314
1997
I,
PHILIPPINE ELECTIONS:
THE RIGHT TO PoLITICAL PARTICIPATION
IN AN ELITE DEMOCRACY
ANNA LEAH FIDEUS T. CASTANEDA*
INTRODUCTION
This., paper studies the current legal structure for electoral participation in the
Philippines and evaluates, in the light of emerging norms in international Ia w towards
a "democr~tic entitlement" as well as the reality of contemporary Philippine politics,
how effecth{ely this structure enables the majority of the Filipino people to participate
in the goverfiance of their nation.
President Fidel V. Ramos has described the Philippines as a "functioning
democracy, not a country in transition, not a newly democratic country, but a country
with sturdy and effective democratic institutions and a robust democratic culture that
is shared by virtually all the Filipino people." 1 Indeed, even as a colony, the Philippines
experienced feat'ures of democratic government, notably elections. As early as 1642,
the Spanish Cortes h~g.alreadypassed an ordinance allowing prominent natives of
the colony a limitd right to participate in the selection of municipal officials. 2 The
introdnction and development of democratic institutions in the colonial context became
a goal of the American government when the Philippines was ceded to it by Spain at
the close of the Spanish-American War. In a proclamation, President McKinley stated
that:
The United States is not only willing, b¥t anxious, to establish ... an enlightened
system of government under which the Philippine people may enjoy the largest
measure of home rule and the amplest liberty consonant with the supreme ends of
government and compatible with those obligations which the United States has
assumed towards the civilized nations of the world.'
Institutions aside, democratic. aspirations run deep in the Filipino people.
Influenced by the Enlightenment ideas of nineteenth century Spanish liberals, the
political thinkers of the Philippine Revolution utilized the "compact theory"• and
• LL.M. 1996, iiarvard Univ:~sity; Juris Doctor 1993, Class Salutatorian, Ateneo de Manila University
School of Law; Ed1tor-m-Chiel 11992·93), Ateneo lAw Journal. The writer acknowledges the invaluable
assistance of Professor Henry J. Steiner.
1
Fidel V. Ramos, President of the Republic of the Philippines, Address before the Kennedy School of
Government on the Occ~sion o~ theWorking VJS~t to the United States of America (UN 50th Anniversary),
ARCO Forum o' Pt..bhc Affairs, flarvard Umversi:y, Cambridge, MA (October 20, 1995).
2
Joss P. LAuREL,PHILIPI'lNE LAw ON Eu;crtONS45(1940), ciling the Ordinanceof1642 which gave certain prominent
natives the right to vote for gobernadorcillos and cabezas de barangay.
' CESARADIB MAJUL, PO!.rrtCALANDCONSTITUTIONAL IDEAS OF THE i>HIUPPlNE REvoLUTION 11 (1967).
' ld. at 189.
PouncAL PARTICIPATION IN AN EuTE DEMOCRACY 315
drafted a constitution establishing a government along republican lines. 5 Only ten
years ago, the Filipino people dramatically expressed their commitment to democracy
with their televised popular revolution against the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos
which started a worldwide democratic resurgence. 6
Of all the Asian countries, the Philippines' experience of democracy has been the
longest. But perhaps the peculiar manner in which democratic institutions were
transplanted to and grew in Philippine soil has made the experience of Philippine
democracy different from that intended by the theory underlying its form. Certainly, it
would be difficult to find in the Philippine model of democrasy a government
representative of the majority of the Filipino people and responsive to the prE:ferences
of its citizens. Although agrarian reform has long been considered necessary for social
reform, a landlord-dominated Congress from the administrations of Manuel L. Quezon
to Corazon C. Aquino has consistently resisted or watered down attempts to pass
meaningful agrarian reform legislation. Thus, the consistent observation of political
science scholars studying Philippine politics is that "Philippine democracy, though
complete with formal structures and processes that accompany it, has been
characterized as an elitist democracy (Abueva, 1990), a cacique democracy (Andersen,
1988), an oligarchic democracy and bourgeois democracy. 7"
'
The Filipino people's right to democratic governance is protected by the Philippine
Constitution.8 Additionally, however, Professor Thomas Franck argues that "the right
of people to be consulted in a meaningful fashion is ... protected ... by international
law." 9 The collapse of dictatvrships in the last decade, whether by the proletariat
under socialist or communist regime~ o~ by autocratic governments suspending
democracy in the name of modernization, has been viewed by a number of international
law scholars as evidence of the emergence of a "democratic entitlement" under
international law:
So we stand an the cusp of a remarkable new idea: that each state owes an
obligation of democratic governance to all other states as a price of its membership
in the community of nations. And more: each govern:ner,t, as an incident of
membership in the globally intergovernmental system, owes to each of its citizens
the acknowledgment of his or her right to participate meaningfully in the process of
governance. More extraordinarily still is the ensuing legal premise that when a
citizen is denied the democratic entitlement by his or her government, a form of
cause of action may lie in an a ppropriP te international forum, which may determine-r
whether the denial is lawful. Finally, if the denial is not sustained, the interhational
; Id. at 5.
• See Thomas Franck, The Emerging Right to Democratic Governance, 86 AM. J. INT'L. L. 46, 49 (1992)
[hereinafter Franck, Democratic Goveman,e].
7 ERIC GUTIERREZ, ALLIN THE FAMILY: A STUDY OF ELITES AND DowER RELATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES 7, quoting Alex
Brillantes of the University of th~ Philippines (1992) [hereinafter GUTIERREZ, FAMILY].
' PHIL. CONST. art. II, § 1 provides: "The Philippines is a dem'lcratic and republican state. Sovereignty
resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them."
' Thomas Franck, The Democratic Entitlement, 29 UN IV. OF RICHMOND L. REv. 1, 6 (1994) [hereinafter Franck,
Democratic Entitlement).