Contesting political sphere, locating religious realm: Negotiating politics through
Tulong (Help) among the poor
Soon Chuan Yean
This paper argues that the poor are often contesting rather than submitting to the powerful
elites to gain material interests and political plights. The poor are both shrewd and critical
in making judgment and evaluation on politicians as well as the (unequal) relation of
powers. Such contestation shapes and re-shapes a sort of ‘moral’ politic that is religiously
oriented. Tulong, or help is such morality.
Keywords: local politics, ordinary people, patron-client ties, religion, Tanauan, tulong
Introduction
When one takes a tour on Philippine political studies, one will recognize the
emphasis is put on the role of the powerful gentry – political and economic elites – and
silencing on the powerless’ voices. The bases of the arguments emanate from Philippine
political culture such as kinship relations, compradre-ism, utang na loob (debt of
gratitude), hiya (shame) or walang hiya (shameless), patron-client relationship, and
patrimonialism (Lande 1965; Hollnsteiner 1963; Agpalo 1969), which allows for a
hierarchical arrangement within the society. The implication to the general idea on elitemass relations is that there is a dichotomy made between the elites and the masses.1 It
delineates on the bases of the former’s control over political power and economy; while
the latter (or the clients) are passive, submissive, and dependent on their patrons.
Henceforth, the elites are the one dominating political change and development.
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This paper argues the otherwise the contestation for ‘moral’ politics in the realm
of the masses. It asserts that there are essential political features that requires the
researchers to excavate the taken for granted political modalities locating outside formal
political structures. The analysis on election results (electoral politics, political
affiliations), relationship between patron and client through formal institutions (political
factions, machine politics), or its political culture that ties the two parties (debt of
gratitude and shame) may not suffice to grasp how the masses ‘do’ politics. In this paper,
a socio-cultural and sociopolitical analysis on tulong, or help, may be a useful way to
understand how and why the masses generate their own political discourse that associate
or intermix with the sphere of religion.
The research was conducted periodically over seven months (October-November
2004, January-June 2005) and another two months (October-November 2005) in three
barangays (villages), namely Barangay 1 (where I resided from January to June 2005),
Barangay 2, and Barangay Angeles (where I resided from October to November 2005).
Then in 2009 and 2010, I returned to Barangay Angeles for follow ups.2 The collection of
data did not depend merely on formal interviews and meetings. Casual or informal
meetings were part of the fieldwork activities such as visits, lunches or dinners, drinking
sessions, even unplanned meetings or by ‘chance’ such as during the buying of food at
stores. Due to the length requirement of the paper, not all the interviews can be included.
Some interviewees were interviewed more than once. The length of interviews varies
from thirty minutes to four hours. There are no specific criteria to choose the informants.
This research data depend on content analysis of the interviews (and participant
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observation) conducted on the interviewees. Then a general ‘trend’ of the content is
generated to showcase the socio-cultural, political, and religious perception of the people.
The concept of tulong is taken as such is because of its constant usage throughout
the interviews. Even though there is no consistency and inclusive usage of the term
across all the interviews, its nuances have somehow manifested in other social practices
such as the practices of gift or paghahandog. This paper attempts to showcase this social
practice into political structure namely patron-client ties, that is more moralistic, quite
similar to Benedict Kervliet’s (1991) analysis of status (vis-à-vis class) in Nueva Ecija.
This research is a study of local people’s political perceptions. ‘Local’ here means
that the main focus of the research is at the micro level – personal experiences, personal
memories, fragmented actions within particular contexts. (This is the reason the paper
gives paramount attention to the interviews as primary data) Limitedly, this paper takes
the localization of knowledge as a way to understand the construction of politics from a
bottom-up approach. It merely introduces the readers another possible concept to
understand the clients’ political discourse by articulating the concept of tulong as a social
practice to contest for moral politics.
‘Moral’ here I refer to an idea i.e. tulong that is familiar to the people and such
idea has been contested in public sphere and conformed of its modalities. Another
clarification at the onset is that the concept of moral that is being used in this paper shares
the definition of ‘moral economy’ as forwarded by James Scott. (Scott 1976). However,
as in this paper will put forward, the morality as manifested in the concept of tulong
consist a religious inference on the way we perceive patron-client ties in the Philippines.
However, it is not necessary referring to a dogmatic social or pious value undertaken by
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the people within a restricted societal norm. It shifts its validities from time to time in
different contexts. Thus, tulong, as a familiar idea in people’s political discourse is not
static and unbounded; it is micro-oriented, and contextual, and arguably agreeable to the
community as a moral thing to do.
Accentuation of Tulong: Public sphere, discourse, and culture
Sociologically speaking, tulong is a functional social practice that exists anywhere
and at anytime that involves more than one individual to perform. Limitedly, in the
barangays/villages I resided, it is an exchange practice in a variety of social contexts
such as funerals, weddings, elections, voluntary works, payment of hospital bills,
religious ceremony, and many more. However, the political modality of tulong cannot be
taken exclusively as political culture of the masses nor does tulong serves as a political
ideology for the masses to become a social movement for revolt. The tricky question that
arises is that how then tulong as a social function in a barangay becomes a political
discourse among the poor? This, we need to categorize tulong as a sort of a cultural
system.
Studying the political discourse in the cultural domain “entails probing the social
meanings of the languages used by ordinary people, their cultural practices, their social
symbols and ideas, and their religiosity.” (Soon 2008) Stuart Hall (1997) indicates that
culture serves as a system of representation that produces meaning. Such meaning is
understood, constructed, and shared by persons through language to express thoughts and
feelings or emotions. For a cultural system to be politically affective in the society, it
needs to be contested and be challenged at the public sphere. Sonia E. Alvarez, Evelina
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Dagnino, and Arturo Escobar (1998, 7) assert that culture or “cultural politics as the
process enacted when sets of social actors shaped by, and embodying, different cultural
meanings and practices come into conflict with each other” and that this “[c]ulture is
political because meanings are constitutive of processes that, implicitly and explicitly,
seek to redefine social power.” Such social power or contestation takes effect explicitly
and conformed outwardly as a cultural system when it is placed in the public sphere. In
looking at the contested notion of ‘citizenship,’ Clive Kessler (1998, 42) in quoting his
work on Arendt’s notion of humanity, asserts that:
This affirmation of self, of historical identity, through the negotiation of
difference is not only public but therefore also political, and doubly so. It requires
a public venue to occur, which depends upon politics for its preservation; yet it
also reproduces, encircles, and reaffirms the legitimacy of human difference as an
inherent condition of public life, thereby sustaining and renewing the very essence
of politics. (My emphasis)
In other words, the notion of ‘citizenship’ has been tested, challenged, reproduced, and
thus reaffirmed of its modalities of difference in public sphere. Kessler’s work on
citizenship may not be apply into this research topic, but his analysis on the affirmation
of the contested notion of citizenship in public sphere aptly apply to the study of the
notion of tulong.
That is to say, looking from these approaches, tulong when taken as a cultural
system of representation can affect the community who share its sociological functions
and meanings. Tulong as a cultural system, when put at the public sphere, it is constantly
5
being contested, challenged, evaluated and reaffirmed of its contested meanings and
values to claim for social power.
