Political Family

Chapter 1 priming coa twork to the Study Chapter 1 covers five parts (1) Background and Theoretical Framework of the Study, (2) verify of the Problem, (3) Significance of the Study, (4) comment of Terms, and (5) Delimitation of the Study Part 1, Background and Theoretical Framework of the Study, puts the rationale for the choice of the problem. Part 2, sound outment of the Problem, describes the major and specific questions that this consume depart seek to answer. Part 3, Significance of the Study, cites the benefits that could be derived from the findings of the lead.Part 4, Definition of Terms, presents the abstract and operational definitions of the key terms that will be apply in the airfield. Part 5, Delimitation of the Study, specifies the mountain depart of the study with regards to the variables, the instrumentalists, and the instruments that will be intentiond to gather entropy. Background and Theoretical Framework of the Study The family is the strongest unit of measurement of purchase order, demanding the deepest loyalties of the individual and coloring all well-disposed activity with its feature set of demands. denim Grossholtz (1964, 86-87) In the tertiary man, the elect family has long been a leading actor in the unfolding of the field of study pageant.More, specifically in the Philippines, selected families can be seen as both(prenominal) object and overthrow of invoice, shaping and being determine by the growthes of change. These families pass provided a strong element of continuity to the lands sparingal and policy-making floor over the century past (McCoy 1994, 1). In 1950s Robert Fox (1959, 6) described the Philippines as an anarchy of families, in which the Philippine semi governmental scienceal parties usually wee-wee acted as coalitions of functionful families. The rise of baronful presidencyal families was attributed to the majority rules emergence as a weak, postcolonial verbalize (McCoy 1994, 10-11).According to McCoy (1994, 13), after Spain and United States colonial rule, the Re habitual thus developed as a enunciate with both substantial economical resources and weak bureaucratic capacity. It is this paradoxical pairing of wealth and weakness that opened the state to predatory rent seeking by politicians. Based on Migdals seek (1988, 9) on Third World semipolitical sympathies, he finds that the source of the states weaknessthe loving presidencys such as families, clanstribes, patron-client dyads continue to act as competing sources of authority.Despite the appargonnt knead and significant factor of the family upon wider society and its governance, close to historians, both Filipino and foreign, stir ignored this problem. According to Schneider (1969, 109-110), rather of studying and analyzing the Philippine political history through the paradigm of selected families, they go generally enured Philippine past and government activity solely throu gh as an interaction of state, private institutions, and popular military campaigns.Even affable scientists, despite an obligatory bow in the direction of the family, have generally fai take to incorporate substantive synopsis of its dynamics into rendering of the countrys social and political processes. Social science as a lot happens in the study of the Philippines thus diverges from social reality, according to Alfred W. McCoy (1994, 1). At present, on that point is whitewash a scatty scholarly analytic thinking of any individual Filipino families or family-based oligarchies.While other Southeast Asian societies have produced just about useful biographies and autobiographies, the Southeast Asian regions still have little nondynastic family history that can serve as a model for succeeding(a) Philippine look (McCoy 1994, 2). One of the provinces in the Philippines that have no study about family-based politics is Aklan. The province of Aklan is located in the Northeas t portion of Panay Island. It was the oldest province in the Philippines organized 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 farming fol first-class honours degreeers. Along with political change, the Spaniards introduced Christianity. In 1716, the atomic number 18a of the Minuro it Akean was designated as a province but it was called Capiz. aft(prenominal) the Americans took the country from Spain in 1901, Don Natalio B. Acevedo, Aklan delegation head, presented the low gear memorial for the separation of Aklan from Capiz to the Junta Magna headed by Commissi unmatchabler Dean C. Worcester.For the same habit, the Aklanons in Congress blamed 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 independent province when President Magsaysay s igned into law the Republic Act 1414 on April 25, 1956. This was do 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) semipolitical 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 seek has identified at least 219 political families that dominate the countrys political landscape. (2011, http//www. gmanetwork. com, ret 9/30/2012) Like these provinces, Aklans history is also filled with family-based politics. In order to better understand the present political situations, studying the political history of Aklan in the electron lens system of the familial perspective can led to discover b ar-assed dimensions in our national history.The history of a political family in a particular provi nce can be a microcosm of the kind of politics that happens in the Philippines. Thus, this study offers this perspective and understanding. Statement of the Problem This study is proceeded to find out the political history of Aklan, through the case study in historic method of a selected political family in the province. foreign Latin America, much to a strikinger extent(prenominal) of the Philippine social research treated the countrys political history through its formal institutional structures rather than on the importance of the family and family history.However, it can be seen that in the works of several theorists and researchers like Wolf, Grossholtz, Kuznesof, Freyre, and Schneider, political families in the Philippines and around the macrocosm are found to have a more than dominant force in shaping the societys history including political, social, and economic institutions. Specifically, this study will seek to answer the following questions 1. How the political fami ly in Aklan emerged? 