Political Family

Chapter 1 Introduction to the memorize Chapter 1 c everywheres five parts (1) Background and theory- base Framework of the Study, (2) bidding of the Problem, (3) Signifi lavatoryce of the Study, (4) description of Terms, and (5) Delimitation of the Study pick 1, Background and Theoretical Framework of the Study, presents the rationale for the choice of the problem. Part 2, secernment of the Problem, describes the major and special(prenominal) questions that this psychoanalyze go forth seek to answer. Part 3, Signifi apprisece of the Study, cites the benefits that could be derived from the ensureings of the h emeritus.Part 4, Definition of Terms, presents the conceptual and operational definitions of the hurl out terms that get out be employ in the study. Part 5, Delimitation of the Study, specifies the scope of the study with regards to the variables, the instrumentalists, and the instruments that depart be engagementd to gather data. Background and Theoretical Fram ework of the Study The family is the strongest whole of society, demanding the deepest loyalties of the singular and coloring altogether cordial activity with its own influence of demands. Jean Grossholtz (1964, 86-87) In the Third dry land, the elect(ip) family has long been a star(p)(a) actor in the unfolding of the bailiwick pageant.More, particularally in the Philippines, elite families post be seen as some(prenominal) object and give in of autobiography, determine and being make by the processes of change. These families run through provided a strong segment of continuity to the country beas frugal and policy-making annals over the century early(prenominal) (McCoy 1994, 1). In 1950s Robert Fox (1959, 6) described the Filipinos as an anarchy of families, in which the Philippine policy-making parties usually wee acted as coalitions of force-outful families. The rise of strengthful semi semi governmental families was attri thoed to the majority rules progeny as a weak, statuscolonial aver (McCoy 1994, 10-11). check to McCoy (1994, 13), after Spain and United States colonial rule, the Re general f dictateincense developed as a extract with both unanimous economic resources and weak bureaucratic efficiency. It is this paradoxical pairing of wealth and flunk that opened the nominate to predatory rent seeking by politicians. establish on Migdals enquire (1988, 9) on Third World government, he finds that the source of the states weaknessthe companionable organizations such as families, clanstribes, patron-client dyads continue to act as competing sources of authority.Despite the appargonnt influence and probatory comp nonpargonilnt of the family upon wider society and its government, most historians, some(prenominal) Filipino and foreign, take for ignored this problem. According to Schneider (1969, 109-110), instead of studying and analyzing the Philippine semi policy-making memorial through the figure of elite families, they agree in general hardened Philippine past and politics solely through as an fundamental interaction of state, mysterious institutions, and popular movements.Even social scientists, despite an obligatory bow in the direction of the family, get under ones skin by and large fai conduct to incorporate substantive analysis of its dynamics into rendering of the solid grounds social and political processes. Social science as lots happens in the study of the Philippines thus diverges from social reality, according to Alfred W. McCoy (1994, 1). At present, there is pipe polish a lacking scholarly analysis of either individual Filipino families or family- found oligarchies.While separate Southeast Asian societies conduct produced some profitable biographies and autobiographies, the Southeast Asian regions quench consecrate little nondynastic family recital that can serve as a model for rising Philippine research (McCoy 1994, 2). One of the obligations i n the Philippines that have no study or so family-based politics is Aklan. The Province of Aklan is located in the Northeast attribute of Panay Island. It was the oldest province in the Philippines nonionic in 1213 by settlers from Borneo as the Minuro it Akean. In 1565 Miguel Lopez de Legaspi landed in Aklan, and divided the Minuro it Akean five encomiendas which he distributed among his coldming followers. Along with political change, the Spaniards introduced Christianity. In 1716, the ara of the Minuro it Akean was designated as a province but it was called windowpane oyster. afterward the Americans took the country from Spain in 1901, Don Natalio B. Acevedo, Aklan delegation head, presented the eldest memorial for the separation of Aklan from Capiz to the Junta Magna headed by Commissioner Dean C. Worcester.For the selfsame(prenominal) purpose, the Aklanons in Congress filed numerous bills, including Urquiola-Alba bill in 1920, the Laserna-Suner bills in 1925 and 1930, and the Tumbokon bill in 1934. Aklan finally became an mugwump province when President Magsaysay signed into law the Republic Act 1414 on April 25, 1956. This was made through the efforts of Congressman Godofredo P. Ramos, and then the province was inaugurated on November 8, 1956. (Aklan Directory 2011, http//www. aklandirectory. com/aklan/, ret. 9/16/2012) Political families thrive in all but one province in the Philippines.From Batanes to Tawi-tawi, with the exception of Kalinga, members of political families hold public posts, both elective and appointive. GMA News enquiry has identified at least 219 political families that overlook the countrys political landscape. (2011, http//www. gma