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The province of Masbate has the distinction of not
only being one of the country’s poorest but also one of its most
violent.
It is an island that has been
dominated by powerful families for as long as anyone can remember
and where patronage and murder have become accepted facts of
political life.
The list of Masbate governors,
mayors and congressmen who have been murdered over the last 20 years
alone is a long and distinguished one.
Since campaigning began in
January for next month’s midterm elections ambushes and shootouts
between rival political groups have left at least five people dead.
As a result the head of
Masbate’s police force, Senior Supt. Teodoro Caparoso, was
relieved of his command.
It was against this background
that the Bishop of Masbate, Joel Baylon, said “enough is enough”
and called the candidates together to try and avert more bloodshed.
Sitting in his modestly furnished
office next door to his church, Bishop Baylon said the move was a
“call for civility.”
“It was more than a symbolic
gesture on the part of the church,” he told Agence France-Presse.
Dressed in black trousers and
white shirt with a simple gold cross pinned to his collar Bishop
Baylon, 53, described Philippines politics as built on three
pillars—”greed, patronage and fear.”
He said: “Masbate is a
microcosm of all that is wrong with the Philippines. Outsiders see
us as barbaric and not as civilized people.”
‘Wild west’
He said Masbate was normally a
quiet province but at election time it began to resemble the “wild
west, an oblique reference to its role as the center of the national
cattle industry.
“People are afraid to speak up
for themselves so they asked me to speak for them” he said.
“I told the politicians they
should be looking at getting people out of poverty, educating the
children and not killing their political rivals,” he said.
He said there were more
cock-fighting pits in the province than health centers.
“For years now Masbate has been
on the list of the poorest provinces in the country.”
“Why? Talk to most of our
politicians and they will tell you Masbate is rich in natural
resources, fish and marine life and cattle. But the question is:
where does all this wealth go?
“Do our people benefit from
these blessings? The sad answer is no.”
Leaning back in his chair, papers
stacked neatly on his desk, he said: “In my nine years as bishop I
have toured nearly every barangay in the province and I can tell you
now that the vast majority of people live and die poor and this is
supposed to be the 21st century.”
He said some politicians were
surprised by his remarks.
Not giving up hope
“One prominent local politician
later told me: ‘Why should we change the way politics is conducted
here. If we do that they [people] will become ungrateful.’”
“Have I given up hope? No,
there are some [politicians] who really want to see change in the
way Masbate, and the country for that matter, is run but the
enlightened ones are still in the minority,” he said.
He said decades of patronage and
corruption had seen some of the more prominent families in Masbate
prosper at the expense of the poor.
The population of Masbate
according to the last census in 2000 was 707,668 with an annual
birth rate of 1.7 percent. It has been estimated that within the
next 40 years the population of the province will double.
National statistics for 2002 show
that 35 percent of Masbate’s families have access to clean water,
48 percent have access to toilets, 31 percent to electricity and 34
percent to health facilities.
Data compiled by the National
Statistics Coordination Board show that 62 percent of Masbate’s
population live in poverty with 37 percent earning the province’s
minimum income which is about P11,488 a month.
‘Altar of greed’
“Just drive around Masbate and
you will see that there is little development. But people are happy
receiving a rice cooker or a few hundred pesos from political
leaders for support,” said the bishop.
According to government data
Masbate is the third poorest of the country’s 77 provinces, behind
Negros Oriental and Samar.
Bishop Baylon described politics
in the province as the “altar of greed—where the powerful few
grow richer at the expense of the poor and where political opponents
are killed.
“How can you call a system like
this democratic? What worries me is all this political violence has
started to be accepted as normal,” he said.
Bishop Baylon said election
violence was also a “sad reflection on the Church.”
He said: “We can do more and we
are trying to do more but it is a long, long process. The church is
not rich as many people would like to think.
“Ordinary people of Masbate
want change in the way politics is run. That is probably a view
shared by the majority of Filipinos.
--AFP
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