Priorities for Parties

Strong competitive parties are necessary for a strong and inclusive democracy, where the State protects the political and economic rights of both majority and minority groups, the rule of law prevails, and there is equal opportunity to justice. Philippine political parties, however, can be characterized as weak in general.

For sociologist Randolf David, the following characteristics of Philippine political parties make them quite different from North American and West-European parties:
(1) official membership is limited to politicians, (2) there is no regular recruitment of non-politician members, (3) there are no regular sources for party funds, (4) there are few party activities outside the election season, (5) party platforms are prepared mainly for compliance with State documentary requirements, and (6) loyalty to personalities is stronger than party loyalty. (David, 170)

David gave this assessment in 1996, before the Bayan Muna (People First) party was organized in 1999 and won seats in Congress since 2001 and every succeeding election. Bayan Muna is the political party of a militant mass movement that identifies foreign domination and feudal bondage as the basic problems of Philippine society. While it is the most disciplined party and it actively builds up mass membership, it remains a minority party. Some groups accuse Bayan Muna of being an electoral front of the outlawed New People’s Army of the communist insurgency.

The bigger parties (Lakas-Kampi, NPC, Liberal Party) maintain their dominance partly because of patronage politics or the prevailing culture of patron-clientism and dependency especially among the masses. The characteristics identified by David are reaffirmed a decade later by Rodolfo Severino, who concludes that there are “no real political parties” in the country “through which people can articulate their preferences, priorities and grievances” (Severino, 336).

For believers in inclusive democracy, it is imperative to strengthen Philippine political parties so they can do better in the following: (1) promoting a clear political vision and coherent policies that persuade and inspire the citizenry, (2) providing a system and context for the theoretical and practical training of current and future political leaders, and (3) raising campaign funds with efficiency, transparency, and accountability.

The parties ought to prioritize the enactment of a Political Party Development Law (House Bill 3655 and Senate Bill 67), which is stalled in the two houses of Congress. Among the major features of the proposed law are the following: the creation of “a State Subsidy Fund for both party development and campaign financing,” the requirement of full disclosure and the establishment of a monitoring system in the use of the Subsidy Fund, the requirement of an established participatory process for selecting the candidates of an accredited party, and the punishment of party-switching or political turncoatism (Casiple, 2-4).

The political parties have weak party discipline, and this weakness has roots in the history of successful party-switching by presidential candidates. The late Presidents Ramon Magsaysay (1953-1957) and Ferdinand Marcos (1965-1986) won after they changed parties to challenge the incumbent presidents who were running for re-election (Navarro, 113-15, 215-20). Fidel Ramos (1992-1998) participated in the party convention of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), the biggest party in 1991, to offer himself as its presidential candidate, but when he was not chosen, he left and formed his own party, Lakas-CMD, with which he won.

Besides a Party Development Law that can strengthen party discipline, there are other priorities, which can be drawn from a survey on political parties which was commissioned by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Philippines and conducted nationwide by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) on 24-29 November 2006. The survey respondents were 1,200 voting-age adults divided equally among four major study areas: the National Capital Region (NCR), Balance Luzon (outside NCR), the Visayas, and Mindanao. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 3% for the entire country. Below are the major findings.

General Dissatisfaction

Nationwide, two-thirds (67%) of the respondents say that no political party “truly promotes their welfare,” while 27% identify some political party that does so. Regardless of area (NCR, Bal. Luzon, Visayas, & Mindanao) or class (ABC, D, E), most of the respondents say that no party promotes their welfare. The 27% who say otherwise can be considered party-leaning.

Party-leaning is weak among all classes from ABC, the upper to middle classes, to class D, the working poor, and class E, the very poor. The low percentage of Filipinos that are party-leaning suggests that the parties have not sufficiently informed, inspired, and persuaded the citizenry about their political visions, policies, and platforms.

Unfortunately, “party platforms are prepared mainly for submission to the Commission on Elections.…They are not meant to be a guide to the political education of the electorate, nor to govern the conduct of those elected to public office under party emblems.” (David, 171)

The political parties are neither inspiring nor persuasive, for they “are for the most part only loose coalitions of self-centered individuals and groups without any strong binding force or program to which they are committed” (Carroll, 158).

Party Leaning and Educational Attainment

The percentage of respondents who have no party leaning decreases with progress in education. Around four-fifths (81%) of the respondents who are not elementary graduates, 69% of elementary but not high school graduates, 63% of high school but not college graduates, and 56% of college graduates say that no party promotes their welfare.

