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From Traditional Faction to Machine: Changing Pattern of Political Leadership and Organization in the Rural Philippines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

K. G. Machado
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Abstract

In some areas of the Philippines, three important and interrelated changes in the traditional pattern of local leadership recruitment and faction organization had been taking place for several decades. Notables from old leading families were being replaced in positions of leadership by upwardly mobile “new men” from more humble backgrounds. Professional politicians were emerging in the local arena. Local factions were being transformed from traditional family-centered organizations into specialized machines. These changes were most likely to occur in areas of comparatively high social mobilization and low concentration of landownership. Changes are explained primarily by the impact of increasingly intense national political competition in rural communities and growing mass participation. These changes represent a decline in the autonomy of local elites, as they were accompanied by the latters' growing reliance on central resources to maintain their machines. These changes and the forces behind them are well illustrated by the pattern of political change in the town of Taal, Batangas during this century, which is reported in great detail.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , August 1974 , pp. 523 - 547
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1974

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References

1 On the events leading up to the declaration of martial law and subsequent developments, see: Shaplen, Robert, “Letter from Manila,” The New Yorker, 49 (April 14, 1973), pp. 97–119;Google Scholar Rob-crt B. StaufTer, “The Political Economy of a Coup: Transnational Linkages and Philippine Political Response,” paper presented at International Studies Association Western Meeting, San Francisco, March 1973; Roth, David F., “The Deterioration and Re-construction of National Political Parameters: The Philippines During the 1970's,” Asian Survey, 13 (September 1973), pp. 812–825;Google Scholar and Grossholtz, Jean, ”Philippines 1973: Whither Marcos?,” Asian Survey, 14 (January 1974), pp. 101–112.Google Scholar

2 See my “Changing Aspects of Factionalism in Philippine Local Politics,” Asian Survey, 11 (December 1971), pp. 1182–1199;Google Scholar and my “Changing Patterns of Leadership Recruitment and the Emergence of the Professional Politician in Philippine Local Politics,” in Political Change in the Philippines: Studies of Local Politics Prior to Martial Law, Ben Kerkvliet, ed. (Honolulu: Uni-versity Press of Hawaii, forthcoming).Google Scholar

3 The standard treatment of local factionalism in the Philippines is Landé, Carl, Leaders, Factions, and Parties: The Structure of Philippine Politics (New Haven: Yale University, Southeast Asia Studies Monograph No. 6, 1965). The following analysis of traditional factionalism follows that of Landé closely.Google Scholar

4 Landé, , Leaders, Factions, and Parties, pp. 4–5;Google ScholarWurfel, David, “The Philippines,” in Governments and Politics of Southeast Asia, Second Edition, Kahin, George M., ed. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1964), p. 712.Google Scholar See also Larkin, John A., The Pampangans: Colonial Society in a Philippine Pampangans: Colonial Society in a Philippine Province (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972) for an analysis of the development of the local elite in a Philippine province.Google Scholar

5 On the origins of parties, see Liang, Dapen, Philippine Parties and Politics, New Edition (San Francisco: The Gladstone Company, 1970), Chapter 3.Google Scholar

6 See Scott, James C., “Patron-Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia,” Amer-ican Political Science Review, 66 (March, 1972), pp. 91–113.Google Scholar

7 See Scott, James C., “Corruption, Machine Politics and Political Change, American Political Science Review, 63 (December, 1969), pp. 1142–1158.Google Scholar

8 During the preindependence years, the Nacion-alist Party broke down into two intensely competitive factions on two occasions (1922 and 1934), but for much of this period it clearly dominated Philippine politics with only weak opposition. National political competition became increasingly intense after independence. This was a consequence of: consistent opposition in election after election of two parties of roughly com-parable strength; the regular election of a President (a practice which had only begun in 1935) a nationwide basis; and the growing rewards of office holding which made the stakes of elections higher than they had ever been.

