Category: Local Government

All set for Data Journalism PH15!

mcmangahas Leave a comment

IT’S ALL SYSTEMS go for the launch on Monday, July 13, of Data Journalism PH 2015, a project of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) and the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF), with support from the World Bank-Philippines.

The event will be held at the HIVE Hotel and Convention Place in Quezon City with a panel of distinguished speakers — Commissioner Heidi Mendoza of the Commission on Audit, Budget Undersecretary Richard ‘Bon’ Moya, Kai Kasiser and Rogier van den Brink of the World Bank.

Mendoza will discuss the ground-breaking work of the COA, in partnership with civil society organizations, on their Citizen Participatory Audit (CPA) project.

Moya, who coordinates the government’s Open Data Task Force, will focus on the story of Open Data and Open Government initiatives in the Philippines.

Kiser will tackle the topic, “Open Roads: Transparency and Accountability in the Roads Sector.”

After the project launch, 34 journalists and bloggers from 11 media agencies will participate in a three-day training seminar to be conducted by OKF and PCIJ.

Through an open search for teams of content providers and techies with data-story proposals, the following participants were selected:

1. From BlogWatch:

* Noemi Lardizabal-Dado, known as @MomBlogger on social media, believes in making a difference in the lives of her children by advocating social change for social good. She is the editor of Blog Watch Citizen Media and the features editor of thePhilippine Online Chronicles, a platform for alternative viewpoints and a synthesizer of ideas.

* Jane Uymatiao is a citizen advocate and resource speaker on digital citizenship and social media crisis communication. She co-founded Blog Watch, a citizen advocacy group, and actively engages different stakeholders via social media on a wide range of economic, social and political issues.

* Carlos Maningat is a Manila-based labor researcher. He works on data stories that cover labor, official development assistance (ODA) and financialization.

2. From Interaksyon:

* Patricia Aquino is a correspondent at InterAksyon.com. She is on general assignment.

* Edilvan Falcon is a senior web developer at InterAksyon.com. He is working on his master’s degree in Computer Science at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

* Orlando Garcia is the Information Technology editor at InterAksyon.com. He has been a journalist for over 20 years, having started at Jingle Magazine.

3. From The Philippine Star:

* Alexis B. Romero has been covering national security for The Philippine star since 2010. He started his journalism career in 2006 as a reporter for BusinessWorld, where he covered finance, the Office of the President, the energy sector, House of Representatives and defense.

* Helen M. Flores is a reporter of The Philippine STAR covering politics and science issues. Aside from her regular beat, she also writes stories from survey data of the Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia. Flores graduated from Centro Escolar University-Manila with a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication major in journalism. She completed her master’s degree in Communication at the University of Santo Tomas.

* Jan Victor R. Mateo, 24, is the education beat reporter of the Philippine STAR. He is a graduate student of development communication, and has an undergraduate speech communication from the University of the Philippines. He is a participant of the 2010 Study of the US Institutes on New Media Journalism held at the Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

4. From the Calbayog Post:

* Rommel L. Rutor is a multi-platform Journalist based in Samar, works for Print, Radio, TV and Online, he is on his 20th year in the profession this year. A prime mover of local issues in his own right, he desires to provide more in-depth stories to the public, and be a catalyst of change in Samar.

* Jennifer Sumagang – Allegado graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Arts major in Communication Arts from the University of the East, Manila. Has been in the media work for more than 12 years now, correspondent of Calbayogpost.com and a radio broadcaster in the City of Calbayog, Samar.

* Jose Gerwin Babon is a media practitioner and communication instructor at the same time.

5. From inquirer.net of the Philippine Daily Inquirer:

* Frances Mangosing is a multimedia reporter for INQUIRER.net for four years. She mostly covers defense, disasters and weather.
Nestor Corrales is a multimedia reporter for INQUIRER.net. He writes breaking news and covers urban transportation, politics, among others.

* Dan Paurom is the one-quarter of INQUIRER.net’s social media team. He consumes reports based on big data almost daily.

6. From The Financial Times-Manila:

* Hannah Dormido, 25, is a senior production editor for the Financial Times. She specialises on visuals and is currently a QGIS sorceress in training.

7. From BusinessWorld:

* Christine Joyce S. Castañeda is a researcher from BusinessWorld Publishing Corp. since July 2014. She finished her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines – Los Baños in April 2014.