mesh. com, ret 9/30/2012) Like these provinces, Aklans narration is also filled with family-based politics. In separate to better understand the present political situations, studying the political tale of Aklan in the lens of the familial side can led to take up novel-made dimensions i n our content history.The history of a political family in a particular province can be a microcosm of the var. of politics that happens in the Philippines. Thus, this study offers this perspective and understanding. Statement of the Problem This study is conducted to find out the political history of Aklan, through the slip of paper study in historical method of a selected political family in the province. impertinent Latin America, much more than of the Philippine social research treated the countrys political history through its formal institutional anatomical structures rather than on the importance of the family and family history.However, it can be seen that in the whole works of several theorists and researchers like Wolf, Grossholtz, Kuznesof, Freyre, and Schneider, political families in the Philippines and almost the world are found to have a more dominant force in shaping the societys history including political, social, and economic institutions. Specifically, t his study lead seek to answer the chase questions 1. How the political family in Aklan emerged? 2. How do they arrest their influence in the province? 3. What are the familys political sees to stay former? Significance of the StudyThis soft research may be monumental primarily to historians in analyzing the cardinality of family-based politics to some(prenominal) periods and problems in the Philippine history. For social scientists, this study forget help them delve the personas of family as a first unit of political organization and result serve as a model for future Philippine research. For political science students, the findings of this study give help them understand the influence of political families on the course of Philippine politics. This study will also help politicians to formulate political strategies and practices based on the history of a political family.Lastly, this study can be added as a significant literature on the political history of Aklan as rise up as, it can provide meaningful information for other related literatures. Definition of terms For the purpose of achieving clarity of meaning and watchation, the following terms were define. The Case study approach as an empirical research investigates a modern phenomenon within its real-life context. (Yin 1984, 24) The Historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians office primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past. (2012, http//en. ikipedia. org/w/index. php, ret. 9/30/2012) Apolitical familyis afamilyin which several members are involved inpolitics, curiouslyelectoral politics. particles may be related by blood or marriage often several extensionsor multiplesiblingsmay be involved. (2012, http//en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php, ret. 9/30/2012) The Province of Aklanis located in the Northeast portion of Panay Island, and has a total land area of 1, 817. 9 km? which is smooth of 17 municipalities. It has a total population of 495, 122 (NSO 2007 census), and Kalibo is the capital town. (Aklan Directory2011, http//www. aklandirectory. om/aklan/, ret. 9/30/2012) Delimitation of the Study This study will be conducted during the first semester of the rail year 2012-2013 until the second semester of the school year 2013-2014. This will be conducted among a purposively selected political family in the Province of Aklan. The shield study in historical method will be employ in this study to investigate the political history of the Province of Aklan. The researchers in coif to collect elaborate data needed in this study will employ participant observations, gravestone reservoir interviews, right away interview the participants, and examine relevant records, documents, and reports.Chapter 2 Review of Related Literature Chapter 2 includes forward studies on political families which are divided into the International Context, the Philippine Context, and the Visayan Context. The International Context includes the previous studies on family-based politics and the history of elite political families around the world. The Philippine Context includes studies about the Filipino family and Philippines as a weak, postcolonial state that led to the emergence of political families. The Visayan Context includes case studies of two political families in the Visayas the Lopez family and the Osmena family.Political Families The International Context In almost all country in the world, there are always leading political elite families that exist. A significant number of these families can be traced in United States, Brazil, and Mexico. In the United States, the well-known Adams Family of Massachusetts has been the subject of much autobiographic and biographical research. Mean part, the Pessoa family is popular as leading actors in Brazilian politics, and the Sanchez-Navarros family of Mexico is known for both wealth and power.For several de cades, Latin American historians have apply small microstudies of elite families to discover cutting dimensions in their national histories. As Gilberto Freyre (1964, clv and 161), a pioneer in this field, once argued, anyone studying a populations past will find that historical constants are more significant than ostensibly heroic episodes and will discover that what happens within the family is far more important