Wataru Kusaka’s (2008) work on the ‘dual public sphere’ between the educated
middle class and illiterate poor has adequately showcased this construction of social
concepts as political discourse in public space. He identifies that there are two contesting
realms at function in Philippine public spheres in the events of EDSA 2 and 3. To the
‘civil public sphere’ (comprising of the middle class) the morality of the politics is good
governance, transparency, and accountability, while for the ‘mass public sphere’
(comprising of the poor, or street vendors) the morality is to uphold politics that
intimately related to their dignity and livelihood. What is clearly articulated in his work is
to recognize a discursive construction of public discourses outside formal institution
especially on the poor’s site, which requires the researchers to also pay attention to the
informal ‘spheres’ that allow for the construction of a discourse. Quite similar to
Kusaka’s approach, I would like to engage the discursive construction of tulong, which
has been tested and conformed in the realm of mass media (local government
newsletters) and the realm of informal sphere through interviews and analysis of religious
songs, to understand the way in which the poor do politics.
A brief account on Tanauan recent political events and Philippine political studies
Local politics in Tanauan City -- located between 68 kilometers from Metro
Manila to the north and 45 kilometers from Batangas City to the south – if understood
through the prism of patron-client framework, easily being characterized by violence and
frauds, paternalism, and political ‘machines.’ Tanauan is commonly portrayed by the
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media as a ‘drug haven’ city, owes to its reputation being one the area for shabu (or
methamphetamine) trading and usage. (Manila Times, 19 July 2003; Philippine Daily
Inquirer, 4 August 2003)
The killing of Cesar Platon (1998 – 2001),3 former mayor of Tanauan City and
supporter of Ferdinand Marcos, without a doubt aided the depiction of Tanauan as a place
of violent politics. On May 7, 2001, Platon, running under the Lakas Party, known as
Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas- CMD) to which he had switched allegiance
from the Nacionalista Party (NP), was shot and killed during his gubernatorial campaign,
at Tuy, a town plaza at Batangas. Tirso ‘Ka Bart’ Alcantara, a spokesperson of the New
People’s Army (NPA) in Southern Tagalog, said in a press statement and a radio
interview that Platon was punished by the NPA for his “crimes against the people.”
(Philippine Daily Inquirer, 8 May 2001)
Tanauan City has since been under the administration of Platon’s successor,
Alfredo Corona (2001-2005). Like Platon, Corona had switched from the Nacionalista to
the Lakas Party, which had close ties with the Liberal Party (LP). In fact, the thengovernor of Batangas, Hermilando Mandanas, and twenty-three mayors, including
Corona, became Liberal Party members before shifting to the Reporma Party. (Tan-aw,
September-October, 2003; Manila Times, 5 January 2004; Politik 1997) The reporting on
the recent political disputes in Tanauan has indeed put the city into the category of a
municipality rife with political fraudulence. This is exemplified in the 2004 mayoral
election between Alfredo Corona and his rival, Sonia Torres-Aquino (2005 – present).
(Batangan News Service, 2006) While the dispute between Corona and Torres-Aquino
clearly falls into the pattern of two warring political factions, both were in fact running
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under the Lakas Party banner.
When the 2004 City Board of Canvassers declared Corona as the winner with
31,942 votes against Torres-Aquino, who garnered 28,201 votes (see Table 1), the latter
subsequently filed a protest on May 20, 2004 alleging fraud in the balloting, which led to
a recount. (Manila Bulletin, 2 January 2006) After one and a half years of protest, the
Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Second Division, chaired by Mehol K. Sadain,
with Commissioners Rufino Javier and Florencio Tuason, Jr. as members, decided on
December 22, 2005 declaring Torres-Aquino as the duly elected mayor of Tanauan with a
3,102-vote margin.
Table 1
Local Election Results Difference for Mayor
Of the City of Tanauan, Batangas in 2004
Year
May 10,
2004
Position
Mayor
Name
Corona,
Profession
City Mayor
Alfredo C.
Party
Votes
Affiliation
Garnered
Lakas –
31,942
CMD
(won)
Aquino,
Businessperson Lakas –
Sonia T.
28,201
CMD
Source: http://www.tanauancity.gov.ph/election.php; Commission on Elections
(COMELEC), Intramuros, Manila.
Note:
Lakas-CMD = Lakas-Christian Muslim Democracy
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Corona responded by filing a motion for reconsideration. A six-member Comelec
panel, known as ‘Comelec en banc,’ granted on February 1, 2006 a motion of
reconsideration filed by Corona to nullify the Comelec Second Division’s decision.
However, the ‘Comelec en banc’ failed to gain the mandatory majority of four votes
among the commissioners. (Manila Bulletin, 4 February 2006) In other words, there was
a deadlock in the Comelec en banc. According to the Comelec’s Rules of Procedure,
entitled ‘Procedure if Opinion is Equally Divided,’ Section 6, Rule 18, when the Comelec
en banc is equally divided in opinion or a deadlock has occurred in appeal cases, the
order or judgment of the appeal shall stand affirmed and shall be denied.
The Supreme Court decision prompted a major protest from the people of
Tanauan in support for Corona. Between 500 to 1,000 supporters headed by the
Kalipunan ng mga Tanaueño para sa Tunay na Tinig ng Tao (KATAPAT or the Society
of Tanaueños for the True Voice of the People), which was mainly composed of the poor
in Tanauan, held Corona in the Tanauan City Hall from February 7, 2006 and blocked
roads leading to the city hall by inflating tires of dump trucks. Streamers were hung
condemning the election body that favored the ‘moneyed and influential’ Torres-Aquino.
(Philippine Daily Inquirer, 10 February 2006) The standoff ended on March 3, 2006
when a bomb exploded at the back of the city hall. Eventually, the bombing incident led
to about 1,000 policemen coming in to disperse the supporters. (Philippine Daily Inquirer,
3 March 2006)
The portrayal of Tanauan’s local politics above is not a surprise to many people
familiar with its politics, as quite a few would agree with its reputation for being a
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‘dangerous’ town with a ‘violent’ environment. Anyone familiar with such stories of
local politics, whether about Tanauan or any other Philippine locality that hits the
headlines, would be able to see resemblances with the image of politics, especially
produced by patron-client framework in analyzing the bind between the patron and the
client.
Intensified by the introduction of the Local Government Code in 1991, Tanauan
has transformed its economic activities from agricultural into largely industrial. Several
barangays of Tanauan has fallen within the industrial estate of the Calabrazon area
among them is the First Philippine Industrial Park covering Barangay Pantay Bata and
Ulango (220 hectares) on the northeast side, while another seventy-three hectares fall in
Barangay Sta. Anastacia in the adjoining town of Santo Tomas.
Such changes to Tanauan’s economic landscape—where the spoils are massive to
those who can gain control of it—have led many to believe that the disputes between
Corona and Torres-Aquino fall merely into the genre of the politics of fraud, vote buying,
machine politics, and patronage politics. Most politicians, including Corona, are
described as using their public positions and funds to build their own patronage through
industrial projects selectively tendered to their alliances. Corona, himself coming from a
moderate family background, is aptly portrayed as ‘new men’ (Kimura 1997; Machado
1971, 1974a, 1974b) whose political support is generated through the maneuver of local
funds. In my fieldwork, some local people intimated that, judging from his possession of
a four-wheel drive vehicle, Corona has become rich [mayaman] since he became mayor.
The Torreses’s empire, Yazaki-Torres Manufacturing Inc., a company that
exports automotive parts to the US, Japan, and Europe, generates exports of US$170
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million annually and employs almost 6,000 personnel. With this empire, Torres-Aquino
is commonly believed to use her influence in Yazaki-Torres Manufacturing Inc. to fund
her political campaign by promising jobs to Tanaueños if she wins the election.4 It was
reported that before her campaign, Torres-Aquino, through her brother Feliciano Torres,
the president of Yazaki-Torres Manufacturing Inc., sponsored thirty-two barangay
captains to Bangkok for livelihood program trainings. (Manila Times, 1 March 2004.)
