Pampanga and Isabela’s changing politics

WHILE majority of the governors who have been elected so far belong to the ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) and its allied parties, two opposition candidates clinched victories by espousing a different kind of politics.

“In our stint here in Pampanga it was very evident na ang mga tao po ang talagang naghahanap, umaasa, at gustong magtrabaho upang magkaroon pa ng pagbabago sa pulitika (that people are really looking, hoping for, and willing to work for political change,” said governor-elect Father Ed Panlilio via teleconference in a forum on political reform held last week.

Panlilio beat incumbent Mark Lapid and board member Lilia Pineda. Lapid has been accused of taking bribes from quarrying operations in Pampanga, while Pineda is the wife of an alleged jueteng boss.

Panlilio said that he would introduce good governance through leadership by example, by becoming a model. He also stressed that leaders should have the competence to lead, so that people would work with them, and with the government.

These may seem like the familiar platitudes spouted by many politicians. But Panlilio, at least, has some concrete plans. He wants to activate Pampanga’s local government council and extend the duties of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) beyond election season.

If Panlilio’s plan pushes through, the PPCRV would become the the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Politics.

There are many similarities between Panlilio and reelectionist Isabela governor Grace Padaca. Both of them had no previous background or experience in politics, and, they say, no desire to run for office.

“Sila ay nag-respond — tumugon sila, sa pressure from below, sa hanay ng mamamayan na sukang-sukang na sa sistema, na hindi na matanggap, sa halalang ito, o sa nakaraan pang halalan, noong 2004, ay magpapatuloy yung nakaranasan na (They responded to pressure from people who were sick and tired of the system, and could not accept, during 2004 and this year’s elections, that it would continue),” said Bayan Muna representative Satur Ocampo, who also attended the forum.

Ocampo believes that Padaca and Panlilio’s best capital is their constituents’ trust, because they entered politics with good reputations. Thus, it is only natural that people will expect them to bring about change.

But, Ocampo adds, the politics of change is based mainly on how one will harness the inherent power of ordinary people.

“Kung hindi sila organisado ay walang katuturan (If they’re not organized, nothing will happen). Pero oras na inorganisa na sila (But once they’re organized), it becomes a moral force, it becomes a political force.

Once again, Padaca has overcome yet another election protest filed by a rival Dy. The Commission on Elections’s (Comelec) Second Division denied former Isabela governor Benjamin Dy’s petition to stop the canvassing of allegedly tampered and defective election returns in five towns and suspend the proclamation of the winning gubernatorial and vice-gubernatorial candidates.

Read the Comelec resolution.

The Comelec has yet to resolve another petition filed by Dy, which questioned the validity of election returns in Ilagan, Jones, and Cabagan, three of the five towns which were mentioned in Dy’s petition.

Padaca said yesterday that she had heard the Comelec had denied Dy’s second petition, but that she has yet to receive a copy of the resolution.

Without the results of the 182 precincts that were petitioned for exclusion, Padaca had a lead of 5,275 votes over Dy, according to a statement released by the governor on May 21. If the results were tallied, then Padaca’s margin would broaden to 17,305 votes.

Read Padaca’s statement.

Padaca said that her campaign against jueteng and illegal logging may have alienated some Isabelinos who had voted for her in 2004.

“Syempre yung novelty ng isang Grace Padaca na tumatakbo sa halalan, nabawasan na, and then nakita na nila akong gobernador, meron nang mga issues, na kinailangan kong harapin (Of course the novelty of a Grace Padaca who ran for office has faded, and when I became governor, there were issues that I needed to deal with).

This is why, she adds, her margin over rival Dy in this year’s election was half of her margin over her opponent in 2004, Dy’s brother, Faustino Jr.

Aside from the delay in canvassing, elections in Isabela were marred by the presence of soldiers inside polling precincts and rampant vote-buying, according to the Citizens’ Alliance for Reforms in the Elections 2007 (CARE ’07).

Both Padaca and Panlilio stress the need to lessen the dependence of many of their constituents on patronage politics. Instead of asking mayors and other local politicians for help in paying medical bills and tuition expenses, people should go directly to hospitals and schools, says Padaca.

In turn, hospitals and schools should be adequately funded by the government in order to provide for people’s needs.

Panlilio says that his candidacy served as a lesson to the priests in Pampanga, including himself. “Why did it take us to have a priest for a candidate (to provide an alternative)? So this is a challenge for us, along with pastors from other churches to prepare lay leaders…for good government.”