than often-cited events in presidential mansions, in parliaments and large factories. Applying this perspective toBrazil, Freyre found that Brazils most distinctive elite families emerged in the sugar districts of the northeast during the sixteenth century- f employ land, sugar, and slaves to become patriarchs of untrammelled power or unlimited power and total fiat or absolute decree. contention that the patriarchal family still exerts a subtle influence on the the ethos of contemporary Brazilians, Freyre cites the case of President Epitacio Pessoa who in the early decades of this century was known as Tio Pita (Uncle Pita) in recognition of his penchant for appointing male relations to key government posts.Another historian, Linda Lewin (1979, 263) has produced some of the most refined historiographic reflections on the connection among familial and national history in her writing on the Pessoa family of Paraiba State in Brazil. By the late 1970s the field of family history was so well developed in Latin America that some other Brazilian historian Linda Lewin (1979, 263) stated that the family-based approach to the political history as a commonplace in Brazilian history. many a(prenominal) historians had already assiduous the family historiography as an approach in discovering distinct dimensions of Brazilian political history thus making it popular around Latin America. Similarly, an essay by Felstiner (1976, 58) on the role of kinship politics in Chiles exemption movement began with the words the importance of the family in Latin Ameri ca goes unquestioned. Many historical documents show that the leading elite families in Chile, such as the OHiggins family, started the movements for independence against the Spanish colonizers.A decade afterward, Latin American historians were still unanimous in their belief that the elite family contend a unambiguously important political role in their region. Introducing eight essays, Elizabeth Kuznesof and Robert Oppenheimer (1985, 215) observed that the family in Latin America is found to have been a more central and active force in shaping political, social, and economic institutions of the area than was square in Europe or United States. Indeed, they found that institutions in Latin America society make much more social sense, curiously in the nineteenth century, if viewed through the lens of family relationships.As republic flourished in the unfledged Latin America, elite families assiduous in the political arena and started to stabilize political institutions, su ch as the electoral body and civil society. Charles H. Harris, a historian, (1975, 314) stated that the Sanchez-Navarros family is one of the oldest and most influential families of Spanish descent in Mexico since 1577. The Sanchez Navarro familys latifundio or an estate still of two or more haciendasis composed of seventeen haciendas and covers more than 16. 5 million acresthe size of westernmost Virginia.It is said to be the largestlatifundio ever to have existed, not only in Mexico but also in all of Latin America. In Harris parole of the acquisition of land, the technology of ranching, labor problems, and production on the Sanchez Navarro estate, and of the familys involvement in commerce and politics, he finds that the development of thelatifundiowas only one aspect in the Sanchez Navarros rise to power. He also emphasizes the great importance of the Sanchez Navarros widespread earnings of family connections in their commercial message and political activities.Reflecting their rich historical traditions, America have also produced impressive family histories. Political families are not a new concept in the United States. The Adams family of Massachusetts, for example, has been the subject of autobiographical and biographical research. (Musto 1981, 40-58) TheAdams political familyis one of the most prominent political families in United States history, originating in Massachusetts and having a profound impact on the development of the nations style from the 18th century and onwards.The family has produced numerous important New England politicians as well as two Presidents John Adams (1797-1801) and George Adams (1851-1861) but also several ambassadors and literary figures. The children and grandchildren of the Adams family were raised with the idea that public service was expected of you. (2011, http//seattletimes. com/html/nationworld/2004164299_dynasty05. html, ret. 10/10/2012) Similarly, like other developed and developing countries around the globe, the history of Philippines is also wrought by elite families that play leading roles in the visualize and influence on institutions of the government.The Philippine Context The political families are the actors that have played in the political landscape of the Philippines and have shaped the outcome of the past and are engaged in shaping the future of the Philippines. The Philippine history should not only be viewed as the interaction of different institution of society such as the state, civil societies, the roman print Catholic Church, and the different popular movements. Instead, we should also dissect its political history through the paradigm of elite families.The importance of family-society relationship in the Philippines based on Jean Grossholtzs description (1964, 86-870, the strongest unit of society demanding the deepest loyalties of the individual and coloring all social activity with its own set of demands. He then remarked that the communal values of family are often in meshing with the impersonal values of the institutions