9 There was a steady growth in mas electoral participation in the Philippines after the introduction of elections early in this century. This growth was most marked after independence. Whereas only about one percent of the total population voted in the 1907 election for delegates to the Philippine Assembly, and only 14 percent voted in the first election for President of the independent Philippine Republic nearly 40 years later, in the late 1960's, nearly a quarter of the total population normally voted in national and local elections. Prewar growth was accounted for largely by gradual extension of the franchise and the movement of more polling places into the barrios, Procedural obstacles reduced, postindependence growth in mass electoral participation was primarily a product of increasingly intense competition and campaigning and increased politicization of rural people.

10 Sec Deutsch, Karl, “Social Mobilization and Political Development,” American Political Science Review, 55 (September, 1961), pp. 493–514 for a full discussion of the concept.Google Scholar

11 To have “good public relations” is the usual English term for the Tagalog concept of pakiki-sama. When used in this way, it is essentially the same as what Lynch calls “smooth interpersonal relations,” that is “facility at getting along well with others in such a way as to avoid outward signs of conflict. … It means a sensitivity to what other people feel at any given moment, and a willingness and ability to change tack (if not direction) to catch the slightest favoring breeze.” Lynch, Frank, “Social Acceptance,” in Lynch, Frank, ed., Four Readings on Philippine Values (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, IPC Papers No. 2, 1968), p. 8. The “approachable” man is humble rather than arrogant and has a reputation for responding warmly, and normally favorably, to those who approach him (usually with some kind of request). This implies, among other things, that because a positive response can be assumed, the person wishing to approach him can do so directly without using a go-between.Google Scholar

12 “Corruption, Machine Politics, and Political Change,” op. cit.

13 The survey results are reported in my “Changing; Patterns of Leadership Recruitment and the Emergence of the Professional Politician in Philippine Local Politics,” op. cit.

14 This comparative study is presented in my “Changing Aspects of Factionalism in Philippine Local Politics,” op. cit.

15 Assessed by each province's ranking on five indicators: literacy, percentage of work force in non-agricultural occupations, urbanization, number of motor vehicles per 1000 population, and percent of dwelling units with radios. Each was assumed to be related independently and in a somewhat different way to the possibility that people in a given province would be exposed to various modernizing influences.

16 Assessed by the percentage of the total population residing on tenant farms. This was deemed to be a particularly politically relevant indicator of concentration of landownership, because it showed the portion of (he population (and hence, presumably, the approximate portion of eligible voters) that were directly subject to the influence of landlords at election time.

17 Republic of the Philippines, Bureau of Census and Statistics, Estimated Population of the Philippines by Province and Municipality: 1960–1965 and 1970 (Manila: Bureau of Census and Statistics, 1964).Google Scholar

18 The population figure was calculated by applying the percentage of the people in the pob-lacion at the i960 census to the estimated population of the town in 1970, from Bureau of Census and Statistics, Estimated Population of the Philippines by Province and Municipality: 1960–1965 and 1970.

19 This was calculated by applying the percentage of the people in the respective poblaciones at the i960 census to the estimated populations of each town in 1970, from Bureau of Census and Statistics, Estimated Population of the Philippines by Province and Municipality: 1960–1965 and 1970.

20 Republic of the Philippines, Bureau of Cen-sus and Statistics, Census of the Philippines—1960 (Manila: Bureau of Census and Statistics, 1963), Volume I, Population and Housing, Batangas Volume, Table 8.

21 Republic of the Philippines, Census of the Philippines—1960, Volume I, Agriculture, Batangas Volume, Table 49.

22 Calculated from figures for the total population and total resident on tenant farms in Republic of the Philippines, Census of the Philippines—1960, Volume I, Population and Housing, Batangas Volume, Table 2 and Volume I, Agriculture, Batangas Volume, Table 51.