2. How do they maintain their put to work in the province? 3. What are the familys political practices to retain power? Significance of the StudyThis soft research may be significant primarily to historians in analyzing the centrality of family-based politics to many periods and problems in the Philippine history. For social scientists, this study will help them delve the use of franks and servicess of family as a primary unit of political organization and will serve as a model for future Philippine research. For political science students, the findings of this study will help them understand the ferment 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 well as, it can provide meaningful information for other related literat ures. Definition of terms For the purpose of achieving clarity of meaning and interpretation, the following terms were defined. The Case study orgasm as an empirical doubt investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real- purport context. (Yin 1984, 24) The Historical method comprises the techniques and guide military controls by which historians use primary sources and other register 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, particularlyelectoral politics. Members may be related by blood or marriage frequently several propagationsor 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 composed of 17 municipalities. It has a total unive rse of discourse of 495, 122 (NSO 2007 census), and Kalibo is the crown 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 tame 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 case study in historical method will be used in this study to investigate the political history of the Province of Aklan. The researchers in order to collect detailed data unavoidable in this study will employ participant observations, key seed wonders, directly interview the participants, and shew relevant records, put downs, and reports.Chapter 2 Review of Related Literature Chapter 2 includes previous studies on political families which are divided into the International stage setting, the Philippine Context, and the Visayan Context. The International Context inc ludes the previous studies on family-based politics and the history of elect 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 any country in the world, there are always leading political elite gathering families that exist. A significant number of these families can be traced in United States, Brazil, and Mexico. In the United States, the well-k immediatelyn Adams Family of Massachusetts has been the subject of much autobiographical and biographical research. Mean composition, 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 decades, Latin American hi storians have used detailed microstudies of elite families to discover recent dimensions in their national histories. As Gilberto Freyre (1964, 155 and 161), a pioneer in this field, one time argued, anyone studying a peoples 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- fusing land, sugar, and slaves to convey patriarchs of untrammelled power or unlimited power and total fiat or absolute decree. Arguing 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 kn own as Tio pocket bread (Uncle Pita) in recognition of his penchant for appointing male relations to key government posts.A nonher historian, Linda Lewin (1979, 263) has produced some of the most polished historiographic reflections on the connection between 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 another Brazilian historian Linda Lewin (1979, 263) stated that the family-based lift to the political history as a commonplace in Brazilian history. Many historians had already employed the family historiography as an approach in discovering different dimensions of Brazilian political history thus making it popular around Latin America. Similarly, an search by Felstiner (1976, 58) on the role of kinship politics in Chiles independence movement began with the words the importance of the family in Latin America 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 later, Latin American historians were still unanimous in their belief that the elite family played a uniquely important political role in their region. Introducing eight essays, Elizabeth Kuznesof and Robert Oppenheimer (1985, 215) observe 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 true in europium or United States. Indeed, they found that institutions in Latin America society perk up much more social sense, particularly in the nineteenth century, if viewed through the lens of family relationships.As democracy flourished in the young Latin America, elite families booked in the political arena and started to stabilize political institutions, such as the electoral system 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 lati breedio or an estate composed of two or more haciendasis composed of seventeen haciendas and covers more than 16. 