While 27% of Filipinos (projected at 13.6 million) can name some political party that promotes their welfare, 12% of non-elementary graduates, 25% of elementary but not high school graduates, 29% of high school but not college graduates, and 38% of college graduates can do so. Party leaning among Filipino adults seems to increase with higher educational attainment.

Party Characteristics

Respondents were shown certain characteristics of political parties, and were asked to identify to which parties they applied. The characteristics are as follows: (a) does many things that benefit the citizens; (b) has noble leaders; (c) has a realistic platform; (d) recruits candidates who are truly qualified; (e) interacts with many sectors like farmers, workers, indigenous peoples, etc; (f) faithful to the true will of the party members.

A plurality of Filipino adults (28-31%), regardless of class, says that no party has the favorable characteristics enumerated above. Among party-leaning Filipinos, college graduates have a stronger tendency to affirm those characteristics in some party.

Except with one characteristic, Lakas-CMD is the top choice followed by the Liberal Party (LP) and Bayan Muna, among the respondents who have identified a party that possesses those favorable characteristics.

Party Capabilities

Respondents were asked which political party “has great capability” in the following:
(a) addressing the problems of the economy; (b) fighting inflation in the cost of living; (c) eradicating graft and corruption; (d) promoting peace and order; (e) reconciling with Muslim rebels; (f) resolving the communist insurgency.

A plurality of Filipino adults (29-33%), regardless of class, says that no party has the capabilities enumerated above. Lakas is the top choice followed by the LP, among the respondents who identify a party that possesses those capabilities.

On the question about which party has great capability in “reconciling with Muslim rebels,” 33% say no party. As regards geographical area, there is a notable gap between 44% of NCR respondents and 24% of Mindanao respondents who say no party.

On the question about which party has great capability in “resolving the communist insurgency,” 33% say no party. As regards geographical area, there is a notable gap between 45% of NCR respondents and 27% of Mindanao respondents who say no party.

Party Membership

Party leaning increases with educational attainment among Filipino adults in which 38% of college graduates have party leaning, while only 12% of non-elementary graduates do so. Party-leaning college graduates, however, have the lowest percentage of those who consider themselves party members. Among party-leaning Filipinos, 10% of college graduates, 17% of high school but not college graduates, 22% of elementary but not high school graduates, and 22% of non-elementary graduates consider themselves party members. These figures suggest that political parties ought to target more college graduates in their recruitment for party membership.

Nationwide, only 5% of Filipino adults (approximately 2.4 million) consider themselves party members, and Mindanao is notable for having the highest percentage (11%) of those who regard themselves as party members. Also, party members nationwide constitute only 18% of those Filipinos who have party leaning.

Reasons for Membership

Respondents were asked to choose from five reasons that would induce them to become members or continue to be members of a political party, and were allowed multiple responses. A third (35%) say they want to learn more about politics; 28% want to participate in selecting party candidates for national offices; 24% want to participate in selecting party candidates for local offices; 19% want to have access to politicians; 13% want to participate in formulating the party programs. At 37%, class D has the greatest interest in learning more about politics, with class E at 34%, and classes ABC at 26%.

Among college graduates, the opportunity to select national candidates is considered slightly more important (32%) than the opportunity to learn more about politics (30%). Also, college graduates have the most interest in participating in the formulation of party programs (16%).

For those college graduates who consider themselves party members, their interest in formulating party programs is their most preferred reason (47%) for their continuing membership. Political parties ought to target more college graduates for recruitment if they want members who have less interest in patronage politics and more interest in shaping party programs and policies.

For party members in classes ABC, access to politicians is their most preferred reason (59%) for membership, while for those in class D, this is their least preferred reason (20%). The most preferred reason of party members in class D is the opportunity to participate in selecting the party’s local candidates (37%).

The responses suggest that the parties will strengthen themselves and their support from the grass roots by engaging in recruitment and educational activities especially among class D, which has the most interest in political education, and by involving their respective members in the process of selecting the local and national candidates of the parties.

Without a law that requires an established participatory process in selecting candidates and which strengthens and regulates campaign financing, candidate selection “can be bought from the parties” (Hellmann, 10).

Party-Switching

When asked about party-switching by politicians after elections, about half of the respondents (49%) say this is neither bad nor right. A third (35%) say this is bad (usually or always), while 15% say this is right (usually or always). The high plurality of respondents who are neutral or indifferent on this issue is one of the roots of weak party discipline.

