The Good Fight

Happy 60th Anniversary to the Liberal Party, and congratulations to the Liberal Philippines Inc. for coming out with this book, adding to the very limited collections on Philippine politics and electoral campaigns. The more books the better politicians and voters are served.

With apologies to the book edited by Ronald Faucheux and Paul Herrnson bearing the same title, let me start this book critique on ethics and virtues.

Is there ethics in politics? I dare say there is. In fact I can point out several authors/philosophers from Nicolo Machiavelli to Sun Tzu; from the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene to Thick Face, Black Heart by Chin-Ning Chu; from Kant’s categorical imperative, which is central to modern deontological ethics, to Plato and Aristotle’s philosophies of ethics, known as virtue ethics or character ethics.

Virtue ethics is different from consequentialism/deontology (Kant) and utilitarianism (John Stuart Mill). Virtue ethics is not focused on actions. Kantian and utilitarian systems try to provide guiding principles for actions that allow a person to decide how to behave in any given situation. Virtue ethics, by contrast, focuses on what makes a good person, rather than what makes a good action. As such it is often associated with a teleological ethical system – one that seeks to define the proper telos (goal or end) of the human person.

I also adhere to what the famous couple Mary Matalin and James Carville once said: “the only way to get to govern is to get elected. Campaigning is the ugly price they pay for the opportunity to practice ‘statecraft”.

I believe the dilemma that the book wanted to depict can be best summed up with one basic question: can candidates who take the “high road” get elected? Did candidates Dina Abad and Neric Acosta struggled to win the elections without losing their souls? Acosta had to respond to the vile; Abad had to fight an Abad. One can say that the coupons of BULIG redeemable for goods and services MAY just be likened to buying votes or the fact that another Abad (incumbent’s wife) is needed to fill in a former Abad MAY be considered dynastic or even the revelation that “it was not her husband’s but instead the Liberal Party’s decision to make her the party’s congressional candidate” smacks at trapo behavior.

What stands out in the case of Dina Abad and Neric Acosta are: 1) both are from political families; 2) both are viewed as reform-minded; 3) both are from provinces that do not necessarily exhibit the behavior depicted in a normal political curve (Batanes has a total of 8,872 registered voters while Bukidnon has 559,530), hence the study begs the question can we use the “models” in areas with greater voter population with high voter turnout, say Manila, Kalookan, Pangasinan or the battleground provinces of CALABARZON or in media centers such as Cebu City, Davao and Cagayan de Oro or those areas sharing the political behavior of Mega Manila such as the Province of Bulacan, or those branded as special operations area, such as ARMM, or even for national candidates?

A question in mind is if candidates are viewed as “reform-oriented”, does it follow that they will adopt an alternative electoral campaign?

What do we mean by alternative campaign strategies? Would this mean less expense? Would this mean not adopting TRAPO strategies? What are TRAPO strategies – Guns, Goons and Gold? In the last 2004 elections, a number of people have said that doing political ads is going the trapo way because it is driven by one of the 3Gs, Gold. One candidate in fact said that a senatorial candidate can be No.1 if he has money and can have a lot of ads. I am sorry to say that it takes more than just the visuals and sounds to be No. 1. The secret lies in planning and execution and the ability to get a good reading of the public pulse scientifically.

Will alternative campaign strategies result in more reform-oriented elected officials?

What resonates? Acosta and Abad valued engagement. BULIG/BINHI is an example of issue-based engagement. Members of the organization saw character in Acosta and valued it. The book referred to character as “candidate’s intention”. Abad, despite being an ipula, did not merely relied in being an Abad. She did what she was used to as an activist and advocate and brought the issues house-to-house – that is also character!

As a political consultant, I value winning because then you can engage in statecraft. After winning, servicing becomes center to our consciousness. Winning is the best part. It is exhilarating. But governing is a test of character and it is here when we can see how a candidate stands by his commitments and pursues reform. I would rather have 25 reform-minded elected officials doing their jobs well, wherever they may be, than 2 reform-minded candidates, winning and yet losing the battle.