Researcher: Crisha Dane S.

Dalaquit
Resources: Bureaucracy for Democracy
The Dynamics of Executive-Bureaucracy Interaction during Governmental Transition
By Ledivina V. Cario

The Executive and the Bureaucracy

Under Normal Successions:
The Philippines
Philippine Political and Administrative History
Lying south of the continent of Asia, the Philippines, an archipelago of over
seven thousand islands,and extends over 300,000 square kilometers,
qualifying it among the upper third of contemporary nations in terms of
area. With over 60 million inhabitants, it is one of the most highly populated
countries in the world. The sizes of human settlements vary widely, with
Metropolitan Manila, the capital region, being overcrowdeand polluted, while
many other areas remain remote and comparatively uninhabited. Blood and
ritual kinship ties and patron-client relations involve almost all Filipinos in a
network of reciprocal obligations. However, schools, the bureaucracy and the
law extol Western norms of universalism and individualism.
These have differing consequences on government-people relations.
Traditional values uphold authoritarianism but also humanize relations. At
the same time, universalistic norms facilitate equitable as well as mechanical
treatment and, in a society in which certain groups have been disadvantaged
over time, can be used to perpetuate such discrimination. These value
systems clash with and accommodate one another on different occasions.
Some officials regularly use government positions for personal power, while
others freely make available theirown resources for public purposes. Either
strategy - greed or unselfishness - can find a normative base in society, and
it is contingent upon the pertinent social interaction to decide which one
should earn public approval or condemnation -Filipinos tend to be
homogeneous, generally brown-skinned, darkhaired and relatively short.
Due to their trade and colonial history, many have Chinese, Spanish or
American blood. Reflecting a strong sense of colonial mentality, Filipinos
associate beauty with western physical features. But certain other
differences among Filipinos carry great import. For instance, Roman
Catholicism is the predominant religion. However, Moros (Filipino Muslims)
who now comprise about five percent of the population used to be the
majority in the southern islands of Mindanao and Sulu. 1 They continue to
predominate in what have now shrunk to a few provinces in the region. With
a proud history of continuous resistance to both Spain and the United States

(US), they have kept their Islamic culture despite western colonialism.
However, the migration of other Filipinos and the encroachment of
plantations and industrial enterprises of multinationals, wealthy Christians
and Moro leaders have crowded out and marginalized the natives. The
religious question has thus combined with political and economic issues to
fan the Moro secessionist movement.
The Moro problem is symptomatic of other divisions marking the Filipino
people. While the original question may be phrased in terms of religion,
ethnicity or occupation, it often boils down to the problem of overwhelming
poverty and exploitation. The majority live in dismal conditions while a small
group of families thrive in luxury and appropriate for themselves the wealth
of the land. To the latter belong descendants of the native, Spanish and
American colonial elites, multinational executives, and Chinese capitalists. It
also includes others who got to the top by capturing political positions or
using their influence on government officials. The domination by the few,
backed up by government resources and military force, has contributed in no
small way to breeding rebellions that have been endemic in the country
since the Spanish conquest in 1521.
The Spanish Period
The Philippine archipelago was composed of separate communities at
the time of the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century. Some of these
settlements might be called "original democracies" (Manglapus 1987)
wherein rulership rotated among several families, each temporary governor
was accountable to his "subjects," land was held in common, and
consensual decision making was the rule. This last is a system of governance
retained by present-day Cordillera tribes and reflected in the tradition
and written history of the peoples of Muslim Mindanao (Tancangco 1990).
The Spaniards at the time of conquest coopted local rulers as the Crown's
representatives in the countryside, supervised by a Spanish governor and
aided by a small contingent of feared soldiers and priests. In the capitalcity
of Manila sat the other officials who had bought their positions in Madrid
and were primarily concerned with getting fast and high returns on their
investment. They were headed by a governor general who reported to the
viceroy in Mexico half aworld away, who in turn took orders from the head
of the Overseas Ministry in Madrid. Spain's laws tried to exact accountability
from servants of the Crown and to minimize the oppression of the
natives. But since its investments needed to be secured, Spain also tended
to side more with the exploitative officials than with the "inferior" natives.
And so it was that under Spain, the natives were ruled by a Christian
government on paper while enduring an abusive and pillaging state for

almost 400 years. Resistance was endemic throughout the four centuries of
Spanish hegemony, but, being localized, it could not succeed against the
formidable combination of sword and cross. This changed in 1896 when
Filipinos waged a revolution for independence and succeeded in toppling the
colonial government. However, Spain surrendered not to the natives but to
their erstwhile ally, the US, which annexed the Philippines in the Treaty of
Paris of 1898 for $20 million.