FILIPINOS VIEW ON GOVERNANCE
lifted from Caloy Bueno
29 January 2025
The customary Filipino view of governance 'maps' the filial politics of the family institution as an 'overlay' on government functions and roles over the whole nation.
Our republican system of government ~ the executive, legislative and judicial branches ~ are metaphors of how the normal familial roles and functions are applied to Filipino society. Under the Constitution, the executive branch implements government programs (providing public services and goods to the people ~ the traditional 'father' figure in providential role and function). The legislative branch defines the policies and rules that keep society in the desirable and expected state of peace and order ~ and more significantly, also holds the purse strings that makes all such state roles and functions possible. The judicial branch stands as the 'grandparents' in the hierarchy of governance ~ not necessarily intervening in how the executive and legislative branches conduct these 'parental roles' upon the (brood of normally 'squabbling siblings') that is the whole Filipino gaggle of countrymen and women 'begotten' by each successive administration's term, but rather interpreting and judging how the policies and rules should be properly carried out and applied in the societal framework as the rule of law, particularly over conflicting interests or especially when the rules are broken.
That is why Filipinos usually call its political leaders at various levels as "ama ng bayan" ~ all the way up to the very top (the presidency). The traditional role of the wife and mother ~ "ang ilaw ng tahanan" ~ is to manage the household and support the father's needs and requirements in striving to provide for the whole family, thereby leading the whole country toward progress and prosperity.
As a democracy, however, the complicated interplay of human, civil/citizenship and legal/criminal rights and obligations/duties in the normal flow and ebb of day to day life that navigates the political/governance, economic, and social dynamics of the nation is a whole study in the delicate balance of order and chaos ~ where all the players are potentially at odds with or complementary to each other, all at the same time ~ similar to the quantum state in science. That's just how democracy works, or doesn't ~ an irony that is not lost upon the family institution at the level of commoners just leading their own lives in our society.
And then there is corruption ~ casting its dark shadow upon the whole works, a monkey wrench thrown deliberately into the machinery to jam up everything, just to benefit the shadowy figures who aim to profit illegally from it, or even perhaps to attempt to gain even more power, so as to finally emerge victoriously supreme ~ and thus be able to plunder at will. ("To the victors go the spoils.")
Use your imagination ~ try to discern where the whole Filipino "societal family" predicament is at right now ~ given this general "household framework" of governance/politics in our country . . .
#PagMayTime 😜
Melany Amante Mabao Maguindanao:
If we were to take a hard look at where our societal family stands, we might ask: Are we the defiant children, fighting to break free from obsolete traditions, yet still shackled by the very mindsets we inherited? Or are we the enablers, turning a blind eye to the “father’s” faults and excusing the transgressions of our “siblings” simply because, no matter how flawed, we all belong to the same house?
