By Sensei M. Adorador
In one of my class lectures, a student asked me, “Sir, there are brilliant people who graduated from the University. Some of them graduated with honors and have proven leadership, but why doesn’t our country progress?”
I answered my student that it is because their understanding of progress is privatized rather than publicized. They don’t think of what the institution can do but what the institution can do for them. Indeed, our top universities produce the best and the brightest among our leaders; however, we cannot deny that they also yielded the worst.
In my four years interviewing students whether they want to teach in public schools after they graduate, most of them said no and instead wanted to teach abroad. When I asked them why, they had the following answers. First, the salary of teachers in the Philippines does not attract the best and brightest in class. Second is the issue of corruption in government service.
Kung walang kilala, walang kang magagawa
I always start my lecture on the first day of class with, “I’m not discouraging you. However, always think that no matter how good you are, there are always people who will get ahead of you when it comes to employment. That is people with connections.”
In the government service, especially in local government agencies, cronyism and nepotism are always the names of the game. The majority of the workers in the municipal hall are relatives or people who are close to the mayor. Thus, the expression: “Kilala ako ni Mayor or malakas kami kay Mayor.” It is because the mayor has a debt of gratitude to those people who catapulted him into his position. Those people were also his campaign managers during the election period.
In sociology, it is called the Social Exchange Theory, which is predicated on give-and-take. You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours. People close to the mayor will also get their family members into the employment circle in exchange for their support and loyalty.
This is also true in the Department of Education, where applicants are ranked based on their qualifications. If you have relatives in higher positions, it is easy for you to secure your place in the ranking, slipping past those who may have better qualifications. There is also the matter of politicians’ involvement. They ask for the blessings of congressmen, governors, or even mayors to secure their teaching slot and overtake those who worked hard for their ranking positions. In every government agency, this is the practice despite the government’s campaign to ensure that there will be no favoritism in hiring.
We can’t help but choose the ones we already know. This makes monitoring much more manageable. However, some of them happen to have inferior qualifications to those who applied. Thus, the government is branded as inutile, untrustworthy, and corrupt. One incident was that a licensed registered worker was not hired because they preferred the applicant who did not even pass the Civil Service Exam. That applicant was also under-board but was a niece of the higher-ups.
In the Duterte Administration, this also happened. He hired retired military officers and people from Davao to work under his thumb, but what happened? Most of them failed as leaders. There was one member whose role was to spread lies through disinformation. Another is known for being a red-tagging queen. Maybe because she has the evil eye accusing all government critics of being members of the Communist Party of the Philippines. One is the poster boy of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. There are many more whom the President put in position because of their unwavering support during his candidacy. Still, the “kilala mentality” continues to exist and remains detrimental to the government’s workforce.
Padrino system as the spoils system
This trait of “kilala” exhibits malpolitics for the sake of personal gains. The expansion of the network is evidence of scarcity of resources or that someone has been monopolizing such resources. To combat that, you need to have strong connections to gain the upper hand or relevance in society. Strong connections will earn you favors and advantages over the others.
I can still remember one engineering student. He didn’t worry about his job when he graduates because his father has a position in the Department of Public Works and Highways. He said, “When I graduate, my father will retire. I will soon take his place. I will also bring my friends to work together with me.”
This is somehow good because he thought of bringing his friends with him to take over his father’s service and influence in the department. However, it can be subject to jealousy and unfair treatment. Other workers also aspire for their children to work there. They wish for their relatives and others they may know to apply for the position.
This is the reality in government. When someone retires, they will choose their successors to make them relevant. This successor will reciprocate the effort and give favor to the person who put him in the position. This is called utang na loob. At work, there is this practice of the Padrino system or patronage. They will favor those who are part of the party. If they are “kontra partido,” they will be out of the job or denied promotion no matter how good they are.
Pierre Bourdieu explains this phenomenon as Social Capital, where the privileged class, due to “kilala” translates into a privilege for oneself. To others, it simply happened because there is a scarcity of resources, or someone controls the resources. Understandably, they need to expand or become sycophants to people in power to get what they want.
Good social networks are a slogan of most fraternities. Joining the fraternities will give you access to connections in private and public offices. That is the reason why people join fraternities—to connect with their brods in position. However, this is not limited to fraternities. It can be in organizations, schools, and regions, similar to what the Duterte government practices.
Roots and moro-moro campaign
Tracing the roots of this, one of the Filipino traits is personalism. They establish their personal relationship with their kin. This can be seen in some significant events such as baptism and weddings. Some invite politicians or influential people in society to be their ninongs or ninangs not because they are responsible but due to their influence and future purposes.
Although this may seem like a positive trait, it is detrimental because the close-knitted relationships promote corruption in favor of people close to the powerful. This is precisely what brings down the leaders—cronyism. History knows Ferdinand Marcos for his abuse of power and wealth attributed to his cronies.
Despite the Civil Service’s call to lessen the rampant practice of patronage in government positions, it still always prevails in government agencies. The demand for vacancies in the bulletin is a mere display or for the sake of posting. Nevertheless, there are already people who will occupy the position; it can be an outsider or the relative of a high-ranking officer.
My student asked me in class, “Sir, why is it that despite the prominent Padrino system in government, it still has not been addressed? I answered him, “Because it has been normalized by the system. Even people in the highest position practice it; therefore, people in the rank-and-file will also practice it because their models are the higher-ups.
Suppose you are part of a government agency. Are you willing to call their attention to their corruption when you could lose your job or keep silent because it does not bother you and you have a family to feed? The answer is always the latter, and that is how we privatized the situation and never publicize it. That is the reason why we are also part of this social cancer. Despite its promise of stability, do you still want to join a festering government workforce?
The author is a faculty member of the College of Education of Carlos Hilado Memorial State College -Talisay Campus in Negros Occidental. He is also affiliated with the Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND).
