Polls soaked in blood

With national elections due on May 10, the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research has predicted that this campaign will be the most violent yet, with 90 dead already.

But it depends when you start counting. Last October, the police announced that 75 local office-holders had already died in the first nine months of 2009.

There were a further 16 election-related deaths between January 10 and March 6 this year. Add the victims of last November's massacre, when 57 people were slaughtered on their way to witness the registration of an aspirant's candidacy for the governorship of the southern province of Maguindanao, and you have a partial total of 148.

How to explain this electoral mayhem?

Is reaction attempting to ensure that people will be terrorised into voting against progressive forces seeking to break with the "Washington consensus?" If not, is some other great national principle at stake? No.

The vast majority of those who have died so far have been incumbent or aspirant office-holders at a local level. The desire to gain, or continue holding, public office and its material rewards - many of which are illegal - is all there is to it. This speaks volumes about the poverty of the society and the extent to which the political culture has been degraded.

There are those who lay a large part of the responsibility for the deaths at the door of political warlords and their private armies. Indeed, the aforementioned institute says that these constitute a key factor in the current epidemic.

That's almost certainly correct, but to stop there is like saying that food riots are caused by hungry people on the one hand and greedy hoarders on the other without explaining how the situation was created in the first place.

Take 380 years of colonialism and over half a century of neocolonial domination.

Add an "export-oriented" economy that, crafted by the IMF and World Bank, is chronically unable to achieve a positive balance of trade or cater to the needs of the people.

Blend in a social structure that bears more than a passing resemblance to that over which the Spanish ruled, and a political system manufactured in Washington.

Inject a generous dash of Catholic dogma to ensure that the supply of Filipinos remains plentiful and cheap. Finally, take care that the mixture is relatively free of that sour-tasting - to elite and foreign palates - ingredient called national identity and vision. Stir well, and you have the Philippines.

This is the recipe responsible for so many of the ills that plague this country, including political murders. But as this is an election period, it might be thought that this would be an ideal opportunity for one or two visionary presidential candidates to roll out a programme aimed at tackling the deep-seated, fundamental problems and mobilising the electorate behind it.

That politics is characterised by individualism rather than national vision may be gauged from the fact that, until the Commission on Elections whittled down the list to nine, there were around 100 prospective candidates for the presidency.

Of the remaining nine, five have no chance whatsoever. With regard to the four front-runners, their commitment to seeking lasting solutions to the Philippines' problems may be measured by their positions on just two of the issues included in the above "recipe" - the "export-oriented" economic model and population management.

None of them has expressed any interest in ditching the foreign-dominated economic model and only one can be said to support the reproductive health Bill that has languished through several congresses - and he's not leading a charge on the issue.

All four front-runners appear to disregard the nationalist provisions of the constitution, particularly article II, section 19, which reads: "The state shall develop a self-reliant and independent national economy effectively controlled by Filipinos."

In this, they are not alone, for this provision has been ignored by all governments since the present constitution was adopted in 1987.

Until this changes, the problems mentioned earlier will remain and Filipinos will continue to die in election campaigns fought over the mere desire for office and its spoils.

Who are these would-be presidents? The only thing Star readers really need to know for the time being is that, as she is constitutionally bound to step down on June 30, the incumbent Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is not one of them.

What of those scare stories that predicted that, as her opponents have threatened to bring charges against her for electoral fraud and corruption once she loses her presidential immunity, Arroyo would run for a congressional seat, force through constitutional change and have her colleagues elect her prime minister in a parliamentary system? She's running for a congressional seat.