ABSTRACT

The Republic of the Philippines consists of the world’s largest island group and has a population of around 75 million. Since gaining independence from the USA in 1946, the country has been constitutionally a presidential democracy. Filipino democracy, however, is a curious beast being variously described as ‘elitist, oligarchic, illiberal, authoritarian, anarchic, chaotic & wide open & and vibrant’ (Henderson 2000). For many years, despite its geography and various initiatives to decentralise, the centralisation of administrative power has been an important feature of governance (Turner 1999; Brillantes 1997, 1999). Most notably, however, the Philippines’ paradigm of governance is characterised by systems of personalism, patronage, systemic corruption and pork-barrel politics – in which large-scale funds are allocated to elected officials for spending on projects of their choice – and is manipulated by a powerful oligarchy of local and national elites. Dominated by an ‘agricultural aristocracy’ and an ‘emergent industrial class’ (Dubsky 1993: 24), these kleptocratic elites have successfully created a system of ‘cacique democracy’ (Anderson 1988). Under this system, the ‘caciques’, who are powerful leaders of local political and economic dynasties, jostle for the spoils of political office, economic dominance and, at the president’s level, for the essential support of the military and the Catholic Church.