Democratic oligarchy

Chief Justice Reynato Puno is right, our country is still run by oligarchs. This observation is not exactly a product of Marxist-Leninist analysis as what Press Secretary Cerge Remonde thinks, but rather of a well-pondered approach to reality and history and their meaningless repetition twice in every six years.

It takes no rocket science to find out how material resources influence the fate of the elections. A political candidate might refute that his campaign expenditures are paid for by his own pocket. I agree with him, for his campaign funds are generated by friends and cronies who can yield and be yielded upon with influence. But isn't the presence of influential friends make the elections a bout between personalities of huge followings, followings acquired not in expense of platforms but from social circles? And since one would not be accepted in such circles if not for the reputation of one's wealth, cannot it be assumed that only a few are given this privilege of having powerful cronies, that is, that they must have wealth or influence which is seen by the materialist as in itself a potential to power? And since in the statistical frame of the Filipino population the wealthy class makes up no more than 20%, then what we have in our politics is a contest between parties whose wealth and influence make them afford expensive campaigning.

And since we always pretend to be a democratic country, our electoral system recognizes no requirement save that one be a citizen of the Philippines. The ideal of democracy, too, is demonstrated through the voting empowerment of sectors such as the youth, OFWs, gays and lesbians, etc. (though this is often a strategic advantage to the candidate who seeks to obtain their mass support.) Anyway, this is democratization supported also by oligarchs, and by this the Filipino has invented a brand new ideology, the first and only one that is not theoretical, but rather, empirical.