Thus, politics in Tanauan can be aptly put under the control of the ‘oligarchic’ families
that plunders the nation. (Anderson 1998; Doronila 1985; Hutchcroft 2000)
A political structuralist places patron-client ties in hierarchical relation between
the two through coercive pressures and local power monopolies. John Sidel’s (1999,
2000, 2002) ‘bossism’ analysis, while based partly on a study of the adjoining province
of Cavite, would no doubt fit nicely into Tanauan’s context, given the latter’s reputation
for being a shabu-infested violent environment, and with its local politics rivaling only
Cavite’s in its reputation for political killings. With the existence of a ‘primitive
accumulation’ set up during the colonial period, it allows for a breeding of a group of
political bosses to monopolize political and economic power through violent means
derived from illegal activities by local bosses to distribute the ‘help’ to its followers.
Thus, under the conditions of economic insecurity and poverty, the availability of local
bosses to fulfill the claims and demands made by the people/voters makes personal
protection and access to scarce resources a priority of the people to negotiate with the
political authority. Political legitimacy, conceptualized as kapangyarihan (strength) is
measured through the viability of political violent and struggle of the bosses.
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If we apply Sidel’s framework of bossism to Tanauan, Platon would be
categorized as a boss who managed to manipulate the resources of the state especially
when Marcos fled to Hawaii in 1986, for his accumulation of personal power, a condition
that fits nicely into Sidel’s notion of ‘primitive accumulation.’ Corona in this framework
would not be seen as a ‘new man’ but as a boss who is able to control “the broad mass of
the population” whose “poverty and economic security,” as Sidel puts it, makes them
“voters susceptible to clientelist, coercive, and monetary pressures and inducements.”
(Ibid, Sidel 2002: 131) The struggle between bosses for economic resources and political
influence is often resolved through violent means. The assassination of Platon and the
tensions between Corona and Torres-Aquino can be viewed as examples of a violent
politics that enabled the local bosses of Tanauan to maintain their economic empires and
local machineries.
If Tanauan local politics is in fact full of violence, patronage, and fraud in its
electoral system as portrayed by the media and as conveniently explained by the
traditional approaches to understanding politics, how then can we explain the stunning
memories that ordinary people have of Platon as a ‘man without bodyguards,’ ‘a man in
only white T-shirt,’ or ‘a man who gives flowers during fiestas,’ which such narratives of
the people have nothing to do with the materialistic elements of help from Platon whom
being a rich and powerful politicians. Similarly, there is a constant description of Corona
as a person [tao] who is good [mabait], has a clean heart [malinis na puso] and a good
inner being [magandang loob], and is helpful [matulungin]. How do we decode the
expression of his tulong with the concepts such as mabait and loob [inner being] to
describe a leader? How do we explain the realities of Tanauan local folks’ explications of
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mabait and puso [heart] when talking about the politicians and politics around them,
which requires the interpretation of meanings and the translation of local (Tagalog)
idioms and concepts?
These are important local realities and cultural artifacts that cannot be pushed
aside by merely saying that they are just emotional sentiments that have no effect on the
structuring of society, or are merely the effects of manipulations by the elites upon
ordinary people, who become caught up in a web of patron-client ties, instrumental
behavior, and violence.
Since early 1990s, patron-client framework has been criticized. Fenella Cannell
(1999) accounts the poor people and perceives their power negotiations (with regards to
their conditions for being poor) through the idioms of emotions such as pity, oppression,
and love while Benedict Kerkvliet (1991) proposes to include sense of respect and
dignity or status vis-à-vis class, as features that tie the bind between a patron and a client
especially on the latter’s discontent against the former’s way of help.
This manifestation of sociological and anthropological features in the study on
relationship between patron and client has embedded an emotional and sociological
aspect of ties. This is especially palpable when we decode the ties to include the idiom of
loob.
Reynaldo C. Ileto uses the religious texts of pasyon and folk literatures to indicate
the loob of the peasants akin to religious idioms of damay [empathy] and liwanag [light]
in describing the mutability of relationship between the patron and client. (Ileto 1998)
While Myrna J. Alejo’s and colleagues (1996) analyze on tulong is juxtaposed to
sociological aspects of loob that manifests as a sort of power namely lakas [strong] and
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kapangyarihan [power] on politicians that attracts the voters. From an ‘endogenous
psychology’ approach, Virgilio G. Enriquez’s (1993, 1997) analysis of kapwa roughly
translated as fellow being; or pagkikipagkapwa, perhaps can be seen also as a sort of
mutual help [pagtulungan], reaffirming each other’s respect and dignity as fellow human
being that a patron and a client interact and help in equal term.
These studies attempt to articulate the ‘insiders’ views’ namely the peasants, the
poor, the subordinates, the ‘clients,’ and the ‘natives’ vis-à-vis the (post-colonial) state
and politicians. Also, it is through the analysis of people’s religiosity and
anthropological, folk literatures, politico-anthropological, social psychological and the
lexicon of (Tagalog) language that another terrain of religio-sociopolitical ideas emerges
in patron-client relations, making the ties a mutable as well as emotional one.
This paper attempts to emulate the methods or processes utilized by previous
scholars such as Kerkvliet, Cannell, Alejo and colleagues. Deriving from media sources,
speeches, religious sources of song and fieldwork interviews obtained from the rural
folks, it attempts to articulate tulong as a means to negotiate power, if not to contest, with
the politicians. Tulong, in the case study that I have conducted in a the village of Tanauan
City, has been tested, evaluated, challenged, compared and contrasted within the field of
reality (everyday life struggles) and reiterated as a ‘moral’ politics in the public sphere
among the poor. This public sphere of the poor can be located at two layers, the formal
domain and informal realm. The former is analyzed at the domain of media and public
speeches while the latter is at the realm of everyday politics couched under religious
domain. The succeeding sections discuss the political and cultural matrix where the
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concept of tulong serves as a potent political discourse for negotiation of power, if not to
resent or discontent.5
Reaching to the people: The Handog, public speeches, and media
If the political economic imperative of the concept of tulong is decoded to include
its social meanings, functions and cultural connotation, it reveals the ‘moral’ aspect of
patron-client ties that allows for a negotiation of power relations between ordinary people
and politicians. The concept of tulong when put at the public sphere, it becomes a
political morality that ‘compels’ local politicians to be aware of especially when
publishing their (political) images as well as local projects in mass media, and to play out
the rules of the games in accordance with the localized perception of tulong and its
(religious) values.
Arguably, politics is structured within the socio-cultural idiom of tulong, which
manifest in a sort of moral authority exemplify by the socio-cultural features of
magandang loob [good heart]. My analysis of this idiom is based on the reading of
public speeches, its language/rhetoric used in these speeches that result from such, and
the utilization of media (local government newsletters). These speeches and the
languages on the media were selectively chosen because they pertain to the concept of
tulong – disguised as paghahandog [gift], its relations with loob, and the intersubjectivity with religion (the following section).
In this section, the paper depends on the event speeches and newsletters to
interpret politicians’ rhetoric. I was able to attend two official meetings where
paghahandog was involved. One took place in the Tanauan City Hall and another was
15
held in Barangay Angeles. Each meeting ended with paghahandog given by the local
government to those who participated in the meetings and associated projects. These
events are taken as case studies may not be as representative to the political elites’
politics; but the rhetoric spelled out somehow connotes nuances that are familiar to the
nuances played out in the media or local newsletters. Such rhetoric of the politicians at
public sphere is an attempt to project a certain political image and acts to court for
people’s attention.
