these are the basic instruments for democratization. Thisis our American colonial legacy.

Politicians, whether “wanna-bes”or incumbents spend millions of pesos to gain the support of their fellow constituents. As a result a major consideration of the elected public servant is to recoup their investments through all sorts of “rent-seeking activities”, leakages in public funds and outright corruption – to the detriment of society’s development and public good.

With the Constitutional mandated term limits of elective officials, this perverted model of “public service as a private business” becomes a strong impetus toward the perpetuation of this power base - thus emerged the powerful political dynasties.

The myriad of ills blossoms and as a result one of the important instruments of democracy has a stunted growth - political parties. In truly democratic societies, they are meant to aggregate the various and sometimes differing aspirations of its people and mediate between the electorate and the government;translating the same into good policies of governance.

Instead the political dynasties become substitutes and power and privilege accrue to a few. The politics of personality sets in; and political patronage then is ingrained in the dynasty’s practices of local governance insuring its survival.

One has to understand that the country’s political system has been all about control, power, manipulation and perversion of the democratic processes. All these are the elements of patronage politics. There is no panacea against these ills but perhaps the path to its correction could be laid down today.

We need to pause, learn and understand the true meaning of democracy and how it works, how it benefits our society; and contrast these with how our current political practices are an anathema.

The Philippine Centrist Democrats have been in the field for the past years spreading the concepts, values and culture of how we can all fight and counter this malaise.

We are prepared for an engagement with you.