SHOCKING PICTURES: Devotees in the Philippines are nailed to the cross

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Cacique Democracy

Why Nations Fail

Imelda Marcos kisses the coffin of her late husband, 

the dictator Ferdinand-randomsalt.wordpress.com

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson

Let’s set aside culture and return to the colonial history of the Philippines and how it influenced institutions. One of the most influential analyses of this is due to the political scientist Benedict Anderson, whose 1988 article in the New Left Review “Cacique Democracy in the Philippines: Origins and Dreams” laid out a theory of the political economy of the Philippines. Like Fallows’s article (which we discussed here) , Anderson’s was written in the wake of the People’s Power Movement that had ousted Ferdinand Marcos. Everyone was trying to come up with forecasts for where the Philippines was going. Fallows’s answer was: nowhere, because, he argued, the real problem was not Marcos but Filipino culture. Anderson’s answer was also nowhere, but from a very different perspective.

As we noted in our first post on the Philippines, though the country was a Spanish colony and even shared the same specific institutions as Spain’s American colonies, there were important differences. There was little settlement by Spaniards, and as a result the Church essentially ran the colony. They invested little in education, and at the time of US occupation probably no more than 5% of the population spoke Spanish. In the 19^th century after the collapse of the Spanish empire in the Americas, commercial restrictions were gradually lifted on the Philippines and a non-Spanish economic elite, often of Chinese descent, emerged. They gradually acquired education and spearheaded the nationalist movement that ousted the Spanish shortly before the US invasion. Yet the behavior of the US administration was to turn this elite into a real oligarchy.

First, they expropriated about 400,000 acres of land that had been church estates and auctioned it off. It was the elite that had money to buy this land.

Second, right from the beginning they staffed the administration with locals, but these were positions that the educated elite was best placed to fill. In addition, meritocratic criteria were not applied for recruitment into this administration, so the oligarchy could easily dominate them, as Anderson puts it:

Here is the origin of the ‘political dynasties’ —among them the Aquinos and Cojuangcos—which make Filipino politics so spectacularly different from those of any other country in Southeast Asia.

Third, they introduced elections first at the local level for provincial governors in 1902, then for the lower house of the legislature in 1907, then a bicameral assembly in 1916, and finally for the executive in 1935. Though this sequencing of elections, with local ones coming first appears like a good idea in the abstract, in practice it allowed the newly entrenched oligarchy to dominate local politics and then to build on the skills they honed at this level to capture the successive democratic institutions that were opened up (albeit with a very restrictive property franchise).

As a result of all of this, from the start the Philippines was a captured democracy, even if the elites who were doing the capturing were different from the elites of Latin America — they owed their power more to the way the US had structured their colony.

Nevertheless, elite dominance had the same effects in the Philippines as in Latin America — most notably extractive economic institutions and poor economic growth. After independence in 1945 they maintained this dominance. Indeed, the first serious attempt to break it was by, none other than, Ferdinand Marcos who after his election in 1965 introduced marshal law and suspended the constitution in 1972. He then ruled in this fashion until ousted in 1986 by Corazon Aquino and People’s Power.

Marcos went down in history as a run-of-the-mill kleptocratic dictator, but actually there was more to it than that. If you read his 1974 book Notes on the New Society of the Philippines you’ll see that his diagnosis of the root cause of the problems of the Philippines is precisely that it is dominated by an oligarchy. So, Marcos justified his policies by the attempt to break the oligarchy’s control over the economy and the polity!

And why was Anderson so pessimistic in 1988 about the future of the Philippines?

Precisely because, though he did not consider the Marcos dictatorship a success, it was followed after 1986 by the return of the oligarchy. So Anderson argues:

the truth is that the President, born Corazon Cojuangco, is a member of one of the wealthiest and most powerful dynasties within the Filipino oligarchy… Her marriage to Benigno Aquino, Jr., at various periods Governor of Tarlac and Senator, linked her to another key dynasty of Central Luzon.

So People’s Power overthrew the dictator Marcos in order to reinstate the oligarchy….

Hundreds killed in Philippines typhoon

GlobalToronto

A state of national calamity has been declared in the Philippines after hundreds have been killed by Typhoon Bopha. Christina Stevens has more on the damage and recovery efforts. 

Cuba to help combat rodent infestation in Philippines

Business World Online/

"A state owned company from Cuba that developed the bio-control program will visit the country on Nov. 13-20 to follow up on the pilot program." Mr. Delima told reporters.

The Pilot Bio-Rcon will use biological rodenticides made of microorganisms in pellet form. The pellets will be scattered in fields.

The biological rodenticides are harmless towards other animal species and humans, environment friendly, highly biodegradable, has a long time span effectiveness and highly effective in the control of rats.

"Rat damages harm 5% of potential production, nationwide, not just in rice but also other crops, while for provinces, 50% of potential agricultural production is being affected by rodents," Mr. Delima said.

The pilot program will be implemented in the Region VI covering the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo and Negros Occidental and Region VII, covering Negros Oriental.