5 million acresthe size of West Virginia.It is said to be the largestlatifundio ever to have existed, not except in Mexico but also in all of Latin America. In Harris discussion 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 network of family connections in their mercenary and political activities.Reflecting their rich historical traditions, America have also produced i mpressive 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 scholarly impact on the development of the nations path 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 approximation 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 exploitation countries around the globe, the history of Philippines is also shaped by elite families that play leading roles in the control 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 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 conflict with the nonpersonal values of the in stitutions 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 illustrious 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 get out 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 construct blocks for elite-family studies, are more hagiography (idolizing 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 attractive or corruptions, and a celebration of their contribution to the nation.McCoy commented that the weak state and powerful political oligarchies have have 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 all in all, at least iv times in the midst of war and revolution. afterward 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 family name is a valuable asset. A devout name tr anslates strongly to an advantage in polling. Believing that an established name carries cachet and qualification, parties often promote a promising scion of an old line when selecting candidates. Many Filipino politicians use their kinship networks (McCoy 1993, 10), to assure their emanation to power. A kinship network is a working coalition drawn from a larger group related by blood, marriage, and ritual.As elite families bring such a flexible kinship ties into the political arena, elections often assume a kaleidoscopic complexity of coalition and conflict, making Filipino politics appear volatile. It has a unique 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 Mindanao, there would always be certain political families t hat 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 close connection between state power and the private wealth by elite families in the Philippines. He says that in the Philippine setting, the study of a single rent-seeking family may be the most appropriate way of bridging the gap 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 caliber, 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 poli tical and commercial influence paralleled the emergence of national political elite (McCoy 1994, 440-441).While the second generation consolidated property and billet within a regional planter elite, their children made a no-hit transition to sugar milling and commerce during the 1920s. In the five generations of the Lopezes it has a history of both expert male and female entrepreneurs and politicians (McCoy 1994, 441-444). However, among the familys twenty-six 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 September 1945.He quickly secured overall leadinghip of the province, relegating Jose Zulueta, his ally, to the position of perennial challenger. His career as provincial politician involved the using violence to advance their interests. In 1946 the Lopezes shifted their capital and residence to Manila. They traded in influence and avoided violence. No longer 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 successfulness of their corporations.With the Lopez brothers relations with a succession of Philippine presidents, they prospered under the administration of their allies 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 tatter that married private wealth to populist assembling. The Lopez alliance with Marcos was a strategic blunder born of tactical necessity.To insure the defeat of incumbent President Macapagal, the Lopezes had felt compelled to ally themselve s with Marcos. Eugenio Lopez used his money, media, and machine to make Marcos president in 1965 elections. non long after, Eugenio Lopez launched a major expansion and diversification program at Meralco. Again, with the Lopez jump out Marcos was reelected in 1969. In January 1971, however, a break occurred, which erupted into what may be the most public and vitriolic fail 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 transplanting 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. subsequently suffering five months of media criticism, Marcos finally sued for peace 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 target of his revolution from above. He used the same licensing powers that had built the Lopez wealth to destroy the familys caboodle and transfer their assets to a new economic elite composed of his own kin. Paul Hutchcroft (1991, 414-450), a political scientist said that, using 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 curse of force, to pursue the main aim 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 destroy the Lopez familys accumulated legitimacy, contacts, and skills (McCoy 1994, 518). Marcoss fall from power in 1986 heralded 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 perpetuate 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 negativeslowing 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 restricted economic activity accounted for 7. 3% of their national income in 1964, while in Turkey rents from import licenses alone represented about 15 percent of the gross national product in 1968.In the Philippines, political economists have applied 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 rewards to rent-seeking activities. As evidence for this provocative reconceptualization of rent-seeking, Montes offers his readers a superficial catalogue of vexationmen 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 illustrates that for over thirty years, he had used presidential patronage to secu re subsidized government financing and dominate state-regulated industries, thereby amassing 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, allocate 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 risk of campaign investments, public office must promise extraordinary rewards. More than any other entrepreneur of the Republican era, Eugenio Lopez, senior , mastered the logic of political investment. The Lopez brothers, being the most successful 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 b usiness 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 dominated the political landscape of the Philippines for many years since the beginning of the 20th century is the Osmena family of Cebu.The Osmenas rose to prominence when Sergio Osmena, sr. was elected governor of the Province of Cebu and then as Speaker of the Philippine National Assembly 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 control 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 contention like the Sottos, Cuencas,and Duranos. The Osmenas dominated the provincial politics of Cebu because they are highly skilled in the craft of politics. (Resil, 1993, p. 316) They are wealthy, but their wealth do not equate for their capacity to coerce people 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 exercise deeply inscribed in the Filipino political imagination. Theoretically, an election provides the occasion for society to take cognizance to it self. 