* Kia B. Obang, earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the University of the East in 2013. She has been with BusinessWorld Publishing Corp. since June 2013, starting off as a Research Assistant before being promoted to Researcher in December 2013.

* Leo Jaymar G. Uy graduated from the University of the Philippines School of Economics in 2013 and is a researcher from BusinessWorld Publishing Corp. since January 2014. He has a strong interest in history – particularly with the economic, social and political histories of East Asia, United States and the Philippines.

8. From Forbes Philippines:

* Lala Rimando is a business journalist with expertise in political economy and understands the dynamics of new and traditional media. She headed the business and other news units of investigative media publication Newsbreak, the online news site of Philippine media giant, ABS-CBN, and social media news network Rappler.com before joining Forbes Media’s Philippine edition as managing editor.

* Paul John Caña is a writer for Forbes Philippines and a contributor for various online and print publications. A Journalism graduate of the University of the Philippines Diliman, he is a former newsdesk operations staff of GMA Network Inc. and was also the managing editor of a leading lifestyle magazine.

* Lorenzo Kyle Subido is the data journalist of Forbes Philippines, crunching numbers and scouring data bases online and off for the research needs of the magazine’s visual and text stories. He has a Creative Writing degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman and is keen to hone both his right- and left-brain skills.

9. From Bloomberg TV-Philippines:

* Regina Hing co-anchors the daily morning shows First Up and Starting Gate on Bloomberg TV Philippines. The shows aim to connect the dots for a broad audience–between politics and the economy, between macro and micro, between the movement of billions of dollars in the capital markets to the buying power of OFW remittances. Before joining Bloomberg TV Philippines, Regina was a Senior Producer/Evening Editor on the Business Desk at Channel NewsAsia in Singapore, helping oversee the channel’s coverage of business and financial markets globally. She holds a Masters in Business and Economic Reporting at New York University.

* Katria Alampay is a writer and segment producer for Bloomberg TV Philippines. She graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a B.A. in Journalism and previously worked for almost two years at the Korean Embassy in Manila.

* Alay Magno is a segment producer for Bloomberg TV Philippines’ evening news show In The Loop and weekly talk show on Startups, Igniters. Alay obtained his Masters degree in Finance from the University of the Philippines, where he also studied Computer Engineering before working in the tech industry.

10. From ABS-CBN:

* Marie Mamawal is the currently the Associate Dean of the Journalism Academy, ABS-CBN University. Currently a professor/lecturer at the Communication Department of the College of Liberal Arts, De La Salle University-Taft. Has been an Executive Producer for ABS-CBN Current Affairs’ investigative programs since 1988. Among them “Magandang Gabi Bayan” and “Assignment”.

* Gigi Grande, Multi-platform journalist for ABS-CBN’s Investigative and Special Reports Group, concurrently news presenter for ANC (the ABS-CBN News Channel.) Since 1997, covered a variety of beats including the Defense department, Commission on Elections, the Catholic Church and Department of Foreign Affairs. Produced documentaries for “”The Correspondents”” between 2003-2006. Proficient in English and Filipino, knowledge of Spanish.

* Rowena Paraan is a former Research Director of PCIJ and currently handling Bayan Mo IPatrol Mo, a citizen journalism/crowd sourcing arm of ABS-CBN. A journalist of more than 25 years.

11. From Rappler:

* Michael Joseph Bueza, or Mike, is a researcher/reporter for Rappler. He geeks out on books, maps, and pro wrestling.

* Gwen de la Cruz is a researcher from Rappler’s online disaster platform, Project Agos. She loves to write inspiring stories.

* Gerard Raymond Lim is a researcher for Rappler’s #PHVote. He hopes to teach philosophy someday.

A three-person team from PCIJ that will assist in the seminar completes the list of participants.

The seminar will be followed by months of mentoring for the participants by OKF and PCIJ so they could continue research and development work on their data-story projects. A public presentation of the participants’ completed projects will be held toward the close of 2015. – PCIJ, July 2015

CARP, CARPER: Failing, falling, dead?

mcmangahas Leave a comment

TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS after the Philippine government launched agrarian reform in 1988 as its paramount social justice program, a significant majority of Filipino farmers have yet to own the land that they have been tilling for ages.

