Dating back to the time when the Philippines is not yet a democratic country, the government officials then are quite similar to today’s. Traditional politics (trapo) seems to govern society having the destructive values of reciprocity, pakikisama, political dynasties, and the like. These orientations have brought upon Filipino values which had negative effects in political discourse. For instance, in many provinces and municipalities, you can witness one family running their government. Appointments of friends and relatives into office are also a trend, familiarly known as nepotism. In this situation, the importance of reciprocity comes into play. You can imagine senators expecting something in return in the midst of need or for greater gains.
Seeing these kinds of officials before and now, you may conclude that the Philippines has not changed at all. With these leaders, how can we ever thrive? The question begs many other curiosities but we think we have no choice but to bear with it. This thinking of having no choice should alarm us as citizens of this country. If for decades now, we have the same type of officials, maybe we haven’t changed at all. We should start with ourselves and not only acknowledge that there’s something wrong in our so-called “politics” but more importantly, learn how to ACT and RESPOND. So that, in the end, we won’t say we have traditional politics playing in modern times.
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