The first meeting was held on February 8, 2005 in Tanauan City Hall and was
attended by the Farmers Associations of Tanauan City. It was conducted with three
purposes. The first was to promote Tanauan’s City Character program, a local
government project to promote Tanauan as a city with its own character, which was to be
carried out by, among other things, the revival of local cultural practices. Guests from
various sectors of the community were invited, including teachers, the chairman of the
Public Market, and former police officials. The second purpose was to establish the
farmer’s federation. Thirty barangays, each with its own farmer’s association, were to be
united to form a Farmer’s Federation. Finally, the actual demonstration of paghahandog
was made in the distribution of pesticide sprayers to each of the barangay
representatives—the third purpose of the meeting.6
In a speech made by a councilor, emphasis was made on the demonstration of
paghahandog through past events in order to emphasize the present event of
paghahandog. Memory is brought forwarded into the present. Such emphasis on giving
[paghahandog or pinamimigay] was accompanied by the attendance [laging kaagapay
ninyo] of the officials to generate an image of sincerity.
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Councilor Wilfredo Luna: In the past years or months, councilor Javier and I
weren’t able to join the giving of fruit bearing trees, like mango. We give
[pinamimigay] that to our farmers. Since you are here, the barangay officials,
presidents of farmers associations, let’s continue to be a guide to our farmers.
And for us, who are in office in the city, we are always with you [laging kaagapay
ninyo] in the development of our farmers here in the city of Tanauan.
In another speech made by the Vice Mayor, paghahandog was further associated with the
distinctive respect given to the farmers:
Vice Mayor: In regard to this (establishment of a farmers’ federation), we also
have a continuous program…. Perhaps you forget that the real life of Tanauan is
through agriculture. We forgot about farming just because we have become a
city.7 You have been taken into consideration because we really need you this
time. [Kaya po’y bibigyan natin ng pansin dahil kailangang-kailangan po natin sa
pagkakataon at panahong ito]. So for these small things (the sprayers given to
the federation), we expect that we can resurrect and bring this back for the
development of our beloved city. Good morning and thank you to all of you.
Through these speeches and events of a public/official nature, a sort of nonofficial activity but political nonetheless, the paghahandog, was carried out in order to
associate the politicians with the interests of the people. This demonstration of
paghahandog is neither simply to court the support of the farmers, nor is it an expression
of political ambitions by accumulating more power and resources for future contests.
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The way I understood it, the politicians at the meeting realized that, to stay in
politics (at least in the public eyes), or remain a politician, one needs to demonstrate
one’s presence and respect through public activities. On one hand, by mentioning the
past memory of the paghahandog and the emphasis on the paghahandog provider, such
actions serve as an effective proof or making-present of a politician’s will and effort to
provide tulong to the farmers. On the other hand, the delivery of speeches in which the
farmer’s importance is highlighted, as would be expected in such meetings, is conducted
through the linguistic emphasis on forms of respect and the repeated association of
farmers for their needed role in developing the city’s future. It is used to show respect
and appreciation to a person or to a group of people. More than that, such official
meetings are to be made in an unofficially manner in order to close the social gap
between politician and ordinary people. An official program of local government project
has shifted into an unofficial ‘gift’ to court the audiences’ importance into a larger role
that is the city’s future development.
On April 19, 2005, former Mayor Alfredo Corona, former Vice Mayor Trinidad,
Councilors Julius Cesar Platon II and Francisca Querrer, and the city government
launched 50,000 seedlings of tilapia (a type of fresh water fish bred from Nile perch),
50,000 karpa, and 15,000 bangus in Barangays Ambulong, Bañadero, Gonzales, Wawa,
Bo-ot, and Maria Paz. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources has also donated
20,000 seedlings of tilapia under the supervision of the Fisheries Research Station of
Barangay Ambulong, Tanauan City. From Barangay Ambulong, city officials traversed
Taal Lake and launched the seedlings in five coastal barangays. A small program was
held at Sitio Mahabang Buhangin, Barangay Maria Paz, to commemorate the signing of
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the Memorandum of Agreement by barangay officials and the Association of Small
Fishermen of the Barangay to prohibit illegal fishing and to implement laws in regard to
the fishing industry. (Tan-aw, March–April 2005)8
The way the paghahandog was put forward in the speech made by the vice mayor
demonstrated another way that politics is practiced in Tanauan. Politicians must
necessarily manifest their magandang loob [kind heart] to the people through
paghahandog as a form of tulong. In the vice mayor’s speech on the issues of the
development of eco-tourism in Taal Lake and the concern of the fishermen on the
possible damage that would be caused to their livelihood, he emphasized the concept of
tulong in a reciprocal manner. To him, the success of the projects does not ultimately
depend on the local government but on the tulong of the fishermen in preserving (or
cleaning) the lake. Throughout his speech, he was careful not to use any words that
would spell ‘forcing’ the fishermen to accept the project.
It’s also up to the way we take care of it. We can’t give the reason that ______
(miss-recording) we just want to have more than our fellowman [kapwa]. Our
help [aming pagtulong] also depends [nakasalalay] on you. If we see that you
help yourselves [sarili], we’re happy because we know that you deserve our help
[dapat karapat-dapat tulungan].
The speech was also delivered to show the sympathy and the sincerity of the local
government in launching the project for the people at large:
In regard to what Doc Aris (city veterinarian) said... So we can ask the _____, we
are all wasting our time here. Some of us have appointments that we left behind
19
just to attend this program. Hopefully, our attendance ______, let’s take this to
heart [isapuso natin]. This means that we should be the ones to give life to these
things because if none of us would take action in the present opportunity, we
would experience more difficulty in the long run…. We are just concerned to
make this lake beautiful. You have more to gain because you live here. Who
would get the primary benefits? You are the immediate beneficiaries.
Through the emphasis on the busy schedule of each official and their perseverance in
attending the program of the MOA signing, the speech expresses the sympathy and
sincerity of the politicians concerning the success of the project. Thus, the stress on
acting through the goodness of loob, as expressed in the words ‘isapuso natin’ [let us take
to heart] is a demonstration of sincerity and honesty, a practice from a human being to
another, expressed as kapwa [fellowman].
One might say that such speeches are rhetorical and are one way in which
politicians are able to conceal their vested interests. There might be some truth in it, as
the conventional political studies would argue. Nonetheless, my research on these public
events and public speeches made by the politicians reveal another aspect of ‘politicking’
that those politicians do engage with ordinary people through the demonstration of
magandang loob. To accomplish this requires the intermingling of the official (e.g., local
programs and projects) and non-official (the moral, personal, cultural entity of gifts)
types of political engagements through paghahandog and tulong. Such demonstration of
‘moral’ politics is also manifested in the local newsletters. Below are some cases of
20
paghahandog as manifested in the newsletters and the ways the discourse of
paghahandog is presented at the public sphere through mass media.