Innumerable problems, not least of them land survey issues, resistance from landowners, problematic documents and titles, and concerns of agrarian reform beneficiaries, keep pulling back results to insignificant numbers and impact.

Poverty remains the scourge of more than 1 in every three farmers, who count among the poorest of the poor sectors of the nation.

Fishermen, farmers, and children have consistently posted the highest poverty incidence among the nine basic sectors in the Philippines in 2012 — at 39.2 percent, 38.3 percent, and 35.2 percent, respectively — according to the National Statistical Coordination Board.

The three sectors, including the self-employed and unpaid family workers and women, have higher poverty incidence rates than the general population estimated at 25.2 percent in 2012, NSCB said.

Huge backlog

Indeed, a generation and seven years after its launch, agrarian reform’s backlog remains huge, and seemingly insurmountable.

The Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department of the House of Representatives, citing data from the Department of Agrarian Reform, reported that as of July 1, 2009, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) “has yet to distribute the remaining balance of 1.6 million hectares to 1.2 million farmer beneficiaries.”

“Of the remaining balance, 60.08 percent (965,798 hectares) were private agricultural lands and 4.28 percent (68,863 hectares) are non-private agricultural lands under the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR),” it added.

Meanwhile, as of the same date, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) “has a remaining balance of 572.902 hectares to be distributed to 645,443 farmer beneficiaries.”

In 2009, CARP’s life was extended by CARPER, or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reform. It received a budgetary support of at least P150 billion but also hardly improved land reform’s accomplishment numbers by leaps and bounds.

From July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2014, CARPER “has distributed a total of 1,052,259 hectares of land to 897,648 farmer beneficiaries of which 43.2 percent (454,134 hectares) are public arable and disposable lands and 22.1 percent (232,400 hectares) are privately owned lands.”

Yet still, “most of the distributed privately owned land are classified as voluntary land transfers (VLT), which is around 119,660 hectares, and only 48,184 ha. (4.6 percent) were distributed through compulsory acquisition.”

DENR on the other hand “distributed a total of 469,268 hectares arable and disposable lands to 549,169 farmer beneficiaries.”

A big balance of land for acquisition and distribution to farmers remains after 27 years of land reform, a period spanning the rule of the first to the second Aquino administrations.

As of June 30, 2014, the report said DAR has yet to distribute a total of 726, 421 hectares.

Compulsory vs. voluntary

By land type, lands under compulsory acquisition pose the biggest challenge at around 479,488 hectares or 66 percent of the total land left for distribution, even as the balance of voluntary offer to sell lands remain at only 112,681 hectares (15.5 percent).

The regions with the biggest land balance for distribution are those with significant hacendado and political clan presence — the Western Visayas, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, ARMM, the Bicol Region, SOCCKSARGEN (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos City, Eastern Visayas, Cagayan Valley.

CARP under the implementation of the DENR has yet to distribute a total of 33,171 hectares of public arable and disposable lands.


As of June 30, 2014, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes, in testimony before Congress, said the following issues hound “problematic landholdings” under agrarian reform:

* ARB (agrarian reform beneficiaries0 Issues, 14,094 cases
* Basic Document Infirmities, 31,294
* Coverage Issues, 24,824
* For Reconstitution of Title, 29,001
* For Reissuance of Lost ODC of Title, 4,045
* Landowner Issues, 34,294
* LBP (LandBank of the Philippines) Issues, 2,456
* Peace and Order Issues, 6,717
* Survey Issues, 43,978

Government helpless?

Social justice through agrarian reform remains an elusive promise to a great number of Filipino farmers.

But most tragic of all, even the combined resources of national government agencies have sometimes proved useless, in the face of fierce landlord resistance to land reform.

A curious case in point is that of the coconut farmers of Hacienda Matias in Bondoc Peninsula, Quezon province.

The property is a coconut plantation in San Francisco, Quezon province, which spans 1,715.983 hectares. In December 2014, the government awarded Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) to a total of 283 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) of Hacienda Matias.

An “inter-agency task force” composed of the DAR, Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Justice (DOJ), and the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), with support from the Philippine National Police (PNP), and Philippine Army, was formed to install the ARBs on May 15, 2015.

The pooled might and resources of government’s civilian agencies and uniformed agencies failed to achieve that. The owners of Hacienda Matias resisted, backed by armed men they have deployed across the hacienda’s perimeters, rendering the farmers’ CLOAs paper without weight or worth.