Neutral opinion on party-switching prevails in Balance Luzon (54%), in class D (50%), and among high school but not college graduates (54%), with the balance of opinion tilting toward those who say it is bad. Negative opinion as regards party-switching is most pronounced in the Visayas (43%), in classes ABC (42%), and among college graduates (43%).

Negative opinion is higher among those who consider themselves party members (49%) than that of the general population (35%), and this negative opinion is most pronounced in the Visayas (67%), among non-elementary graduates (74%) and college graduates (66%), and in class D (59%). It seems that party members in class D are the ones who can be considered vanguards against party-switching.

Among the 35% who say party-switching is bad, two-thirds (65%) say that politicians who do this should be removed from their posts rather than be fined or left unpunished, and this opinion has the highest percentages regardless of area, class, and educational attainment especially in the Visayas (75%), in class E (74%), and among elementary but not high school graduates (76%).

Importance of Candidate over Party

When asked about the importance of the candidate versus the party in their voting decisions, pluralities of Filipinos by area and educational attainment said that “the candidate and the party matter equally,” whether one voted for a member of Congress (46%) or for a Mayor (44%). The balance of opinion tilts towards those who say that “only the candidate matters,” whether one votes for a member of Congress (29%) or for Mayor (33%).

High pluralities of class D (49%) and class E (41%) say that candidate and party matter equally when voting for Congress. With classes ABC, 40% say that candidate and party matter equally, but another 40% say that only the candidate matters, when voting for Congress. Only the candidate matters for 28% of class D and 27% of class E.

When voting for Mayor, high pluralities of class D (47%) and class E (42%) say that candidate and party matter equally. With classes ABC, a high plurality (47%) says that only the candidate matters when voting for Mayor.

The tilt of opinion towards the candidate is stronger among classes ABC. For those who maintain the belief that candidate and party matter equally, class D should be their primary target of recruitment for party membership.

In the eyes of the public, the importance of a political party will never be able to sufficiently match or surpass the importance of its individual candidates, as long as the party’s commitment and effectiveness in helping its candidates towards electoral victory is not matched by its commitment and effectiveness in articulating and promoting a clear political vision and coherent policies and programs.

Awareness of Party Association of Prominent Politicians

When asked about which politicians came to mind when specific parties were mentioned, pluralities of the respondents either said “none” (36% to 43%) or they “don’t know” (35% to 38%). These responses show low public awareness of the link of prominent politicians with their respective parties. This low awareness suggests that politicians do insufficient public promotion of their parties.

Conclusion

Politicians and their parties have insufficiently informed, inspired, and persuaded the citizenry about their party visions, policies, and platforms. This partly explains the low percentage of Filipinos that are party-leaning (27%).

It is probable that insufficient party discipline and the propensity of many politicians to switch parties lessen party ability to persuade and inspire citizens to support party visions and policies, but in turn the high plurality of citizens (49%) who are neutral or indifferent to party-switching does not encourage political leaders to strengthen party discipline.

There is a significant minority (35%) of Filipinos who think that party-switching is usually or always bad, and most of those who hold this negative opinion agree that the political turncoat should be punished by removal from his/her elective post.

A plurality of Filipino adults (at least 28%), regardless of class, says that no party has favorable characteristics such as “has noble leaders,” “recruits candidates who are truly qualified,” “faithful to the true will of the party members,” etc; a plurality also says no party has great capabilities in “resolving the communist insurgency,” reconciling with Muslim rebels,” “promoting peace and order,” etc.

Among the Filipinos who identified a party as possessing the enumerated favorable characteristics and capabilities, Lakas-CMD, the biggest party, is the top choice in 11 out of 12 categories, with the Liberal Party as the 2^nd choice in 8 out of 12 categories. Bayan Muna is the top choice in 1 category, and the 2^nd choice in another category.

Pluralities of Filipinos by area and educational attainment say that the candidate and the party matter equally, whether one votes for a member of Congress (46%) or for a Mayor (44%). The balance of opinion, however, tilts towards those who say it is only the candidate that matters, and this tilt towards the candidate is strongest among classes ABC.

Political parties should take to heart the survey findings that show that the most preferred reason for party membership is the opportunity to learn more about politics (35%). In this light, parties ought to organize more educational and recruitment activities in which they articulate and explain their political visions and policies.