Media Projection of Handog
Beside speeches that manifest the paghahandog, mass media is another form to
articulate such practices. Within the Tanauan City government structure, one of the
mechanisms for the city government to communicate with the general public is through
its local community newspaper. First known as Tanauan Muna Balita [First Tanauan
News], which was then changed to Tan-aw, these local newsletters are a bi-monthly
publication of the Community Development Information Center (CDIC) of the Tanauan
City Government. It has an average circulation of 3,000, mostly among the different
local offices and institutions in the city and nearby municipalities and 1,500 copies are
distributed to different schools. The language of the newsletter is mostly written in
Tagalog, especially during the administration of former mayor, Cesar Platon. It then
expanded to include more articles written in the English language (although Tagalog is
still the dominant language) during the administration of the expelled mayor Corona.9
The newsletters reports on the city’s performance and provides updates on the
different projects of the city as well as local activities. It plays the role of a bridge to
communicate with the general public what the local government has been doing,
particularly in its march towards the progress and development of the city as stipulated in
the 1991 Local Government Code. Despite the simplistic reporting, it nonetheless
includes a wide spectrum of activities and happenings within the city. Various reports
are published that range from the city’s latest projects and policies, to agricultural
21
planning, barangay affairs, sports and youth news, senior citizens, education and health,
and women’s issues.
Among these reports, there is a theme that dominates the public message, namely
the orientation towards local development through the implementation of infrastructures
and the upgrading of the people’s quality of life. In Platon’s administration, the focus of
the reporting was inclined towards local level development (barangay level), the
rhetorical projection of people-oriented leadership through developmental projects (at the
organizational level as well as at the individual level) and clean governance; the intention
was to illustrate to the public how a local government could be caring [maasikaso] to its
people.
Medical Supplies and Goods
The supply of medicines is another project seen as paghahandog especially to the
senior citizens. This medical type of paghahandog is likewise mixed up with both
Platon’s personal life and public or official events. For example, Platon held a free
medical service (medical, x-ray, and laboratory examination) during his last birthday for
senior citizens. (Tanauan Muna Balita, July–September 1999a; Tanauan Muna Balita,
July–September 1999c) Another occasion was his show of concern regarding the
availability of free and cheap medical supplies to the old and poor people of the town.
Platon chaired a meeting between senior citizens and pharmacy owners in February 1999
to discuss the claim of the senior citizens that they are not given the 20 percent discount
on the medicines that they buy from the pharmacies. Platon expressed his concern that
there should be some action and agreement between the three groups of doctors, senior
22
citizens, and pharmacy owners; in addition there should also be some accreditation of
doctors because consultation fees are expensive. Platon further emphasized that there
would be a hospital where 80 percent of the fifty emergency rooms would be allocated
for the poor. (Tanauan Muna Balita, January–March 1999)
Similarly, Platon’s wife, as an honorary member of the Association of Senior
Citizens, initiated a project for free medical services, which included medical supplies,
and medical and dental services. Each senior citizen senior was provided health services
at the Punongbayan Federation where the free service was held every Wednesday. On
January 30, 2000, Mrs. Platon initiated another project where senior citizens and
everyone in the barangay who needed medical attention would be given free medical
check-ups. (Tanauan Muna Balita, July–September 2000) As is commonly practiced,
she would provide food and snacks to her staff for each day of the activities, as well as to
those patients who were in the clinic during lunch. In this occasion, Mrs. Platon was
described as a person with kagandahang loob [a good inner being]. Such official
services were also translated into a non-official relationship between a daughter and
parents as indicated below:
Halus maluha ang mga Senior Citizen sa tinamo nilang libreng gamutan, libreng
gamut, at libreng tanghalian na kaloob ni Mam Bess sa kanyang itinuturing na
mga Tatay at Inay. Namumutawi sa mga labi ng mga senior citizen na sana’y
humaba ang buhay ng kagaya nina Mam Bess at Mayor Platon na talaga namang
hindi matatawaran ang kanilang pagtingin sa mga may edad.
[The senior citizens were almost in tears because of the free medical service, free
medicine, and free lunch that are given by Madam Bess. She treats the senior
23
citizens as her father and mother. The senior citizens hope that people like
Madame Bess and Mayor Platon would live long lives because of how they treat
the elderly.] (Ibid)
The medical services initiated by Platon continued during Corona’s administration. In
connection with the celebration of the Week of Senior Citizens for the month of October,
a medical and dental mission was held on October 10, 2002 for the senior citizens.
Doctors and dentists attending mission came from the Tanauan Medical Society,
Provincial Health Office, Provincial Health Extension Office, Municipal Health Officers
(MHO) of different towns in the province of Batangas, and officers of the City Health
Office. Similar to Mrs. Platon, the wife of Corona, Mrs. Marlyn Corona, together with
the Rotary Club of Metro Tanauan, Jollibee, Chow King, McDonald’s, and La Tondeña
provided food and drinks for the mission. (Tan-aw, September–October 2002)
Job Opportunities or Trabaho
Paghahandog can be practiced as a form of job provision. For example,
employment could be offered through the ‘good will’ [magandang loob] of the mayor for
the development of skills and work-opportunities especially among the youth. Various
efforts were manifested by the local government, such as providing job information in
fast food chains and implementing recruitment of employment by its Barangay
Livelihood and Employment Office. (Tanauan Muna Balita, October–December 1999a;
Tanauan Muna Balita, July–September 1999b) Another way is that the source of
provision is the employer himself who is thus seen as manifesting the same form of
24
magandang loob in helping the city and the people to upgrade their financial capability
and personal skills. Employment opportunities are published in the local newsletters
every now and then. Such information is produced in a way that it is framed as a
paghahandog by the local government to the people through the companies involved in
the job provision.
On December 7, 1999, a group of officers from Amkor Annam Pilipinas held
interviews for an opening of twenty-four positions. From the published information in
the newspaper, emphasis on certain words or aspects, such as ‘perseverance’ [pagtitiyaga]
and the officials of the Public Employment Service Office and Manpower’s Planning
Office’s ‘ability to provide’ [makapagbigay] people the opportunity to be employment,
gives readers the image of a city government that has magandang loob. What is
highlighted, in other words, is the paghahandog effect of magandang loob: “…na
nagtiyagang makapagbigay ng pagkakataon sa mga Taga-Tanauan na mapabilang sa
agtatrabaho sa Amkor Annam Pilipinas” [...who worked hard to give the opportunity to
people from Tanauan to work at Amkor Annam Pilipinas]. (Tanauan Muna Balita,
October–December, 1999c)
In a post-renovation opening of Jollibee, a fast food chain, on October 12, 1999,
Mayor Platon was invited as the guest of honor. In his speech, he thanked Jollibee for
providing employment opportunities to the youth and the company’s strong participation
in the city community. (Tanauan Muna Balita, October–December, 1999b; Tanauan
Muna Balita, April–June 1999; Tan-aw, March–April 2004; Tan-aw, July–August 2004)
The news is bannered as: “Pagbabasbas ng Jollibee, Tanauan” or ‘The Blessing of
25
Tanauan Jollibee.’ ‘Basbas’ refers to blessing (noun) and ‘pagbabasbas’ is an act of
blessing (noun).
The availability of employment from the fast food chain can be interpreted in two
ways. The first is that the establishment of a franchise of a fast food chain enhanced the
image of Tanauan in development when it became a city in 2001. The second is that the
vision to make Tanauan a city, which was pioneered by Platon himself, has brought more
job opportunities, thus paving the way for a better quality of life to the people of Tanauan.
Thus, the employment opportunity through the ‘blessing’ of Platon to initiate the city
project would be referred to as a ‘basbas’ rather than just any kind of developmental
policy pursued by the local government (or the mayor). It is manifested in the localized
idiom of paghahandog vis-à-vis official projects. ‘Basbas’ is associated with the
magandang loob of the mayor through the employer’s provision of jobs.
From our discussion on magandang loob and paghahandog, it is useful to
differentiate tulong with gawa. Gawa is translated as an activity, duty, task, or deed.