“Aanhin namin ang CLOA kung wala naman kami doon sa lupa,” Maribel Ausa Luzara, president of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bondoc Peninsula (KMBP), told the PCIJ. She is one of the 283 CLOA holders of Hacienda Matias.

Luzara said all the points of agreement that the farmers have forged with the “task force” of national agencies prior to ARBs’ installation inside Hacienda Matias did not come to fruition.

The task force’s failure has prompted the farmers to pitch camp in front of the national headquarters of DAR in Quezon City a fortnight ago.

Should the next attempt of the interagency task force to install the Hacienda Matias farmers fail again, Luzara said the KMBP members plan to just return their CLOAs to DAR en massé.

Inertia, areglo

In the view of National Anti-Poverty Commission Secretary Jose Eliseo M. Rocamora, “inertia” seems to hound a number of government’s programs, including its asset reform initiatives like agrarian reform.

NAPC, Rocamora said, has been assisting the KMBP farmers in their quest for land and in “pressuring” the DAR to make good on its promise of successful installation.

“Pinaka-importanteng obstacle ng mga programa ng gobyerno, asset reform man ‘yan o iba ay inertia. Either binayaran ang bureaucrat o takot makasuhan,” Rocamora told reporters in a press briefing on June 2, 2015.
[Inertia is the most significant obstacle to government's programs. It's either the bureaucrat has been bribed or threatened with cases.]

In jest, he added, the problem is public officials have to deal with “criminal law, civil law, at areglo (compromises).”

The Philippine Network of Food Security Programmes (PNFSP) and the Kilusan ng Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (KMP) have repeatedly pointed out a simple farmer to land ratio 27 years since CARP was enacted. Until now, seven of ten farmers in the Philippines still do not own the land they are tilling.

CARP’s backlog triggered the passage of Republic Act No. 9700, Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reform (CARPER), which extended the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) program for another five years ending June 30, 2014.

A study commissioned by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in 2011 titled: “Commercial pressures on land in Asia: An overview,” CARP had included in its implementation schemes “such as the voluntary land transfer (VLT) provided a convenient solution for landed families to keep their lands.”

“The new law (CARPER) eliminated the VLT scheme and made compulsory acquisition the primary mode of acquisition. Despite the extension and adaptation of CARP, much opposition is expected from landed elites who wield power over government policies,” the IFAD study, funded in cooperation with the International Land Coalition (ILC), read in part.

Agrarian Reform Commission

Amid the still significant backlog of agrarian reform beyond the life of both CARP and CARPER, Rep. Leni Gerona-Robredo of Camarines Sur and Rep. Kaka J. Bag-ao of Dinagat Islands have introduced House Bill No. 4375, which seeks to create an Agrarian Reform Commission.

“It is, therefore, necessary for this purpose to create an independent Commission with legal powers of subpoena and of contempt, and with the cooperation of other relevant government agencies, to review the actual accomplishments of CARP/CARPER and to investigate circumventions and violations of the law and cause these lands to be compulsory acquired and distributed to qualified beneficiaries,” the proposed bill’s explanatory note read in part.

Groups of farmers aligned with Sulong CARPER coalition have expressed support for the bill, saying the “landed elite have maneuvered to make circumventions (in CARP/CARPER) possible.”

Sulong CARPER is a national multi-sectoral alliance led by peasants and religious groups. The KMBP is a member-organization of the alliance.

Luzara of the Hacienda Matias farmers’ group said Congress must ensure that government will crackdown on such circumventions by passing HB 4375. – With reporting and research by Cong B. Corrales, PCIJ, June 2015

Making sense of big data: Data Journalism PH 2015

mcmangahas Leave a comment

THE Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) in partnership with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) is pleased to announce the launch of Data Journalism Ph 2015. Supported by the World Bank, the program will train journalists and citizen media in producing high-quality, data-driven stories.

In recent years, government and multilateral agencies in the Philippines have published large amounts of data such as the government’s recently launched Open Data platform.

These were accompanied by other platforms that track the implementation and expenditure of flagship programs such as Bottom-Up-Budgeting via OpenBUB.gov.ph, and Infrastructure via OpenRoads.ph and reconstruction platforms including the Foreign Aid Transparency Hub (faith.gov.ph).