Unfortunately, political parties are mere electoral vehicles of politicians during the campaign period and their friendship clubs outside the election season. To ensure mass memberships, parties should do more recruitment of non-politicians like professionals, small entrepreneurs, and private sector employees from class D, which among the classes has the most interest in political education and the highest plurality of those who believe that the candidate and the party matter equally in voting for a national legislator and a local chief executive.

The parties will strengthen themselves and their support from the grass roots by involving their respective members in the process of selecting their national and local candidates. The opportunity to participate in the process of candidate selection follows the opportunity for political education as a major reason for Filipinos to join and stay in a party.

Parties should target also college graduates for recruitment, as they have the following: (a) the least interest in patronage politics, (b) the most interest in shaping party programs, (c) the highest percentage of those with party leaning, and (d) the lowest percentage of party members.

Political parties ought to prioritize political education and mass membership, as only 5% of Filipino adults (around 2.4 million) consider themselves party members, while there are 27% of Filipinos (around 13.6 million) who can be regarded as party-leaning or who do not think that all political parties are worthless to them.

The priorities ought to include also the completion of the Political Party Development Law that would create a State Subsidy Fund for party development and campaign financing, require an established participatory process for selecting party candidates, and punish party-switching.

Sources Consulted:

2006 Social Weather Stations (SWS) Survey on Philippine Political Parties

Carroll, John. “Democracy from below?” In Engaging Society: The Sociologist in a War Zone, 157-63. By id. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2006.

Casiple, Ramon. “Philippine Political Party Reform: Reality and Concrete Action.” Unpublished paper, 2008.

David, Randolf. “Political Parties in the Philippines.” In Reflections on Sociology and Philippine Society, 170-78. By id. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 2001.

Gonzalez, Dennis. “Elections, Popular Culture, and Democracy.” In How To Win an Election: Lessons from the Experts, 10-19. Edited by Chay F. Hofileña. Quezon City: Ateneo School of Government, 2006.

Hellmann, Olli. “The Organization of Political Parties in the Philippines: Western Theory Meets Eastern Experience.” Powerpoint presentation. Ateneo School of Government, Makati City, 23 June 2008.

Navarro, Nelson. What’s Happening to Our Country? The Life and Times of Emmanuel Pelaez. Makati City: Emmanuel Pelaez Foundation, 2008.

Severino, Rodolfo. “Summary, Conclusions, and Additional Thoughts.” In Whither the Philippines in the 21^st Century?, 330-45. Edited by Rodolfo Severino and Lorraine Salazar. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2007.

Prayer for the Gift of Cory Aquino (1933-2009)

O God, You have set Cory Aquino free
from the deep pit of pain and defeat.
You have overshadowed her with your wings,
safe under your bright and sunny feathers.
You have been tender and strong to her,

like a mother who protects her brood.
She had the heart to face every danger.

with your faithfulness as strength & defense.

Thank You for her spirit of courage & hope
which moved our people beyond fear & frustration.
Even though her faith was tested to its limit,
she prayed and clung to You, her rest & relief.
She trusted in You, the God who uplifts,
with a faith that moves mountains & levels hills.
Now her own spirit has seen & heard
your holy judgment & great mercy.
With her faith we shall escape lasting harm,
whatever ordeal shall come to our country.

She showed us that You are our hope.
You are our refuge and stronghold.
No great evil will overwhelm us;
no final destruction will crush us.
In your presence she will cheer for us
to take the high though narrow road.
In your holy strength, in impossible faith,
we shall bind the powers that corrupt & abuse.

In love You have bound yourself to us
to rescue from danger and distress
as we hold on to the mystery of mercy
that none can ever match or surpass.
We have known You in intimate trust.
Deep in our heart we want to be loyal & true.
In our mourning & sorrow You remain with us.
You will set us free in your inner radiance.

May we live like Cory to be full of years
and abundant in your peace and fidelity.

Innovative Marikina

In the evening of 17 July 2009, the hard-bound 100-page book, "The Will To Change: Marikina and Its Innovations," was launched at the Ayala Museum, Makati City. Its three chapters were written by Dr. Rufo Mendoza, Anna Felicia Sanchez and Carl Javier, edited by Dr. Dennis Gonzalez, and jointly published by the Marikina City Government and the Ateneo School of Government.

The book was designed by award-winning designer Francisco 'Dopy' Doplon of ArtOne Design & Communications with several pieces from professional photographer Jay Alonzo.