(English 2005, 520) In people’s context, gawa is often seen as mechanical projects done
by officials in a barangay, something that can be seen and materialized. In order for the
gawa to be appreciated or felt, a leader is required to have a sincere loob. A politician’s
gawa is appreciated only when the loob of a person is scrutinized, whether he or she is a
good person [mabait/magaling na tao], or otherwise. Therefore, a gawa is just a
mechanical action, occurring in the realm of an official and formal politics, i.e., public
life and local development. It remains as the emotionless gawa that can only be seen
[kita] but not felt. To appreciate the gawa, this has to be scrutinized according to
whether or not there is an association of the loob with the gawa. When this connection is
26
achieved the public activity of paghahandog becomes a link to the state of a person’s
loob, gawa then becomes tulong.
On one hand, the convention way to interpret the paghahandog is that it is
feudalistic and hierarchical in nature that makes the clients submissive to the material
rewards offered by the patrons. (May 1993; Sidel 1999) On the other hand, paghahandog,
if understood as tulong, its nuances connote another dynamic of ‘moral’ politics.
My analysis of the local government newsletters clearly articulates such nuances
of paghahandog as a manifestation of tulong, where the political styles are seen to be
more than just the delivery of the gawa by politicians. One of the strategies in the writing
up of the local government’s projects is the usage of popular language to engage with the
local people. This popular language is used in such a way that the implementation of
local projects connotes the social meaning of mabait [good] and magandang loob
[kind/beautiful heart]. Especially during Platon’s period, these welfare activities
connoted tulong from a person [tao] with magandang loob instead of a local politician
[pulitiko] who only engages in the mechanical developmental purposes or gawa. The
activity of giving donations and material help – the tulong – generated not only a caring
and close-to-the people image of the politician but, more importantly, it connoted the
quality of being magandang loob at a personal level, or the level of pagkatao [moral
nature, personality].
Politician always seems to be mixing up their personal-cum-moral qualities as a
person [tao] with their public activities as a politician [pulitiko]. The ‘public’ and the
‘private’ are collapsed in this manner. The local government has implemented a variety
of paghahandog in public projects such as barangay roads, scholarship provision, and so
27
on accompanied by their sensitivity to the local interpretation of tulong. Tulong is thus
accompanied by loob or puso, ‘personified’ it into magandang loob. Here, we see that
tulong is not limited to the election period but is ‘performed’ in an unofficial manner
during everyday activities, such as the intermixing between public/private messages, the
constant inclusion or of the ordinary people in public activities, and the continuous
involvement of public servants in the realm of people’s everyday lives, making it possible
for the people to ‘submit’ to the tulong.
Locating informal realm: Pagtutulungan [helping each other] and biyaya [blessing]
To understand the ‘submission’ of ordinary people to a politician one has to
appreciate the religious aspects of tulong embedded in the act of pagtutulungan. I shall
demonstrate that there is a religious facet of tulong that matches with politicians’
manifestation of ‘moral’ politics as the above, which makes the socio-cultural practice of
tulong a negotiation of power relation between a patron and a client. More importantly,
such nuances of tulong has been tested and contextualized in the realm of religion and the
realm of their everyday life struggles. This, we need to extend our understanding of
tulong into that of pagtutulungan [helping each other] and its applicability with the
concept of biyaya [blessing]. The parallelism between these two concepts indicates the
inter-subjectivity of a secular provision of tulong and a sacred stipulation of biyaya. In
this section, I shall use awit [song] and the interviews conducted as sources to articulate
the political discourse of the masses in relation to tulong.
The rosaryo (rosary)10 songs practices are not exclusive in Tanauan. It is a
common practice among the Catholics. Neither do the songs cited below are specifically
28
used among the poor in the barangays. The usage of rosaryo praying/recitation and its
awit here is because it is a common practice by the people in everyday life and may
perhaps constitute its religious significant in ordinary people’s expression about their life
world. The rosary recitation is common practice to family members. As far as I know in
the barangay, it does not have a fix schedule for the praying. Some told me that when
his/hers emotional feelings is low, he/she will recite rosary. But the most common one
will be to recite rosary with family members (mostly mother and the children) in the
evening. Rosary is also practiced for special occasion. On the month leading to Undas,
known as “Day of the Dead” or “All Saints Day” on November 1 and 2, the people in
Barangay Angeles organized a sort of prayer group where house-to-house [dinadala
bahay-bahay] visits are conducted. This is a voluntary and community-oriented program,
and not all of the precincts [sitio] of Barangay Angeles have the same practice. Aside
from the booklet that contains the specific prayers that need to be recited, the people in
Barangay Angeles also use songs for their rosaryo praying. Such songs are obtained
from the priest of Tanauan Church, and most of the elderly obtain a copy of the songs
written in their own small booklets.
In my second fieldwork at Barangay Angeles (conducted in October and
November 2005), the village elders organized a group who visited households to
encourage families to pray the rosary. In Sitio Zambeles within the barangay, house-tohouse praying of rosaryo took place via a group composed of an average of five to six
persons. The numbers grew when the original group visited more houses, as each
household was obliged to send one family member to join in the succeeding visits to
other families. Such practices manifest the social behavior in the neighborhood as each
29
household is treated as equals, and blessings [biyaya] are to be distributed equally among
the barangay folks. Women, especially the elderly, mostly composed the rosaryo
praying. They were the people who initiated the practices and were the ones who
organized and regularly conducted the praying from one house to the next. The hours of
the prayers started from 7.00 or 7.30 in the evening and ended after an hour or so later.
Only one house was visited in one day.
Even though the rosary practices may not reflect to a greater application of
Philippine’s ordinary people politics, an analysis on rosary songs are apt to substantiate
the role of religion in the ‘public’ sphere (the community’s welfare) and not merely
confine within the ‘private’ domain as an individual salvation and spiritual pursue.
(Willford and George 2005) The house-to-house rosary praying to celebrate the Undas
day as proven from Barangay Angeles is the extension of religious role into community
affairs. A closer look at the songs below together with the interviews cited, such
manifestation of the religious acts connotes the essence of pagtutulungan that reiterates a
‘moral’ politics that requires mutual respect and help between two agents with unequal
power relations.
Pangwakas na Awit11
Walang sinuman ang nabubuhay para sa sarili lamang
Walang sinuman ang namamatay para sa sarili lamang
Tayong lahat ay may pananagutan sa isa’t-isa
Tayong lahat ay tinipon ng Diyos na kapiling niya
Sa ating pagmamahalan at paglilingkod sa kaninuman
30
Tayo ay nagdadala ng balita ng kaligtasan
Sabay-sabay ngang nag-aawitan ang mga bansa
Tayo’y tinuring ng Panginoon bilang mga anak
Closing Song
No one lives for himself alone
No one dies for himself alone
We all have responsibilities to each other
We are all gathered by God to be with Him
In our love and service to anyone
We bring news of salvation
All the nations sing together
God considers us His children
In the song above, the fourth stanza: Tayong lahat ay tinipon ng Diyos na kapiling
niya [We are all gathered by God to be with Him] indicates that human beings are
considered equal before God. Since all beings are equal, no one is superior to others;
there is no oppression, and no discrimination. Therefore, each has a duty to and is
responsible for each other (expressed in the third and fifth stanzas): Tayong lahat ay may
pananagutan sa isa’t isa [We all have responsibilities to each other] and Sa ating
pagmamahalan at paglilingkod sa kaninuman [In our love and service to anyone].
Consequently, the social responsibility of helping each other leads to salvation (in the
sixth stanza): Tayo ay nagdadala ng balita ng kaligtasan [We bring news of salvation].
