WHEN the late Corazon C. Aquino took over the Philippine presidency that afternoon on February 25, 1986, while the EDSA Revolution was in its final hours, as a stark contrast to Ferdinand E. Marcos who had fled that evening, her governance was placed under a microscope. There were several reasons for this.
One, Aquino was inexperienced in governance. She needed to prove that the mandate conferred upon her was justified. Where Marcos’s was seriously infected with crony capitalism and wholesale corruption protected by his autocratic martial law powers, hers was not.
She needed to prove that democracy works. She was expected to govern without an iron-fist and armed only with democratic non-Keynesian institutions that she needed to restore along with corporations responsible enough to operate under a free-market competitive environment sans fear or favor.
Two, Aquino was drawn from the elite and landed gentry. Since the EDSA Revolution was participated in by all social classes, it was important for her to show that her government would be a government for all.
Three, as Aquino prioritized restoring to their original owners either sequestered or outrightly stolen business interests — businesses such as the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), ABS-CBN, then the leading radio and television network, various print media, and financial institutions — it was important that these cater to the public welfare. The same public who risked their lives to restore democracy.
While Aquino achieved credible success in all three branches of government with fresh faces in Congress, and restored competence in the Executive Branch, albeit mild independence in the judiciary, her biggest challenges were in the economy.
Not only did Aquino inherit a plundered, bankrupt and severely indebted economy in 1986, worsened by reckless borrowing and corruption in Marcos’s final years as president, but probably as a result of a toxic chemistry of her own distrust towards those who enriched themselves under Marcos, plus her inexperience, she was quickly seen favoring a few dominant players in the economy. Critics and pundits referred to her economic governance as “Kamag-anak Inc.” (Relatives Incorporated).
It was a generalization. But in some brazen instances, it was an accurate description, especially for those who walked the tightrope and straddled between the Marcos autocracy and the Aquino democracy.
Fast forward to 2009. As the presidency of Gloria Arroyo was ending, following the passing of Aquino barely weeks before the commemoration of her husband’s assassination, her son Benigno C. Aquino III was catapulted to the presidency despite other more formidable, experienced and well-financed candidates.
Under both Aquino presidencies, the stark contrast from their immediate predecessors ignited political passions that overwhelmed reason. Fortunately, Grecian goddesses, Athena and Eunomia must have smiled on both mother and son.
Under Benigno III the Philippine economy registered fiscal surpluses, its highest investment grade credit ratings ever, historic debt-to- gross domestic product lows, and a GDP growth rate second only to China’s.
Not everything was hunky dory. Critics charged him with being laid-back, lazy and leaning towards a small cabal of “Kaklase, kaibigan at ka-barilan” (KKK or classmates, friends and shooting-mates). Relatively inexperienced, Benigno III relied on the advice of classmates, friends and gun enthusiasts with whom he shared his fondness for guns.
Where his mother had her extended relatives knotted to the umbilicus of power, the son had his triangular KKK. The virtual serpent had grown into a three-headed Ghidorah.
But never mind. Democracy was restored and eventually economic growth followed.
Both mother and son have passed on. Unfortunately, what remains is a hollow silhouette.
It is unfortunate that such important aspects of our existence like democracy which had taken countless lives and decades to restore, and economic growth which had taken even longer than the restoration of democracy can be so fleeting.
In the post-Aquino years it had taken as few as two consecutive presidencies to seriously distort and deny our right to suffrage as a foundation for our republican democracy, reducing it to the sham it now appears to be. Likewise, it simply took two consecutive presidencies to resurrect the infernal demons of crony capitalism and corruption.
Referencing the mythical Japanese monster-verse in our economic sector, the current administration’s powerful oligarchy is akin to Shimu, a fire-breathing radioactive titan even larger than Godzilla and more powerful than Ghidorah.
Unbreakable cartels dominate factors in our consumer price index and basket of goods that the public is powerless against. One controls the energy sector. The other, food and agriculture. A third dominates politician-backed state infrastructure projects. All three drain off the largest and fattest portions of the public coffers.
These effectively capitalize the metaphorical Philippine Plunder Incorporated, an expanded conglomerate from the more modest Kamag-anak Inc. and KKK.
Corazon Aquino’s started with relatives who benefitted from her position. For her son, the beneficiaries included close acquaintances coming out of the woodwork from his school and his choice of hobbies.
But as the bureaucracy changed radically where the qualifications for the highest office allowed for leaders drawn from outside the necessary mold required for public service, the incorporation of power expanded exponentially. This was helped by the aggressive seeding of independent institutions that should have guaranteed a working democracy and checks and balances. Institutions like the three branches of government.
In the Executive Branch, see where the most powerful cabinet positions are either backed, bank-rolled or even sponsored, by a handful of oligarchical benefactors or acquaintances of non-official yet powerful influencers and presidential whisperers.
The autocratic DNA in selecting cabinet appointees is worsened in the traditional processes of appointing judges to the Judicial Branch.
The six-year term of the president coupled with Fate’s often cruel timing had peppered even the highest tribunal with appointees from a common alma mater. Where criminal corruption is a permanent feature of the bureaucracy, a firm grip on the majority of even a collegial institution is a no-brainer.
The institutional virtual pigsty fed and fattened with billions in pork barrel allocations where a mountain of garbage once stood east of the metropolis is probably the most notorious for graft and corruption. The leadership of the House of Representatives, especially in the last three Congresses, has been tethered either by DNA, blood relationships or parallel pecuniary connections with the presidency.
The current volatility across the greater Manila area where an angered population has taken their criticism to the streets after seeing the gordian knots linking legislators to officials from the Executive Branch validates the deep and widespread rot of the legislature.
As was plunder a main cancer during the dictatorship years, in our recent presidencies, it has been resurrected institutionally. And this time, it is on steroids.
Dean de la Paz is a former investment banker and a managing director of a New Jersey-based power company operating in the Philippines. He is the chairman of the board of a renewable energy company and is a retired Business Policy, Finance and Mathematics professor.