A multi-awarded Filipino and English writer and critic, Dr. Isagani Cruz, offered a review of the book during the launch, and said that its content and design have achieved successfully the purpose of being able to inform, instruct, and inspire. The book is intended for public servants, teachers, students and conscientious citizens interested in local governance.

The book opens with a Foreword each from Sen. Francis 'Kiko' Pangilinan and Dean Antonio G.M. La Viña, JSD. The whole book with its high-resolution photos is freely downloadable in 4 parts by visiting www.asg.ateneo.edu and clicking Resources and then Research Papers & Publications.

Below is the Introduction by Carl Javier, a young writer of fiction and non-fiction and a teacher in creative writing at the University of the Philippines and Miriam College in Quezon City.

"Marikina and Its Innovations: Introduction"
In Marikina City Hall, as in any other city hall, there are always visitors. But its visitors in the morning when we started our interviews for this book were special. We were accustomed to seeing people filing all manner of paperwork, people asking officials to settle disputes, people showing up asking for handouts. What we had that particular morning was a class of children on a field trip.

The children, perhaps in kindergarten or first grade, were brought to the city hall so they could witness how government works. In that act many things were accomplished. The children saw the cleanliness, orderliness, and activeness of a government center. At this point in their young lives, they took in images, sights and sounds of what they should expect from a public agency, why public service is desirable, and why city hall and its workers are valuable.

Much like the many visible and invisible influences and interactions in that field trip, many of Marikina’s governance practices and innovations have worked on multiple levels. Its innovations have worked up passions and emotions, advanced personal and public values, improved the delivery of city services, and yielded intended and unintended fruits.

In producing a book about the city’s innovations, there were difficulties faced. Chief among them was deciding which among the many innovations were to be adequately described and which to be merely mentioned. With the city amassing awards and accolades for its accomplishments, one can end up with a thick tome in describing and analyzing them.

The next major difficulty was deciding how much technical information to exclude in order to make the book accessible to both busy local officials and conscientious citizens who are willing to read and learn new things about local governance.

The book’s first chapter describes the social engineering and culture change that the Marikina city government has practiced and preached. The next chapter describes the financial growth and economic management that accompanied and supported the change in social behavior and practices.

The last chapter looks at the city hall bureaucracy and how it has been professionalized and turned into an efficient, well-oiled machine that eases and pleases people. These chapters are products primarily of interviews with selected city hall officials and personnel, local entrepreneurs, and ordinary residents, young and old.

The changes to the city did not just happen. There was much that needed to be overcome such as insufficient resources, the ingrained bureaucratic culture of mediocrity and inefficiency, and popular skepticism, resistance and anger. To overcome them took not only careful planning and implementation, but more so political will, the will to change.

Like the children brought to Marikina City Hall, we can learn much in turning our attention to the city and its governance practices and innovations. This book serves as that tour for readers interested in finding out what has been done to make Marikina the successful city that it is. Hopefully, readers will find a similar will to change things around them and within them for the better and the best.

A Businessman's Morning Prayer

Dear God, I celebrate your presence with thanksgiving, and with my whole heart praise You this morning. I greet You with love, Creator of the universe, Spirit who strives with the chaos of the world. The power of your love & wisdom reaches so far that nothing & no one is beyond your help & healing.

Help me to listen to your voice, soften my heart & open my mind morning after morning. When I listen to your voice deep within me, I shall know the wisdom & mercy of your love. I shall see You as rest, relief & upliftment for many people who suffer from poverty, inequality, injustice & indifference in my country & throughout the world.

You are the giver of life & the owner of the earth, entrusting managers & investors with treasures, talents & time, holding us accountable for our actions & decisions, judging us all in your faithfulness, quelling our envy & greed.

Strengthen my commitment to the practice of building the nation, equalizing opportunity & creating long-term value for society. May your Spirit inspire me to pursue & preserve fellowship & friendship with socially responsible mentors & peers in the world of business, trade & industry. I ask this with trust in your fidelity & mercy. Amen.

Oscar S. Villadolid: He Dared To Dream Big

The piece below was written by my wife, Hilda ‘Deeda’ Villadolid Gonzalez, a masteral graduate of the National University of Singapore and the eighth of nine children of Oscar and Alice Villadolid. This is a slightly edited version of the introduction to the chapter of her father in the book, "How To Make It in PR: PR Veterans Tell Their Stories," edited by Romeo Virtusio and published in San Juan, Metro-Manila, in 2007. Deeda wrote:

If you want to live an exciting life, dare to dream big and then work hard to make it come true. It was Oscar S. Villadolid who, when I was fresh out of college, first showed me the validity of this philosophy in pursuing a successful career.