of the larger society. Many Filipino historians have been critical, and they generally disregarded the leading families and provincial elites in the Philippines on ideological grounds.Nationalistic historians have dismissed the countrys elites for being traitors and conformists to the colonizers. Teodoro Agoncillo (1960, 644-645), one the most far-famed historian in Philippine history, remarked that the ilustrados have betrayed the revolution. Renato Constantino (1975, 232), a contemporary of Agoncillo, called the same elites as collaborators. According to the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Jose Maria Sison, the countrys elites were a small alien element either rural feudal landholders or urban, comprador bourgeoisie as cited by Guerrero (1979, 234-249).According to McCoy (1994, 4), most Filipino biographies, the potential building blocks for elite-family studies, are more hagiography (idoliz ing biography) than history. Many of these biographies are funded by the family or the person that is the subject of these biographies. Biographers write as if death has cleansed what misdeeds their subject has done in society. Such accounts, McCoy added, are exoneration from the charges of their enemies, silence about their cunning or corruptions, and a celebration of their contribution to the nation.McCoy commented that the weak state and powerful political oligarchies have combined to make a familial perspective on national history relevant. The Philippines has a long history of strong families assuring social survival when the nation-state is weak. In the 20th century, the state has collapsed, partially or wholly, at least four times in the midst of war and revolution. After independence in 1946, moreover, the Philippine central government lost control over the countryside to regional politicians, some so powerful that they become known as warlords.In Philippine politics a famil y name is a worthful asset. A good name translates powerfully to an advantage in polling. Believing that an established name carries cachet and qualification, parties often favor a promising scion of an old line when selecting expectations. Many Filipino politicians use their kinship networks (McCoy 1993, 10), to assure their ascension to power. A kinship network is a working coalition drawn from a larger mathematical group related by blood, marriage, and ritual.As elite families bring such a pliant kinship ties into the political arena, elections often assume a kaleidoscopic complexity of coalition and conflict, making Filipino politics appear volatile. It has a rummy capacity to create informal political team that assigns specialized roles to its members, thereby maximizing coordination and influence. The Visayan Context Most of the well-known political families in the Philippines have political roots in their home provinces. Whether in the provinces of Luzon, Visayas, or Min danao, there would always be certain political families that would dominate the political arena.The Lopez Family In Alfred McCoys essay (1994, 429-517) Rent-Seeking Families and the Philippine State A History of the Lopez Family illustrates the shut out connection between state power and the private wealth by elite families in the Philippines. He says that in the Philippine condition, the study of a single rent-seeking family may be the most appropriate way of bridging the break between western economic theory and the Filipino familial paradigm. Among the leading Filipino families, the Lopezes are, by virtue of their history, well suited for such a case study.Seeking knowledge of the familys origins and early character, McCoys essay begins in the 1870s when the Lopezes enter the historical record as pioneer sugar planters on the plantation frontier of Negros Island. But early on 1850s, they already first appeared to be local merchants. Basilio Lopez served as one of Jaros cabeza- de barangay and later as a gobernadorcillo. The growth of their political and commercial influence paralleled the emergence of national political elite (McCoy 1994, 440-441).While the second generation consolidated property and fix within a regional planter elite, their children made a happy transition to sugar milling and commerce during the 1920s. In the five generations of the Lopezes it has a history of both skillful male and female entrepreneurs and politicians (McCoy 1994, 441-444). However, among the familys xxvi hundred descendants, it was Eugenio and Fernando Lopez, who initially raised the familys position to first rank of national prominence. Backed by Eugenios growing wealth, Fernando Lopez was appointed as a mayor of Iloilo City for two years in kinfolk 1945.He quickly secured overall leadership of the province, relegating Jose Zulueta, his ally, to the position of perennial challenger. His travel as provincial politician involved the development violence to loco mote their affaires. In 1946 the Lopezes shifted their capital and hallway to Manila. They traded in influence and avoided violence. No chronic rooted in the land or dependent upon the social power of the provinces, the Lopezes came to depend upon the state, through the medium of presidency, for the financial and regulatory concessions that would assure the prosperity of their corporations.With the Lopez brothers relations with a succession of Philippine presidents, they prospered under the administration of their assort from their patron Quezon, Sergio Osme? a, Elpidio Quirino, and Manuel Roxas. In 1947, he was elected to the Senate. In 1965, the presidential candidate was Ferdinand