PINOY POLITICS 101: Second of Five Modular Lessons
History of Perpetuation and Proliferation in the Philippines
John Andrew S. Bautista, OP
The existence of political dynasties was
neither patterned in the modern democracy era nor was it a product of the
present-day electoral system. Surprisingly, the practice and existence of
Political Dynasties in the Philippines has said to be already in place for the
past six centuries. There are three notable periods in history that pertain to
the evolution of political dynasties. In his book The Making of a Filipino, Renato
Constantino pointed out that the
first period dates as far back as the pre-colonial period; the second commenced
during the Spanish regime; and the third in 1898 when US-American colonization
began.[1]
Historically, the occurrence of political
dynasties was believed to be first recorded in the pre-Magellanic period.
Constantino pointed out that “communities at this time were already accustomed
to an early form of government and politics.”[2] The pre-colonial society
had the datu, raja, and maharlika as rulers and stewards of
tribal communities and in Barangays.[3] According to Constantino,
their strong familial bonds espoused the development of the leadership and social
prestige of this ruling class. These posts and positions serve as one of the
early picture and illustrations of the existence of an elite class that is
usually passed over and handed down within a particular clan.[4] The datu, raja, and maharlika
class served as archetypal models for the formation of political dynasties
in the Philippines.
During the Spanish colonial
period, the term principalia was
introduced. The principalia embodied
the new kind of local elite. To Constantino, the principalia “was composed of the wealthy landowners, many of whom
were descendants of the early datus
and maharlikas.”[5]
This time, the former datu “has
been entrusted with fiscal and administrative duties and became adjuncts of
Spanish power.”[6]
From mere administrators of socially-owned land during the pre-Magellanic
period, the principalia eventually
became formal owners of these lands. The principalia,
along with the mestizos, illustrados, mestizo-sangley, creole, and Chinese
mestizos constituted the local oligarchs of the country.[7]
The third period was highlighted by “the
introduction of education and suffrage by the United States of America
that catapulted the elites in the first local elections in 1903 and the first
national elections in 1907,”[8] Constantino explained. The
elites capitalized on education to acquire new knowledge and information. He
argued that through education, both the local and national elites obtained a
new form of mechanism to gain and embrace power, thus making it a ticket to
election participation and a prerogative of wealth.
In
history, the first elections only catered to the propertied and selected class,
which comprised less than one percent of the population. William Howard Taft
directed this first-ever election limiting the number of participation only to
the local and national elites.[9] In this period, these
‘educated elites’ set a political ideology that only those who are supremely
educated should occupy and assume political power and responsibility.
[1] Renato Contantino, The Making of a Filipino: A Story of
Philippine Colonial Politics (Quezon City, 1982)
[2] Ibid., 67.
[3] Before
the arrival of the Spanish colonizers in the Philippines in the 16th century,
the Barangays were well-organized independent villages - and in some cases,
cosmopolitan sovereign principalities, which functioned much like a city-state.
The Barangay was the dominant organizational pattern among indigenous
communities in the Philippine archipelago. The name barangay originated from balangay, a Malay word meaning "sailboat" The barangay was
the typical community in the whole archipelago. It was the basic political and
economic unit independent of similar others. Each embraced a few hundreds of
people and a small territory. Each was headed by a chieftain called the rajah or datu,
Cf. Sonia M. Zaide, The
Philippines: A Unique Nation (All-Nations Publishing, 1999), 62.
[4] The social structure in
the Pre- Colonial period comprised a petty nobility, the ruling class which had
started to accumulate land that it owned privately or administered in the name
of the clan or community; an intermediate class of freemen called the maharlikas who had enough land for their
livelihood or who rendered special service to the rulers and who did not have
to work in the fields with those who belong in a lower social class. Cf. Sonia
M. Zaide, The Philippines: A Unique
Nation (All-Nations Publishing, 1999), 73-74.
[5] Contantino, The Making of a Filipino: A Story of
Philippine Colonial Politics, 38.
[6] Ibid., 44.
[8]Ibid.,75.
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