In short, the notion of pagtutulungan brings salvation to others.
31
There lies a religious dimension of pagtutulungan in popular expression. Alberto,
a farmer in his early 50s, exemplifies this religious idea of pagtutulungan in his
statements below.12 He was telling me his opinions and frustration regarding the changes
in society in relation to how people in a barangay used to help each other regardless of
being rich or poor. At present, he bemoans, such mutual help, cutting across social
differences, is slowly disappearing.
We need unity [pagkakaisa]. We should help each other. When our country was
not yet developed and there were no advanced machineries, people made
makeshift roads. I remember that the people then helped each other [tulongtulong]. If you have a child who’s getting married, all your neighbors, friends,
and relatives would help out. They would give two chickens, two cups of rice. It
was better then! People were disciplined then. But now, even siblings don’t help
each other out even if one is in the hospital. It’s like, if you drown, you have to
save yourself. [Bahala ka sa buhay mo] This happens now.13
In Alberto’s opinion, to become a developed nation, helping each other is the prerequisite
and a society should be unified where people help each other, regardless of whether they
are rich or poor, relative or otherwise. His frustration of Philippine community and the
desire for pagtutulungan somehow parallel to the song mentioned above that helping
each other is the key toward salvation, or in laymen term, development leads to lessening
the economic hardship of the people. And such mutual help does not connote a
hierarchical relation between the two parties. All are must be treated equally in order to
manifest the pagtutulungan.
32
The necessity to practice pagtutulungan in equal manner extends to the realm of
politics. For its social function to be familiarized, it should set out in both directions
between the recipient and provider of tulong. This is exemplified in the conversation
below between Mariana and Jun on the ‘proper’ way of how a politician should deal with
people’s everyday life:
Mariana: She should have fulfilled her promise [pangako] so that if she ever
wants to run for office again, she already has a support base [may maaasahan na
sila]. But now that she lost, she also broke her promise.
Jun: Corona is better because he gives panty (fish net). He gives blessings
[nakakabiyaya] and he’s dependable [may inaasahan].14
Mariana was expressing her disappointment with the way Sonia Torres-Aquino -- now a
mayor of Tanauan after the Supreme Court declared she was the winner on the 2004
election and won another term on May 2010 election -- broke her promise [pangako] of
providing employment to the people of Tanauan. This indicated to Mariana that TorresAquino’s intention behind the promise was purely for election purposes (to garner votes).
Her promises of employment are an act different from that of pagtutulungan (i.e.,
practiced by Alfredo Corona) because Torres-Aquino did not intend to continue to
provide help after she lost the election. It would have been better for Torres-Aquino if, as
Mariana suggested, she fulfilled her promise so that she would have supporters in the
next election [may maaasahan na sila]. This is contrasted with Corona’s actions as
described by Jun. Corona is considered good [magaling] because his act of giving
33
fishnets indicates that his intention was a genuine provision of tulong, as seen from the
fact that he delivered on his promise, as opposed to Torres-Aquino who did not. Hence,
Corona’s action spoke of authenticity, and by virtue of such, he practices pagtutulungan.
The context of pagtulungan in the conversations above showcases how tulong
goes in two directions, from the recipient to the provider and vice versa, as indicated by
the –‘an’ in maaasahan and aasahan. According to Leo James English, in Tagalog, ‘-an’
is a “suffix of some verbs connoting the place where a certain action takes place” or
“connoting reciprocal action.” (English 2005, 48) Asa (noun: or pag-asa) has several
meanings: hope, dependence, trust, chance, and anticipation. (Ibid, 77) When the suffix
‘–an’ is added to the noun of asa, such as in the speech above by Mariana ‘may maasahan
na sila [referring to the politicians/Torres-Aquino’s camp]’ it means able to be reckoned
or depended on. This indicates the support given by the people to the politicians such as
in Torres-Aquino’s camp. While in Jun’s speech, inaasahan [to rely on, to anticipate, to
bargain for, to expect] (ibid) indicates someone who is trustworthy and can be
approached [nalalapitan] for tulong. In other words, the first instance (Mariana’s
disappointment) manifests the pagtulungan [helping each other], indicated by the ‘–an’
verb that one (politician) is required to perform as a social responsibility so that the
receiver (voters) will never forget and help in return in terms of votes. The second
instance is indicated by Jun’s perception of Corona as dependable, where there is a space
for the people to negotiate with the politician, connoting that the act of Corona’s tulong to
the people through giving is one of pagtutulungan. That is to say, pagtutulungan in this
context between a candidate and voter does not rely on the material reward (or gawa)
34
such as job provision and fishnet. What is more important, at least in this conversation is
the ‘moral’ politics at play as manifested in the nuance of pagtutulungan.
One interesting aspect of Jun’s interpretation of Corona’s pagtutulungan is the
association with the religious idea of biyaya: nakabiyaya and may inaasahan [He gives
blessings and he’s dependable]. Biyaya or grasya as a noun means favor given, blessing,
grace, good fortune, and gift. (Ibid, 214) Biyaya in the context of the speeches above by
Jun can be translated into our notion of tulong, where the appreciation of tulong pertains
to the sincerity of the provider as a way to save people from their miseries rather than to
be seen as a means to solve problems at the surface level. Again, to him, Corona’s gift is
seen as tulong translated into the religious idea of pagtutulungan and expressed in terms
of biyaya where each person is helping the other reach out for a better life - on the
politician’s side it may be the need to garner support to stay in office, and to the ordinary
people it is to be able to receive help when needed.
In looking at the song below, Jun’s expression on biyaya somehow corresponds to
the religious idea of biyaya:
Mahal na Birhen (DG?)
Mahal na birhen
Mahal na mahal kita
Ikaw ay amin
Kami ay sa Iyo
Ina kayo ang aming Ina
sa pananalangin
sanay mahalin mo kami
35
Ama makapangyarihan sa lahat
Awa ang kailangan ko sa Iyo
Nawa’y kaawaan mo kami
sa aming mga kailangan
* Huwag mo kaming pababayaan
Pag-asa koy
Ikaw lamang
Amaing panginoon Hesus
Awa at biyaya moy (2x)
Aming hinihintay
(Repeat *)
Beloved Virgin (DG?)
Beloved virgin
We love most
You are ours
We are yours
You are our mother
Of prayers
We hope you love us
Father the almighty of all
Have mercy on my obligations (or needs?) to you
36
May you have mercy on us
On our obligations (or needs?)
* Do not neglect us
You are our
Only hope
Jesus God
Your mercy and blessing (2x)
We wait for
(Repeat *)
Ina ng Biyaya (5th mystery song)
Mahal na birhen
Oh Ina ng Diyos
Iparalangin mo kami sa aming
mga kasalanan
upang kami’y patawarin
sa aming mga sala
upang kami’y pagpalain
sa aming mga kahilingan
*Oh maria ina ng biyaya
tulungan mo kami sa aming
37
mga suliranin
Upang buyaya ng Diyos (2x)
Ay mapa sa amin
(Repeat *)
Mother of Blessing (5th mystery song)
Beloved virgin
Oh Mother of God
Pray to us
For our sins
While we are contemplating
Of our sins
While we are granting
Our requests
*Oh maria the mother of blessing
Show us your help in us
On our problems
While the reward of God (2x)
As a map to us
(Repeat*)
38
The first song indicates the non-existence of a hierarchy between Mary and the faithful.