Marcos. Fernando Lopez, despite his presidential aspirations, became Marcos vice-presidential running mate, creating a ticket that hook up with private wealth to populist appeal. The Lopez alliance with Marcos was a strategic boob born of tactical necessity.To insure the defeat of incumbent Presi dent Macapagal, the Lopezes had snarl compelled to ally themselves with Marcos. Eugenio Lopez used his money, media, and machine to make Marcos president in 1965 elections. not long after, Eugenio Lopez launched a major expansion and diversification program at Meralco. Again, with the Lopez support Marcos was reelected in 1969. In January 1971, however, a break occurred, which erupted into what may be the most public and vitriolic split in the Philippine political history.According to Marcos, the Lopezes were demanding concessions to advance their interests. According to the Lopezes, Marcos was demanding shares in their family corporations. Using the Manila Chronicle, the Lopezes began an attack, publishing exposes of transplantation within the administration. When a delegation of Tondo workers called upon the president at the battles peak, Marcos vowed we will crush the Lopez oligarchy to pieces. After suffering five months of media criticism, Marcos finally sued for love-in-id leness by paying a call on Eugenio at his Paranaque residence (McCoy 1994, 508).Sixteen months later in Marcoss declaration of martial law, the Lopez family became the main keister of his revolution from above. He used the same licensing powers that had built the Lopez wealth to unload the familys fortune and transfer their assets to a new economic elite composed of his own kin. Paul Hutchcroft (1991, 414-450), a political scientist said that, apply the state and its army, Marcos became the first president since Quezon to reduce the autonomy of provincial elites.He employed economic regulations, backed by threat of force, to pursue the main train of his rule-changing the composition of the countrys economic elite. In Negros Occidental, for example, Marcos created a new stratum of supralocal leaders whom he financed with rents. On July 1975, Eugenio Lopez died of cancer in San Francisco while Geny Lopez remained in prison on capital charges. In the end, Marcos did not nullify t he Lopez familys accumulated legitimacy, contacts, and skills (McCoy 1994, 518). Marcoss fall from power in 1986 foretell the restoration of the Lopez fortunes.In the restoration of the familys fortunes under President Aquino, it is argued that Eugenio Lopez succeeded in handing down enough of his capital and skills to preserve his familys position within the national economic elite. In his essay, McCoy (1994, 431) explains the role of rents for it has a good deal about the weakness of the Philippines and the corresponding strength of Filipino political families. As defined by James Buchanan (1980, 7-8) rents appear when the state uses regulation to restrict freedom of entry into the market.If these restrictions create a monopoly, the economic consequences are decidedly vetoslowing growth and enriching a few favoured entrepreneurs. Competition for such monopolies, a political process called rent-seeking, can produce intense conflict. Anne Krueger (1980, 52-57) has argued that in many Third World countries rents are pervasive facts of life. In India such qualified economic activity accounted for 7. 3% of their national income in 1964, while in Turkey rents from import licenses alone represented about 15 per centum of the gross national product in 1968.In the Philippines, political economists have apply this theory to explain how the Palaces rent-seeking courtiers after Marcos era used state power to plunder the country. Manuel Montes (1989, 84-148), a Filipino economist, argues that the economic structure of the country stimulates, encourages, and provides the greatest retorts to rent-seeking activities. As evidence for this provocative reconceptualization of rent-seeking, Montes offers his readers a dilettantish catalogue of businessmen who have served regimes from Quezon to Marcos. In the presidency of Manuel Roxas, says Montes in a typical passage, Soriano, Eugenio Lopez and Jose Yulo were influential businessmen. The story of Eugenio Lopez illustr ates that for over thirty years, he had used presidential patronage to secure subsidized government financing and dominate state-regulated industries, thereby a smokeing the largest private fortune in the Philippines (McCoy 1993, 429-430). In the Philippines, the succession of presidents has played partisan politics with the states economic powers, awarding loans and creating rents to reward the political brokers who assured their election.Underlying the executives partisan use of state power are political elites who fuse public office with private business. For the elites to justify the high-pitched risk of campaign investments, public office must expect extraordinary rewards. More than any other entrepreneur of the republican era, Eugenio Lopez, Sr. , mastered the logic of political investment. The Lopez brothers, being the most prospering rent-seekers, formed corporate conglomerates that relied in some way upon the state licenses.Since all of their major corporations were in some sense due to rent system, their commercial success involved a commingling of business and politics. Such a system leaves an ambiguous legacy (McCoy 1993, 435-437). Not only in Western Visayas had leading political families emerged as national actors but also a significant number are found in Central Visayas. The Osmena Family Another political