While my father had built a reputation in journalism, corporate communications and public relations, guided by such a truism, it was his stint as Philippine ambassador to the Holy See at the Vatican where it was tested as applied in diplomacy.

In 1991 when my father began his tour of duty, the social plight of Filipino overseas workers was an issue unfolding at the margins of Philippine diplomacy. While the OFW’s presence in Italy had significantly increased since the 1970s, the priorities of Philippine foreign affairs were naturally anchored on the bilateral and multilateral representation of the country in politics and economics.

Early in his five-year stint, however, my father focused on the OFW’s social welfare. His goal was to place their spiritual and social needs and aspirations on the foreign affairs agenda, given their sizable presence and their contribution not only to the Philippines but also to Italy and the Vatican. He joined them on Sundays, when they would congregate for mass and social activities, and listened to their issues. He designed initiatives around these issues. He actively supported the effort of the Filipino community, Jaime Cardinal Sin, and Bishop Ramon Arguelles to establish a Filipino Chaplaincy, leading to the designation by the Vatican of the Basilica of Sta. Pudenziana in Rome as the “spiritual home” of Filipino migrants.

While his framework was considered to be “against the grain” and met with some skepticism at the time, he kept to his trademark approach--boldness in ideas and tenacity in implementation. Towards the end of his stint, his approach proved prophetic when His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, proclaimed the Filipinos in Italy as the “new evangelizers” - bringing by their example the message of Christianity to Italian families. The worthiness of placing the OFWs at the center could not be more valid than what we see today when they are keeping the economy on solid footing.

When I became a parent in 2004, my first thoughts were of my parents, Oscar Villadolid and Alice Colet, for the steadfastness they displayed, as they raised a family of nine children while building successful careers. Our childhood was a collage of stimulating memories. There were the conversations around our long dinner table, where my mom and dad would share with us the latest news in politics and society and then encourage us to pitch in our opinions or ask questions. Older siblings took care of younger ones, and everyone had chores.

In grade school, my first responsibility at 5 am every weekday was to awaken everyone for school. Afternoons were spent playing patintero or doctor-doctor in the yard while mom, who like dad never stopped working, typed away on her telex to beat the deadline for The New York Times. Books were handed down from the eldest to the youngest. Despite their busy schedules, dad and mom brought us every summer to the Hundred Islands with the Villadolid cousins, while parties were spent with the Colets.

Looking back and marveling at how our parents managed to raise 9 children, I attribute it to a confluence of sacrifice, boldness and faith. As his family was growing, dad set aside his passion for journalism and joined San Miguel Corporation, building a career of 25 years to eventually retire as senior vice president.

Even as she directed our upbringing, mom built a career in journalism--becoming the Manila correspondent for The New York Times and Newsweek--and public service, as Press Undersecretary under the Aquino administration. She would again be asked to balance two responsibilities when dad served as the Ambassador to the Vatican where she helped him render diplomatic duties after which she would shuttle back to Manila to manage the affairs of the Philippine Press Institute as its Executive Director. Throughout these busy years, they still managed to help us navigate the challenges in our young lives with equanimity and firm guidance based on values and faith.

Today that filial fabric woven in one generation remains sturdy. We have sought to give back to our parents by following their example, not in the number of children, but in mirroring their hard work and in maintaining the strong fabric of closeness despite the pull from different locations.

Deoji, the eldest, owns and manages a successful distribution and trading company after years in San Miguel in Manila and Hong Kong. Osee has been a globe-trotter, advising companies worldwide on IT solutions as a director for Asia of a multinational company. Having graduated cum laude from the University of the Philippines and proceeding to earn a masteral degree in communications from the University of Michigan, Tessa has since raised a family and built a career in marketing in that most exciting of cities, New York.

It was Joey and Anna who inherited the artistic genes. Joey melded entrepreneurship and the arts, successfully establishing his own professional photography studio in Manila and now practicing his craft in San Francisco. And what more can be said of Anna, whose ballet career began in Manila and culminated as a principal soloist of the Munich Ballet, where even mom and dad are introduced as “her parents!”