This is shown in stanza four and five ‘Ikaw ay amin, Kami ay sa Iyo.’ The blessing from
Maria, of which Maria is seen as the mother of blessing indicated by the second song, is
accompanied by the awa [mercy]. In second song of stanza 9 to 13, ‘Oh maria ina ng
biyaya tulungan mo kami sa aming mga suliranin Upang buyaya ng Diyos Ay mapa sa
amin’ indicates that the blessing is a guide (or map) to the needy in the midst of miseries,
not as a parameter to repent one’s sin. (Rafael 2000) In layman terms, the tulong
provided by politicians is sincere and genuine in supporting the needy. The essence of
the tulong is to free someone from the life miseries. Both parties are at equal status in
society and should be treated with mutual respect and love.
Tulong, if seen in a secular aspect, is an activity to make those in need, a means to
escape from their inability state. In quite a similar manner, biyaya and pagtutulungan,
which are perhaps two religious concepts judging from the song, embed a sacred entity of
tulong. Because the voter has helped a candidate due to the candidate’s request for help to
put them in the office, the people’s casting of the vote is a blessing to the candidate. In
other words, the politician was blessed to have his position as a public servant, and
people ‘save’ him/her from losing in the election. On one hand, the act of the politician’s
giving is seen as biyaya because it is an act of salvation to free the poor from their
problems. On the other hand, it is reciprocated in the religious context of pagtutulungan
in terms of the vote, because both the people and politician are equal before God, i.e.,
they move beyond the superior-inferior divide and are freed from discrimination in the
eyes of God. Thus, each human being should respect each other and help each other
under this condition of equality. To bless someone is therefore at the same time to be
39
blessed in return because without the blessing of each other, whether coming from a
politician or a voter, neither would be saved from their miseries. One would lose an
election, while the other would not get help in a time of need.
Conclusion
Tulong, whether it is studied through political economist, culturalist, or
structuralist approaches, it has always been a constitutive practice and a convenient
concept that tie the bind between a patron and a client, disguised in materialist rewards or
personal services, which simply seen as a gawa.
This paper uses the approaches that stress the analysis of the lexicon of language,
culture, and religion. Tulong, as a constitutive practice in patron-client ties have been
studied in various aspects resulting in the development of many concepts such as hiya,
utang na loob, love, pity, kapwa, gawa, among others. In following the works of Ileto,
Cannell, and Kervkliet among the others, I contend that there is the religious side of
tulong, which can be identified in the social practice of paghahandog and the religiocultural practices of pagtutulungan, biyaya, and asa. When the religious facet of tulong
such as mabait and biyaya is included; tulong serves as another terrain of politics
stemming from the ‘clients’.
This paper argues that to understand ordinary people’s politics, it is essential to
decode and interpret the concept of tulong not merely from a political economic and
cultural aspect, but more importantly from a sociological and religious aspect. What is
lacking in the former approaches is the taken for granted religious sentiment of tulong
especially from the interpretation of the ‘clients’’ side, their perception of ‘submission’
40
into the tulong provided by the patron, in other words, their acceptance of tulong.
Through the analysis of people’s religious understanding, tulong serves as a means or
medium to free themselves from their everyday hardship. To depend or receive tulong
from politicians is to utilize such tulong to free oneself. In this context, there is a religiocultural tie with patron akin to Christ’s salvation to mankind.
The religiosity of tulong, perhaps can broaden our understanding of political
studies in the Philippines going beyond formal political institutions, electoral politics, and
political economy, and allows us to understand the political understanding, ‘culture,’ and
rationality of the ordinary people or the ‘clients’, frequently shifting their politics in
religion and religion in politics, and collapsing the domain between ‘public’ and
‘private’. This perhaps allow us to be able to grasp the discourse of their choices made on
desired politicians, if not to agree with them, whom may not seen as a democratic and
‘clean’ politician based on the conventional political science model. What is essential to
us is to locate the informal realm of the ‘politicking’ among the masses and to recognize
their languages of contestation.
1
Ordinary people, masses or masa, the poor, the peasants, or subordinates will be used
inter-changeably in this paper.
2
Note that most data collected presented in this paper are based on fieldwork in 2005.
3
Born in August 26, 1946 in Tanauan, Batangas to parents Vicente Castillo Platon and
Dolores Veneracion Platon, the late former mayor of Tanauan pursued his primary
education (first to fourth grade) at Tanauan Elementary School and transferred to Our
Lady of Fatima Academy to finish his fifth to sixth grades. In his secondary education,
he attended Ateneo de San Pablo in San Pablo City, Laguna. He graduated with a
Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce at the University of Sto. Tomas. The background of
Cesar Platon can be obtained from the Tanauan City Library.
41
Yazaki-Toress Manufacturing Inc. exports automotive parts to the US, Japan, and
Europe. It generates exports of US$170 million annually, with avenue of P7 billion
annually and employs almost 6000 personnel. See
http://www.gov.ph/news/default.asp?i=2259
4
5
For the discussion on the contestation of the poor on the politicians, see Soon 2008.
6
Meeting held on 8 February 2005 at the Tanauan City Hall.
Tanauan became a city status in 2001. Since then, Tanauan City’s major programs have
been shifted into manufacturing sector.
7
Meeting held on 19 April 2005 at Barangay Gonzales and Mahabang Buhagin,
Barangay Maria Paz, Tanauan City.
8
The issues analyzed vary from year to year depending on the availability of issues. For
Tanauan Muna Balita, the following issues were used: July–December 1997; January–
March, April–June, July–September 1999; January–March, July–September 2000. For
Tan-aw: April–September 2001, October–December, December (Special Issue) 2001;
April–June, July–August, September–October, November–December 2002; January–
February, March–April, May–June, July–August, September–October, November–
December 2003; January–February, March–April, July–August, September–October,
November–December 2004; January–February, May–June, July–August 2005.
9
Pope John Paul II added the Luminous Mysteries on 16 October 2002. A brief account
on the history of rosary can be obtained (though not in a complete manner) from Fr.
Paolo O. Pirlo, The New Rosary (Paranaque City: Sons of Holy Mary ImmaculateQuality Catholic Publication, 2002); Anne Winston-Allen, ‘Tracing the Origins of the
Rosary: German Vernacular Texts’, Speculum 68, 3 (1993): 619-636 and Stories of the
Rose: The Making of the Rosary in the Middle Ages (Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania
State University Press, 1997); Michael P. Carroll, ‘Praying the Rosary: The Anal-Erotic
Origins of Popular Catholic Devotions’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 26, 4
(1987): 486-498.
10
This is a song composed by a Filipino Jesuit Fr. Eduardo Hontiveros (20 December
1923 – 15 January 2008) entitled ‘Pananagutan’[Responsibility]. The title indicated in
this paper follows the title in the booklet of the barangay folks. The reason for the change
of title is unknown. All the songs cited in this paper are obtained from the barangay folks.
11
The names of individuals and family (and locations) have been altered. Translations are
edited and transcriptions are verbatim. The author would like to thank Ms. Charmaine
Misalucha for her assistances in the translations and transcriptions.
12
13
Alberto. Interview by the author, Barangay Angeles, Tanauan City, 18 April 2005.
14
A conversation between Jun and Mariana. Interview by the author, Barangay Angeles,
Tanauan City, 14 April 2005.
42
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Soon Chuan Yean is a lecturer in the Political Science section, School of Social Sciences,
Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from
the National University of Singapore, where he studied Philippine local politics at the
Southeast Asian Studies Programme. In addition to local politics in the Philippines,
especially at the barrio area, his interests include the culture of politics, religion and
politics, popular culture, and state-society relations in Malaysian politics.
<chuanyean@usm.my>
47