family that has long prevail the political landscape of the Philippines for many years since the rise of the 20th century is the Osmena family of Cebu.The Osmenas rose to prominence when Sergio Osmena, Sr. was elected regulator of the Province of Cebu and then as Speaker of the Philippine National host during the American colonial period. He was eclipsed only in power by the political maneuverings that Quezon made to overpowering him in the National Assembly and capturing the post as the President of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1935. After World War II, Sergio Osmena, Sr. went back to the Philippines as President to establish his co ntrol as head of the government in the Philippine archipelago.Osmenas son, Serging, later became the governor of Cebu and candidate for the Presidency in the 1969 election against Ferdinand Marcos. The present generation of Osmenas is still politically active in Cebu and in national politics. The Osmenas dominated the political world of Cebu not through the usual guns, goons, and gold that are usually used by their political rival like the Sottos, Cuencas,and Duranos. The Osmenas dominated the provincial politics of Cebu because they are highly skilled in the machination of politics. (Resil, 1993, p. 316) They are wealthy, but their wealth do not equate for their capacity to coerce masses to vote for them.They use their wealth skillfully, by using it for political gains. They are not as rich as their opponents who have huge haciendas but they show their prowess as politicians during elections. Elections are an turn deeply inscribed in the Filipino political imagination. Theoret ically, an election provides the author for society to take cognizance to itself. This is the time when citizens are most self-conscious, a season of stock-taking, when voters reflect on their collective state and history and make choices about leaders, policies, and futures.The democratic space or surface that allows an unlimited thread for diverse values and commitments is most visible in incumbents submitting themselves for popular taste and candidates presenting ideas of government, in the public exchange of contrary views, and, finally, in the voter advisement his or her options and casting a ballot in the rituals inner sanctum, the polling booth. (Mojares 1993, 319) The reality of Philippine politics is not tidy. Intensive developing of mass media and propaganda techniques crowd public space during the electoral season.There are restrictions of concept and action however, beneath the diversity and dynamism of election, these restrictions, according to Mojares (1993, 319) , are an underdeveloped party system, elite dominance and ideological sameness of candidates, exclusion of those who collapse to muster the considerable resources needed to mount a campaign, the subordination of issues to particularistic concerns, elaborate forms of terrorism and fraud, and the cultural baggage of traditional values of power and dependence.Elections, therefore, do not constitute a free field but are in fact, an arena in which the brisk limits on lodge are further exercised and enforced. In Philippine elections we have a case in which the elite or dominant class usually constructs political reality for citizens. This process may be seen in the centrality accorded to the election itself as field of action and a channel for effecting political change. In elections, bow is rendered to the state of the people are constituted or reconstituted as its subjects. In effect, the periodic holding of elections nourishes and renews the governments system.In the process, it a lso tends to reify the existing system and deemphasize other areas of political work such as mass organizing, interest-group lobbying, and armed struggle. (Mojares 1993, 320) Elections, by their very nature, provide us with a toilsome expression of the process of ideological domination. This is one area in which Osmena phenomenon is important since the Osmena have built their dominance less on sheer economic power (though the use of such power was basic in their rise) or physical repression (though they were not innocent of its methods) than on their mastery of the instrumental aspects of electoral power building.From this they draw their distinctive character as Filipino kingpins. technical management of ideological practices takes precedence over reliance on brilliant economic leverage (as in the case of the Lopez family), a system of traditional patronage (as in the Durano Family), a mix of religion and militarism (as in Ali Dimaporo), or systematic electoral fraud as what the Marcoses did. The matter of ideology both as the world of social meanings and the politicians stance in this world is germane to achieving an understanding of the Osmenas.In electoral contest in Cebu, public discourse has been dominated by conservative politicians. Political speech gravitates around the two poles of personality and issues. The Osmena discourse skillfully combines both personality and issues. disposition is the low mode of discourse and encompasses the verbal abuse, muckraking, vulgar humor, and gossip. Issue is the high mode, consisting of the presentation of government platforms or the qualifications and social ideas of candidates. It is not however a systematic exposition of ideology but a minimalist bidding of general and abstract principles and a isting of specific projects. Public discourse on politics is neither wholly open nor free. Control of public conduct of communication, elite construction of tradition, selective deployment