Lust for public office

Published in Mindanao Times 7/29/08

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA) has barely two years left before she will step down from her office. By that time, we will once again have an election, which has become “the arbiter of political succession.”

To the people, it is still early for aspirants to make frantic noise. Yet the sight of politicos—presidentiables, those seeking reelection, and those eyeing for a seat in Congress—endorsing commercial products, is a subtle indication that the race for 2010 election is on. Indeed, election campaign has began, albeit not officially.

This prompted Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago to file a petition in the Comelec, seeking a restraining order against these commercial ads from being advertised. They are “blatantly engaging in unlawful premature campaign,” Santiago was quoted as saying. On the other hand, Senator Panfilo Lacson, himself an endorser of a skin care product for men, explains his side: “It is within our rights to endorse a product. Maybe there are some who do not want other senators to make endorsements because no one would get them.” Acerbic-tongued as she is, Santiago said, “this is a blatant prevarication since none of these politicians have a history of pursuing a career as a commercial model. The tortured explanations of these errant politicians are proof in itself that they are breaking the law.”

This political bickerings that usually filled the pages of our newspapers, the people are always stumped by these questions: Why the lust for public office? What seems to lure every aspirant so that he/she exploits every conceivable means just to ensure his/her sure win?
Make no mistake about it; it’s not the salary one gets when one is a President, a Vice President, a Senator, or a Congressman. The salaries of these four officials occupying high positions in the government are relatively small. For example, according to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the highest salary a President—being the highest official of the land whose salary grade is 33—can receive, is only P963, 000.00 per year. Serving for six years, the President receives P5,778, 000.00 throughout his/her term.

Especially in the Philippines where “running for office at any level of government is prohibitively expensive, so that only the wealthy or those backed by wealth can usually think about standing for elections,” political economist Walden Bello says, the figures above pale in magnitude when compared to the amount a Presidential candidate, or any aspirant for that matter, spends during elections.

Consider the 2004 election. AC Nielsen, a media research firm, reported that Prospero Pichay, then representative of Surigao del Sur and a Senatorial candidate, allegedly spent an average of P2.24 million on political ads alone, excluding other campaign related expenses like posters and other paraphernalia. Other big spenders were mostly from Team Unity (TU), seven of which are: Sen. Ralph Recto, P137.440 million; Mike Defensor, P121.480 million; former senator Teresa Aquino-Oreta, P117.154 million; former senator Vicente Sotto III, P115.923 million; Bukidnon Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri, P105.596 million; Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson, P99.035 million; and Zambales Gov. Vicente Magsaysay, P88.387 million.

The eye-popping figures the candidates spent on political ads are most telling. They are eloquent testaments to the aspirants’ willingness to take any costs just to secure a seat in the government.

Clearly, running for elections is expensive. But why do political candidates run the risk of spending large sums of money even if what they spend is greater than the salary they will receive? Despite the unglamorous salaries they receive, what fires them to  lust for government positions?  Could it be that they run, spending millions and billions of pesos, in the spirit of serving the Filipino people?

Although this country had seen the likes of Jose Diokno, Lorenzo Tañada, Jovito Salonga, and Ninoy Aquino whose impetus for being senators was service, is public office really the only route one ought to take to serve the Filipino people?