Tina spent years in the country’s biggest corporate foundation and applied her graduate units from New York University in an international philanthropic organization. Paula has built throughout 17 years a solid career as a Training and Organizational Development expert. Lynn, another globe-trotter, holds an MBA from Harvard University and advises entrepreneurial start-ups in London. As for me, I followed my parents’ interest in the social sciences, starting in journalism and then spending years in public governance and development consulting.

Deeda Villadolid-Gonzalez

Gender and Sex in Genesis 2-3

What do chapters 2-3 of the Book of Genesis say about gender relations and the deep human hunger for emotional and sexual intimacy? What was the serpent that lured the woman to eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Is there something wrong with “knowing good and evil”?

In Genesis 4:1, “Adam knew (yada’) his wife Eve, and she became pregnant.” The knowledge that leads to pregnancy is knowledge in practice and not just in theory. Here, knowing is inseparable from doing. In the case of marriage, ideally it is intimate knowledge that is gained from shared activities not just in the bedroom, and it goes beyond the shallow knowledge from casual sexual encounters, where many people choose to remain nameless or to give false identities. Truly intimate knowledge among spouses raises marriage to sanctity rather than promiscuity in contrast to the animal that mates with any partner out of instinct.

Similar to knowing one’s spouse, knowing good and evil in Genesis is primarily practical knowledge, which is gained from doing and not just from thinking. Furthermore, the expression “good and evil,” like “light and darkness” and “heaven and earth,” can refer to a scale or a continuum of everything in which the two terms are the extremes. Thus, “knowing good and evil” can mean doing everything or at least being capable of doing everything.

God told the man: “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (or you are doomed to die many times)” (Gen 2:17). The desire to do everything or to be able to do everything has brought death and destruction to human beings across many generations.

The serpent told the woman, “The moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods (Elohim) who know good and evil” (Gen 3:5). “Elohim” can be translated also as “rulers” or “mighty ones,” and thus the message could be: “you will be like (absolute) rulers who attempt to do everything.”

In society, no individual, family, or group should be given the ways and means to do everything they want. Absolute rule by anybody or any group should be avoided, and an effective system of accountability, check and balance and the review and oversight of the decisions and actions of rulers should be put in place. The exercise of power without accountability will arouse greed, envy, lust and other base instincts that will cause death and destruction to oneself and others possibly from one generation to the next.

The principle of check and balance can be discerned even in God’s choice of a helper for the human creature. “The Lord God said: ‘It is not good for the human to be alone. I will make for him a helper (ezer) as in front of him’” (Gen 2:18). What is “a helper as in front of him,” which is usually translated as “a suitable helper” or “a fitting partner”? None of the wild animals that God formed and brought to the human proved to be such a helper (Gen 2:19-20).

God formed the fitting helper, the woman, from the tsela’ (Hebrew for rib or side) of the human creature. While most biblical translations choose “rib,” it is possible to translate tsela’ as “side” especially if one brings into the picture what some ancient peoples especially ancient Greeks believed: the original human creature had four arms, four legs, two faces, and two sexes like twins joined at their backs or like Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous drawing of the Vitruvian Man with four arms and four legs in a square and a circle.

The original human creature was lonely in the absence of a familiar face, and did not see such familiar face in any of the wild animals that God brought to be “a helper as in front of him.” Finally, the man recognized the familiar face in the woman that God took from his side. For German rabbi, Samson Hirsch (1808-1888), “woman was created from man to show that only in partnership do the two form a complete human being.”

A superior partnership can be formed where there is face-to-face interaction and where the partners can freely unite or separate from each other, unlike in the original human creature where male and female had no choice in the back-to-back conjunction. “Man needs to live face-to-face with the Other, dancing to the choreography of his own freedom” (Avivah Zornberg). The complete human being entails a face-to-face partnership into which the sexes should freely enter.

“A helper as in front of him” can also mean “a helper against him.” The medieval French rabbi, Rashi (1040-1105), says: “If man is worthy, the woman will be ‘a helper;’ if he proves to be unworthy she shall be against him.” Thus, for man, the woman is "katapat" (Filipino): “an equal who can face him as worthy confidant or worthy opponent.” No animal can be a worthy or effective opponent of man when he chooses to be cruel or oppressive.

What about the crafty serpent that deceived the woman to eat the forbidden fruit? Many religious teachers have considered that serpent to be the devil and the real opponent of humankind.