of languages, and the limi ts of Philippine language situation-in concert with significant conditions that sustain attitudes of political subjection- prosper ideological domination. The Osmenas are masters in the management of politics and are, in fact, the ones who inaugurated in Cebu politics the systematic use of modern mass media for electoral purposes.They are skilful in the survival of the fittest of messages and the manipulation of symbols so effective in Philippine electoral politics, particularly in the context of the structurally undeveloped urbanism of Cebu. Theirs is an ideology of developmentalism and modernity with its promise of rational management, bureaucratic efficiency and technocratic expertise in the design and operation of public projects. It is a minimalist ideology, however, in its loose aggregation of generalities and particularities and in its avoidance of a systematic critique of structures of social and economic domination.The Osmenas have put their considerable entrepreneurial and organizational skills to good use in their electoral campaigns such as in managing finances, contracting a eccentric staff for media packaging and opinion surveys, and running an efficient campaign organization. They have a fund of political experience, an organizational network built up through many elections, the support of big business and the persuasive constitution of winners. The Osmenas have defined their electoral campaigns in terms of crusades that use primal symbols of democracy, autonomy, and progress.More adept than their opponents in ceasing the ideological high ground, the Osmenas have defined political reality in advantageous terms. They appeal to both the past and the future, on one hand by resurrecting selective images of the past, and on the other hand, by evoking visions of a modern, progressive future in their campaign speeches. Underlying, the Osmena phenomenon is a practice of conservative politics, one that restricts the distribution of power and const ructs the politics as pulitika.According to Reynaldo Ileto (1984, 10), pulitika is the perceptual experience of politics as a process of bargaining, with implicit self of factional interest involved. The interaction between the colonial power and its native wards was pulitika. At another level, it refers to the practices by which leaders cultivate ties of personal loyalty and indebtedness to them and alone attract votes. In the Philippines, pulitika is not politics (whether construed broadly as the amount of public or civic life or narrowly as democratic bargaining or consensus building). Rather, it is that field of politics largely constructed and dominated by the elites.It is in this context that families with economic resources and political skills come perpetuate themselves in power. The specific character of the Osmena dominance has been shaped by such factors as the American ethos of rational government, the personality, and temper of the Osmenas themselves, their belief in the electoral system and the characteristics of the region in which they have founded their beliefs. To a significant extent, the Osmenas are not only instrumentalists but true believers in the precepts of liberal democracy and free enterprise.Theirs, however, is a minimalist ideology subordinated to the exigencies and demands of action in the acres of pulitika. It is also an ideology that mobilizes people around their leadership does not commit them nor seriously address the structural problems of Philippine society. The Osmena dominance has been shaped as well by the practical grosser realities of power maintenance in the Philippines, which subscribe of leaders not only ideological competence but self-centeredness skills in realpolitik, in the lower-oder devices of lying, bribery, horse trading, and thuggery.Political culture has constructed the families like the Osmenas, for a political family is the sum not just what its members posses or do but of how it is regarded in the community. Politicians like the Osmenas adjust because of the altered conditions modifying the rhetoric by adding new messages, revising their campaign style and addressing new issues. By doing so they can appropriate new symbols, coop new leaders, re-establish new borders that keep political action bounded yet pressures from the below will make it increasingly difficult to give new life or maintain the old boundaries.To the extent that these pressures build and are not meaningfully confronted, the Osmenas may find that no longer holds sway, that the terms of the struggle have shifted radically, and that the struggle for power is now taking place elsewhere. Synthesis Elite families can be seen as both object and subject of history, shaping and being shaped by the processes of change. In many countries all over the world, elite families engaged in politics to gain power and influence, in turn they shape the history of their country. Among these are political families from Brazil, Me xico, and United States.As the family-based approach in history was employed and developed in these countries, the interest to utilize this approach in the history of Southeast Asian countries grew. The Philippines as a weak, postcolonial state became a breeding ground for strong and influential political families that defined the history of the country. The leading family of Cebu, the Osmenas, emerged through the use of their skills in statecraft. The Osmenas have displayed their brilliance in organizing their political machinery and the employment of symbols during elections.Meanwhile, the