"Among the pilot areas, we will implement the program first in Iloilo and Negros Occidental," said Mr. Delima.

Earlier this year, 18 towns in Iloilo province were identified to have been suffering from rat infestation, according to the Provincial Agriculturist office (PAO).

Based on PAO data, at least 3,416.8 hectares of rice fields in Iloilo have been affected.

Aside from the Bio-Rcon program, the DA is also looking at an exchange of experts with its Cuban counterpart. "The Philippines will send coconut and rice experts while the Cuban Agriculture Ministry will send livestock, dairy and sugarcane experts to the country." -- Gillian Pearl L. Guerrero

Children born to U.S. servicemen

By PBS

Filipino drug mules

Increasing numbers of Filipino women are willing to risk their lives to smuggle drugs. 101 East travels to the Philippines to find out why so many young Filipinos are willing to risk their lives and break local and international laws for the chance to make a living.

Indonesia's Infamous Mud Volcano Could Outlive All of Us

Since it roared to life in May 2006, a mud volcano near Indonesia's coastal city of Sidoarjo has swallowed homes, rice paddies, factories, and roads, killing 15 people, displacing 40,000, and harming the livelihoods of many more. As the ongoing eruption nears its 5th anniversary, observers wonder whether it will ever stop. The answer: Not anytime soon. A new study predicts the volcano will continue spewing significant amounts of mud for another 2 decades. A second study forecasts that it could grind on as long as 87 years.

Full story
Indonesia's Infamous Mud Volcano Could Outlive All of Us

Mideast revolts stir Filipinos’ memories

Uprising in 1986 deposed Marcos, but corruption and poverty persist

 

Associated Press/

Philippine demonstrators display placards during a rally in Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines, on Thursday to protest the country’s celebration of the 1986 “People Power” revolution. They contend little has changed in the 25 years since.

By Jim Gomez

Associated Press

5:47 p.m., Thursday, February 24, 2011

MANILA, Philippines | From the fist-pumping crowds to the anguished dictators, the pro-reform revolts reshaping Arab history resemble the 1986 Philippine uprising that booted a strongman 25 years ago. But the similarity ends with the killing of protesters from Tunisia to Libya.

The four-day “people power” revolt a quarter-century ago that Filipinos commemorate this week saw multitudes of civilians and rosary-clutching nuns and priests mounting a human barricade against tanks and troops to bring down dictator Ferdinand Marcos with little bloodshed as the world watched in awe.

The democratic triumph has been hailed as a harbinger of change in authoritarian regimes in Asia and beyond. Since then, democratic revolutions have ended autocracies and military rule in South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia in relatively peaceful feats that seemed unimaginable before 1986.

The Philippines also became a showcase of post-dictatorship pitfalls that revolt leaders say could provide lessons to Arab nations, which will have to grapple with daunting uncertainties once the euphoria wears off.

Aside from democracy, little has changed in this Southeast Asian nation of 94 million. It remains mired in corruption, appalling poverty, rural backwardness, chronic inequality, long-running Marxist and Muslim insurgencies and chaotic politics. A restive military often tries to undermine civilian rule.

Imelda Marcos, the dictator’s widow once reviled for the extravagance as epitomized by her vast shoe collection and eye-popping diamonds, has made a political comeback after winning a seat in the House of Representatives last year. Her daughter won as governor of the father’s northern provincial stronghold of Ilocos Norte. A son and Marcos‘ namesake won a Senate seat and has not ruled out a future run for the presidency.

“It’s 25 years after, and we’re still almost where we used to be,” former President Fidel Ramos said.

Mr. Ramos‘ crucial defection from Marcos as deputy military chief along with then-Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile in February 1986 sparked the strongman’s rapid downfall, after a two-decade reign condemned for widespread human rights abuses and alleged plunder of the economy.

While most of the uprisings rocking the Arab world appear to be leaderless - fueled by mobs of protesters often mobilized with the help of social-networking sites - Filipinos rallied in 1986 around pro-democracy icon Corazon Aquino, whose husband, an opposition leader, was assassinated three years earlier by soldiers under Marcos.

Aquino had agreed to challenge Marcos in a snap election in which she claimed victory, despite widespread cheating by pro-Marcos forces, and called for civil disobedience. Cardinal Jaime Sin, a hugely influential church leader in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, helped summon the mammoth crowds against Marcos by appeals on church-run radio.

Story Continues →

Colossal volcano eruption sends ash plume 2 miles high in Philippines/ Video

A volcanic eruption in the eastern Philippines has sent clouds of ash almost three kilometres high - and forced thousands of people to flee. Witnesses describe the ground shaking before a tremendous explosion. Smoke and ash blanketed nearby villages, disrupting power and communications. The military is helping to evacuate communities near the mountain. The last major eruption was in 2006.

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Philippine peace negotiations resume

The Philippine government will resume talks with Communist rebels in Norway on Tuesday. The talks were last held six years ago.

The New People's Army, which has been waging a guerrilla war for more than 40 years, declared a temporary truce during the negotiations.