The training aims to encourage more journalists to use these and other online resources to produce compelling investigative stories.

Data Journalism PH 2015 will train journalists on the tools and techniques required to gain and communicate insight from public data, including web scraping, database analysis and interactive visualization.

The program will support journalists in using data to back their stories, which will be published by their media organization over a period of five months.

Participating teams will benefit from the following:

* A 3-day data journalism training workshop by the Open Knowledge Foundation and PCIJ in July 2915 in Manila.

* A series of online tutorials on a variety of topics from digital security to online mapping

* Technical support in developing interactive visual content to accompany their published stories

Apply now!

Teams of up to three members (journalists, content producers and/or techies) working with the same print, TV, or online media agencies are invited to submit an application.

Participants will be selected on the basis of the data story projects they will pitch for innovative data investigation focused on key datasets including infrastructure, reconstruction, participatory budgeting, procurement and customs.

Through Data Journalism PH 2015 and its trainers, these projects will be developed into data stories to be published by the participants’ media organizations.

Deadline for applications is June 22, 2015 (midnight Manila time)

Join the launch

Open Knowledge and PCIJ will host a half-day public event for those interested in the program at the end of June in Quezon City. If you would like to receive full details about the event, please sign up in http://bit.ly/publiceventdjph15

About PCIJ and the Open Knowledge Foundation

An independent, non-profit media agency specializing in investigative reporting and multimedia productions, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism is a pioneer in data journalism in Asia. In May 2013, PCIJ launched Money Politics Online, a citizen’s resource and research tool on governance, campaign finance, public funds, and politics that now features over 56 gigabytes of datasets.

Open Knowledge Foundation is an international NGO focused on using
advocacy, technology, and training to unlock information and enable people to work with it in order to create and share knowledge. Its School of Data program has trained thousands of journalists across the world on how to analyze and communicate public data through in-person trainings and online tutorials.

Contact information

To read more about the program and follow the project as it progresses, visit the Data Journalism PH 2015 website or contact:

Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism< /strong>
Email: pcij@pcij.org training@pcij.org
Website: www.pcij.org www.pcij.org/blog http://moneypolitics.pcij.org
Tel. Nos. (632) 434-6193, 4330521, and 436-4711

Open Knowledge Foundation
Email: sam.leon@okfn.org
Website: http://okfn.org

Making sense of big data: Data Journalism PH 2015

mcmangahas Leave a comment

THE Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) in partnership with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) is pleased to announce the launch of Data Journalism Ph 2015. Supported by the World Bank, the program will train journalists and citizen media in producing high-quality, data-driven stories.

In recent years, government and multilateral agencies in the Philippines have published large amounts of data such as the government’s recently launched Open Data platform.

These were accompanied by other platforms that track the implementation and expenditure of flagship programs such as Bottom-Up-Budgeting via OpenBUB.gov.ph, and Infrastructure via OpenRoads.ph and reconstruction platforms including the Foreign Aid Transparency Hub (faith.gov.ph).

The training aims to encourage more journalists to use these and other online resources to produce compelling investigative stories.

Data Journalism PH 2015 will train journalists on the tools and techniques required to gain and communicate insight from public data, including web scraping, database analysis and interactive visualization.

The program will support journalists in using data to back their stories, which will be published by their media organization over a period of five months.

Participating teams will benefit from the following:

* A 3-day data journalism training workshop by the Open Knowledge Foundation and PCIJ in July 2915 in Manila.

* A series of online tutorials on a variety of topics from digital security to online mapping

* Technical support in developing interactive visual content to accompany their published stories

Apply now!

Teams of up to three members (journalists, content producers and/or techies) working with the same print, TV, or online media agencies are invited to submit an application.

Participants will be selected on the basis of the data story projects they will pitch for innovative data investigation focused on key datasets including infrastructure, reconstruction, participatory budgeting, procurement and customs.

Through Data Journalism PH 2015 and its trainers, these projects will be developed into data stories to be published by the participants’ media organizations.