Lopezeses of Iloilo, started as hacienderos until they became leading national actors and businessmen in 1950s. The great influence, wealth, and success of the Lopez brothers until today can be attributed to their rent-seeking activities. Chapter 3 seek digit and Methodology Chapter 3 has four parts (1) Research Design, (2) data Sources and Collection, (3) Site and Participant natural select ion, and (4) Data Treatment processs and Analysis Part 1, Research Design, discusses the structure of the study and the research approach to which the study will be anchored.Part 2, Data Sources and Collection, addresses the sources of the data and presents the research method that will be employed. Part 3, Site and Participant Selection, describes the rationale for choosing the setting of the study on how the participants will be collected. Part 4, Data Treatment Procedure and Analysis, details the specific procedures in analyzing the data that will be collected during the study. Research Design This study will follow the principles of the soft research.According to Holloway (1997, 2), qualitative research is a form of social inquiry that focuses on the way people interpret and make sense of their experiences and the world in which they live. A number of different approaches exist within the wider framework of this type of research, but most of these have the same aim to understan d the social reality of individuals, groups and cultures. Researchers use qualitative approaches to explore the behavior, perspectives and experiences of the people they study. The basis of qualitative research lies in the interpretative approach to social reality.In line with the research design, the researchers will utilize the case study as the approach for this study. The case study approach (Yin 1980, 2) is a research strategy entailing an empirical investigation of a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence, and is especially valuable when the boundaries between the phenomenon and context are blurred. RESEARCH DESIGN Experiential noesis Preliminary Interviews Literature Review Preliminary Conceptual Model manifestation Interviews Documentary Evidence FindingsRevised & Enhanced Conceptual Model Working Hypotheses Member Checks Final Report Data Sources and Collection Historical method will be used to investigate the political hi story of Aklan in the lens of familial perspective. Historiography, according to Furay and Salevouris (1979, 223-224) is the study of the way history has been and is written, it is the history of historical writing. In studying historiography, there is no need to study the events of the past directly, but the changing interpretations of those events in the works of individual historians.The researchers in order to collect detailed data needed in this study will employ participant observation. Participant observation (Pearson 1995, 1) refers to a form of sociological research methodology in which the researcher takes on a role in the social situation under observation. The researchers will also directly interview the participants. Interviews (Lincoln, Y. S. , and Guba 1985, 37) provide very different data from observations they allow the rating team to capture the perspectives of project participants, staff, and others associated with the project.In the hypothetical example, intervi ews with project staff can provide information on the early stages of the implementation and problems encountered. Key informant interviews will also be conducted. Key informant interviews (Pearson 1995, 1) are qualitative in-depth interviews with people who know what is going on in the community. The purpose of key informant interviews is to collect information from a wide range of people including community leaders, professionals, or residents who have firsthand knowledge about the community. The researchers will also conduct document studies.Existing records often provide insights into a setting and/or group of people that cannot be observed or illustrious in another way. This information can be found in document form. Lincoln and Guba (1985, 198) defined a document as any written or recorded material not prepared for the purposes of the rating or at the request of the inquirer. Documents can be divided into two major categories public records, and personal documents (Guba and Lincoln 1981, 22). Site and Participant Selection The selection of the setting for this research will be the Province of Aklan.Two reasons were seen indispensable for the researchers first, there are several political families in the Province of Aklan, and second, the province has a rich political history. The participant for this research will be conducted among a purposively selected political family in the Province of Aklan. Data Treatment Procedure and Analysis A case study analysis consists of making a detailed description of the case and its setting. (Creswell 2007, 163) in analyzing the data, the researchers will create an organized file for data.They will then read through texts and make perimeter notes from its initial codes. After organizing and reading the data, the researchers will describe the case and its context. The researchers will then use categorical aggregation to establish themes or patterns. After establishing the themes or patterns, the researchers will use direct interpretation to interpret the case. They will then develop a naturalistic generalization. Lastly, after developing a naturalistic generalization, the researchers will present an in-depth picture of the case or cases using narrative, tables, and figures.