23 See Scott, James C., “The Erosion of Patron-Client Bonds and Social Change in Rural Southeast Asia,” Journal of Asian Studies, 32 (November 1973), P. 37 for a discussion of the search for new patrons as a form of peasant response to such conditions.Google Scholar

24 Alip, Maunco M., “Glicera Marelia—Thec Tandang Sora of Batangas,” Batangas Yearbook—1959 (Batangas, Batangas: Municipal Treasurer's League, 1959), p. 39.Google Scholar

25 Originally, the principaha were incumbent and former indigenous local officials under the Spanish administration. This group enjoyed special privileges in the community and exemption from taxation. More generally, the term applied to the most prosperous and prestigious families in Philippine towns.

26 Municipality of Taal, Batangas, Actas Del Concejo Municipal de Taal, Provincial de Batangas, I.F., 3 June 1925.

27 Municipal Council Minutes, cited above, always listed all elected officials at the inaugural sessions when they took office.

28 Municipality of Taal, Batangas, Actas Del Concejo Municipal de Taal, 3 June 1925.

28 Calculated from figures for. 1918 and 1939 censuses in Republic of the Philippines, Census of the Philippines—1960. Volume I, Population and Housing, Batangas Volume, Part I, Table I.

30 In the 1941 election, the portion of the total Philippine population voting reached its prewar peak at 10 percent. Calculated on a population estimate made on the basis of the 1939 census voting turnout from Liang, Philippine Parties and Politics, p. 232.

31 He was appointed in 1930 to fill the unexpired term of the elected Governor and then elected in 1931 and 1934.

32 Calculated on Batangas population estimates for the years cited made on the basis of 1939, 1948 and 1960 censuses and official projections for population up to 1970 and figures for voting turnout in 1946 and 1949 from the Batangas Provincial Treasurer's Office and in the 1960's from Republic of the Philippines, Commission on Elections, Report of the Commission on Elections to the President of the Philippines and the Congress on the Manner the Elections Were Held … (the date held in each election year). (Manila: Commission on Elections, dated the year after each election.)

33 Capitan was the title given the top administrative official in towns during the latter years of the Spanish regime.

34 Province of Batangas, Municipal Annual Statements, Taal, 1949–50, and 1955–56, in Batangas Provincial Treasurer's Office. Between those years, market revenue dropped from approximately 19,000 to 15,400 pesos in Taal and it climbed from around 24,600 to 44,000 pesos in Lemery.

35 Towns were created by act of Congress. If Congressman with the majority party introduces bill to create a new town within his district is likely to become law.

30 At the time of separation, the fishery was bringing in about 30,000 pesos a year in revenue for the town. Interview with the Municipal Treasurer of Taal, 23 February 1970.

37 A lider is a person who mobilizes voters on behalf of and/or gives the support ofhis folowers to a candidate.

38 The Barrio Captain is the top official of the barrio. This post has been elective (at least theoretically) since i960. Beside his administrative and peacekeeping functions, the Barrio Captain is the chief spokesman for the barrio people to officials at higher levels of government.

30 At the time of this study, all 27 of Taal's barrios were accessible by road; 11 had piped water from the town's waterworks; and 8 had electricity from the town's electric system. All barrios that did not have piped water had at least 3 artesian wells, and some had as many as 7. Much of the extension of roads to more re-mote barrios, extension ot electricity to the barrios, and construction of artesian wells was accomplished during Mayor Gahol's administration with outside resources. Interview with superintendent of the Taal Electric and Waterworks System, 24 February 1970.

40 Interview, 21 March 1970.

41 From election records in the Municipal Mayor's Office, Taal, Batangas.

42 Interview, 21 February 1970.

43 Interview, 22 April 1970.

44 Interview, 25 April 1970.

45 The creation of the new town was actually not implemented in 1961 because of the election of Macapagal, a Liberal Party President. When Mayor Gahol was dropped by the provincial LP as the Liberal candidate in 1963, however, it was implemented.

46 Interview, 27 February 1970.

47 From election records in the Municipal Mayor's Office, Taal, Batangas.

48 Frank Jenista, Jr., “Conflict in the Philippine Legislature: The Commission and the Assembly from 1907 to 1913,” In Norman G. Owen, Compadre Colonialism (Ann Arbor: Michigan Papers on South and Southeast Asia, No. 3, 1971), p. 89.