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 parliamentary space or surface that allows an unlimited range for diverse values and commitments is most visible in incumbents submitting themselves for popular judgement and candidates presenting ideas of government, in the public exchange of contrary views, and, finally, in the voter weighing 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 exploitation of mass media and propaganda techniques crowd public space during the electoral season.There are restrictions of popular opinion and action however, beneath the diversity and dynamism of election, these restrictions, according to Mojares (1993, 319), are an underdeveloped party system, elite dictum and ideolo gical sameness of candidates, exclusion of those who fail to muster the considerable resources needed to mount a campaign, the supremacy 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 subsisting limits on participation 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, curtain call 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 also tends to reify the existing system and deemphasi ze 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 concentrated 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 sensible 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. Skillful management of ideological practices takes precedence over reliance on passkey 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 political theory both as the world of social meanings and the politicians stance in this world is relevant 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. Personality 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 political theory but a minimalist description of general and abstract principles and a isting of specific projects. Public discourse on politics is neither wholly open nor free. Control of public channels of communication, elite construction of tradition, selective deployment of languages, and the limits of Philippine language si tuation-in contrive with textile 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 ingenious in the selection 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 expertness in the design and execution 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 t heir electoral campaigns such as in managing finances, contracting a quality 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 reputation of winners. The Osmenas have defined their electoral campaigns in terms of crusades that use primordial symbols of democracy, autonomy, and progress.More star topology 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 dissemination of power and constructs the politics as pulitika.Acc ording to Reynaldo Ileto (1984, 10), pulitika is the perception 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 simply attract votes. In the Philippines, pulitika is not politics (whether construed generally as the totality of public or civic life or narrowly as pop 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 progressive democracy and free enterprise.Theirs, however, is a minimalist ideology subordinated to the exigencies and demands of action in the realm of pulitika. It is also an ideology that mobilizes people around their leadership does not empower 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 require of leaders not only ideological competence but expedience skills in realpolitik, in the lower-oder devices of lying, bribery, horse trading, and thuggery.Political farming 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 manner and addressing new issues. By doing so they can appropriate new symbols, coop new leaders, re-establish new borders that deem political action bounded yet pressures from the below will make it increasingly difficult to give-up the ghost 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, Mexico, 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 Research Design and Methodology Chapter 3 has four parts (1) Research Design, (2) Data Sources and order, (3) Site and Participant Selection, and (4) Data Treatment Procedures and Analys is 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 qualitative 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 lawsuit of research, but most of these have the same aim to understand 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 interpretive 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 convention Experiential Knowledge Preliminary Interviews Literature Review Preliminary Conceptual Model Observation Interviews documentary film Evidence FindingsRevised & Enhanced Conceptual Model Working Hypotheses Member Checks Final Report Data Sources and Collection Historical method will be used to investigate the political history 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 evaluation team to capture the perspectives of project participants, staff, and others associated with the project.In the vatic example, interviews with project staff can provid e 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 handout 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 noted 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 evaluation 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 Partic ipant Selection The selection of the setting for this research will be the Province of Aklan.Two reasons were seen necessary 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 margin 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.