For most biblical scholars, the serpent is a multivalent symbol of cunning, life, and the ancient fertility cults. The serpent is a symbol of cunning because it can move quietly and secretly before it makes a deadly strike. It can symbolize life because it seems to regenerate itself whenever it sheds its skin. It also resembles the phallus, the erect penis.

It is suggested in Genesis 3 that the serpent used to stand erect, for the punishment for its deception was “on your belly shall you crawl” (Gen 3:14). Some religious teachers have concluded that the fault of the woman was lust, for she decided to set aside God’s prohibition as she attended to and interacted with an erect serpent.

Biblical scholar, Bernhard Anderson, describes the ancient fertility cults involving the god or Baal in Canaan, where the Israelites settled, as follows: “The Baal of a region is the ‘lord’ or ‘owner’ of the land…The astonishing revival of nature [after winter] was due to sexual intercourse between Baal and his partner...Farmers were not mere spectators of the sacred marriage...Human pairs, by imitating the action of Baal and his partner, could bring the divine pair together in fertilizing union.” Thus, there were temple prostitutes with whom worshippers could imitate the sexual action of the gods in order to revive and preserve the fertility of both the land and the people.

The God of Abraham and Sarah, Moses, and David is a God who understands the very human desire for sexual intimacy, but is a God who does not require the sexual act whether to achieve emotional intimacy between human beings or to achieve a sacred union between the divine and the human. God can be so close to us as one who chooses to dirty his hands in forming the human creature from the humus of the ground (Gen 2:7) or to act like the father of the bride who leads the woman to her man (Gen 2:22). Yet God is free from the human condition in which sexual self-discipline has been a perennial challenge especially for men in authority.

After the woman and the man ate the forbidden fruit, they began to feel the desire to do everything including the desire to dominate, and concomitantly they felt fear and shame about their nakedness, which makes one vulnerable to domination by another. The couple lost great trust in each other, became ashamed of their bodies, and thus underwent their first “death.”

After their offence, they hid from God, who sought them out and asked questions like a wise parent who apparently knew already the problem (Gen 3:8-11). “God opened the dialogue to give the man the opportunity to acknowledge his sin and be pardoned. Instead he hurled against God the very kindness that God had shown him, the gift of the woman.” (Midrash Aggadah)

A blame game begins: the man blames the woman, “whom You put here with me” (Gen 3:12), while the woman blames the serpent, an animal God had made. The worsening offence damages the relationship among human beings, the rest of creation, and the Creator. Alienation or estrangement among them is a state of sin, and the sacred writer describes the disorder of such a state (Gen 3:14-19).

Sin turns the partnership of man and woman into a relationship of domination: “I will increase your labor and your pregnancies; in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your desire shall follow that of your husband, and he shall be above you.” (3:16)

In ancient or traditional communities, “women would be facing up to 8 pregnancies and would understandably be unwilling at times to be sexual” (Carol Meyers), but husbands would insist on sex and expect to have their way, whenever they desire sex. Sin denies or obscures a woman’s right to have equal say on the times for sex, the manner or style of sex, and the frequency of pregnancy.

A relationship of domination of the husband over the wife greatly increases the woman’s pain in bringing up children, as she is usually expected to be solely or primarily responsible for child-rearing. Thus she will experience more pain than her husband will, as the child grows into a distinct individual and begins to detach from her with the attitude that, while woman is to be loved or cared for, she has to be kept subordinate.

Among the lessons of Genesis 2-3 is the following: God’s original vision of gender relations involves equality and mutuality and not domination among the sexes even in the realm of the satisfaction of the natural hunger for sexual intimacy. Equality and mutuality among spouses in our communities have national consequences in the long run. The authoritarian and undemocratic tendencies of many of our political, economic, and religious leaders can be partly but firmly traced to the examples of their parents and the way they were brought up as children.

Prayer for Oscar S. Villadolid (1929-2009)

God our Creator,
Your love and power brings us to birth,
Your providence guides our lives,
and by your wisdom we return to dust.

Lord, those who die still live in your presence.
Their lives change but do not end.
We pray in hope for Oscar Villadolid,
husband, father, grandfather,
journalist, corporate executive, and diplomat,
and for all the dead known to You alone.

In the Spirit of Christ,
who died and now lives,
may those who have left this world
rejoice in their home with You,
where all our tears are wiped away.
Unite us together again in one family,
in the new heaven and the new earth
to live in holiness, peace, and joy
forever and ever. Amen.