Filipinos are big on being loyal and acknowledging debts of gratitude. It’s our strong suit, but it could also be our undoing.
Nowhere are these contrasting effects more evident than in the current jockeying for positions under the incoming administration—local and national alike.
During the campaign, ‘benevolent’ contributors sink their resources—money, access to facilities, time and talent—into candidates who use them to widen their reach and make themselves more visible to the voters.
The unarticulated promise is payback in terms of appointments or favorable transactions. There may be no explicit agreement as to what would happen afterwards, but the “utang na loob” mentality guarantees that they would have at least a voice and would not be sidelined.
The winning candidates are thus placed in an awkward situation: They may choose to acknowledge that debt and act accordingly. If, however, doing so would be too objectionable or too controversial for them, they could then say that they would only make decisions according to how they see fit—but risk being called an ingrate.
For instance, an influential religious leader in Mindanao has denied holding grudges against presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte for allegedly ignoring his “suggestions” on how to populate the new Cabinet. This religious leader has reportedly been magnanimous to the Davao City mayor during the campaign.
Duterte for his part has said he would entertain no endorsements from external parties because he would like to make decisions on his own. This, even as his initial choices have hovered between “acceptable” and “frustrating.”
We wonder to what extent this penchant for payback has doomed our nation to mediocre or even bad choices, just because politicians limit themselves to work only with those who have been supportive of them.
We wonder too how many would be called ungrateful for refusing to pay back a debt when it is unwise—even detrimental—to do so.
Today it is Duterte and all other officials who won the polls. But the dilemma has been here for decades and will remain for a long time. It will hound us until those propped up by donations make it clear to their supporters that the rewards will come, not in the form of decisions favorable to them, but in transparent and merit-based appointments that would benefit the country as a whole.