Deadline for applications is June 22, 2015 (midnight Manila time)

Join the launch

Open Knowledge and PCIJ will host a half-day public event for those interested in the program at the end of June in Quezon City. If you would like to receive full details about the event, please sign up in http://bit.ly/publiceventdjph15

About PCIJ and the Open Knowledge Foundation

An independent, non-profit media agency specializing in investigative reporting and multimedia productions, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism is a pioneer in data journalism in Asia. In May 2013, PCIJ launched Money Politics Online, a citizen’s resource and research tool on governance, campaign finance, public funds, and politics that now features over 56 gigabytes of datasets.

Open Knowledge Foundation is an international NGO focused on using
advocacy, technology, and training to unlock information and enable people to work with it in order to create and share knowledge. Its School of Data program has trained thousands of journalists across the world on how to analyze and communicate public data through in-person trainings and online tutorials.

Contact information

To read more about the program and follow the project as it progresses, visit the Data Journalism PH 2015 website or contact:

Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism< /strong>
Email: pcij@pcij.org training@pcij.org
Website: www.pcij.org www.pcij.org/blog http://moneypolitics.pcij.org
Tel. Nos. (632) 434-6193, 4330521, and 436-4711

Open Knowledge Foundation
Email: sam.leon@okfn.org
Website: http://okfn.org

How to build a dynasty

Julius Mariveles Leave a comment

IN 2007, political scientist Julio Tehankee wrote that the two houses of the Philippine Congress have practically been home for at least 160 families over the last century.

“These families have had two or more members who have served in Congress, and they account for nearly 424 of the 2,407 men and women who have been elected to the national legislature from 1907 to 2004,” Tehankee wrote in the article “And the clans play on.”

More than 20 years after the People Power Revolution that toppled a dictatorship in 1986, the clans persist in the Philippines. In fact, Tehankee observed:

“Political clans have been an enduring feature of Philippine politics. In the upcoming local and congressional contests, that will remain to be so. Majority of these families or clans, in fact, take their roots from local politics. Generally considered as a grouping within the elites of society, the political clan is basically composed of a family and its network of relations that actively pursues elective or appointive political office at the local and/or national level. In many cases, the clan has also managed to maintain power through generations.”

But how are clans built?

Jejomar Binay

IT’S ALL in the family for the Binays. Philippine Vice-President Jejomar Binay and three of his children are in government. Nancy is a senator, Mar-Len Abigail is a representative, and Junjun is a city mayor| HLURB Photo

PCIJ founding executive director Sheila S. Coronel explored this issue in 2007 and came up with a summary of seven factors upon which dynasties are built.

Money, machine, media and/or movies, marriage, murder and mayhem, myth, and mergers are the seven Ms, the required elements for a dynasty to endure.

1. MONEY

The families that endure and survive political upheaval are more likely to be those that have a sustainable economic base to finance their participation in electoral battles. Philippine elections are costly — a congressional campaign in 2004, according to campaign insiders, could have cost up to P30 million in Metro Manila. In rural areas, the price tag is much less: P10 million on average, although campaigns can be run for P3 million or less in smaller districts where the competition is not too intense.

The investment may be worth it, as the rates of return can be high, depending on how well congressional office is exploited. Historically, families have been able to use their positions to expand their landholdings or their business empires, using their preferential access to privileges from the state — loans, franchises, monopolies, tax exemptions, cheap foreign exchange, subsidies, etc. These privileges have made political families wealthy, in turn allowing them to assemble formidable election machines that guarantee victory at the polls. The most successful families are those able to establish business empires not solely dependent on government largesse. They must also be competent enough to run these businesses well, allowing their members to survive electoral defeat and political ignominy.

In Landlords and Capitalists, political scientist Temario Rivera found that 87 families controlled the top 120 manufacturing companies from 1964-1986. Sixteen of these families — about 20 percent of the total — were involved in politics. Most of them were members of the landowning elite that emerged during the 19th century, including the Aranetas, the Cojuangcos, the Jacintos, the Madrigals, and the Yulos. “Through government influence,” writes Rivera, “landed capitalists caused the diversion of state resources to traditional elite economic activities like sugar and coconut milling, limiting further industrial diversification.”

Click on the photo to continue reading the article.

FORMER FIRST LADY IMELDA R. MARCOS. More than 20 years after the EDSA People Power that toppled his husband's rule, the Marcoses are still in power | Photo by Lilen Uy

FORMER FIRST LADY IMELDA R. MARCOS. More than 20 years after the EDSA People Power that toppled his husband’s rule, the Marcoses are still in power | Photo by Lilen Uy