Philippine Political Leadership: Supremo to Pangulo..............................3

Summary of Political Thoughts

Early Filipino Thinkers........................................................................6

Filipino Political Scientists..................................................................8

Politician..............................................................................................11

Moral Leadership.........................................................................................12

Remigio Agpalo’s Take on Political Leadership......................................14

Leadership and Politics: In the Eyes of ISKOlars..................................16

Interview with UP Students..............................................................17

Interview with Student Leaders............................................... ........18

Interview with Professor Go.............................................................19

Polsci196 Tributes to Filipino Thinkers through Different Media......20

1

2

Election season has just con-

cluded here in UP Diliman. After

weeks of campaigning, we have

made our decisions to elect our new

student body, both in the university

level and in our respective colleges.

These new leaders, with a fresh

mandate and legitimacy to govern,

are expected to fulfill the promises

they made and turn them into poli-

cies over the next academic year.

Will they hold true?

Meanwhile on the national level,

we are getting closer and closer to

the 2016 Presidential elections.

While there may be clear favorites at

this time, there is still a lot of uncer-

tainty as to the road ahead. New alli-

ances may be formed, friendships

will be tested and personal convic-

tions will be manifested. As the

Pasabog 2015 slogan goes,

“Principle-based positions or per-

sonality politics? Relevance or rheto-

ric?” Only time will tell which will be

prioritized.

As students and as citizens, we

must make our leaders accountable.

After all, their decisions shape our

society. What should be the basis for

the selection of our leaders? What

qualities should they possess for

them to be considered as good lead-

ers? We must look no further than

to the leaders of our past for they

themselves know best what it takes

to run this country. Through their

works, we will be able to identify

what a true Filipino leader or a

pinuno should embody.

He goes by many names. Agapi-

to Bagumbayan. Ama ng Katipunan.

Supremo. Andres Bonifacio is no

stranger to the practice of leadership

“It is thus necessary to have a Soul that will give life to society

and this soul is Authority.”

—Apolinario Mabini

3

as he is the founding father of the

Katipunan ng mga Kagalang-galang,

Kataas-taasan Katipunan ng mga

Anak ng Bayan or KKK. For him, a

leader should love his country above

anything else. In fact in his poem,

“Pag Ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa” he

asks:

Aling pag-ibig pa ang hihigit kaya

Sa pagkadalisay at pagkadakila

Gaya ng pag-ibig sa tinub’ang lupa?

Aling pag-ibig pa? Wala na nga, wala.

How should this love be made

manifest? According to Gat Andres,

a leader should be more than ready

to die seven times over, suffer any

tribulation and offer all that he has

for the motherland. In my opinion,

one cannot be a good leader if he

does not possess this kind of love.

In fact, Emilio Jacinto agrees with

this when he said, “If Love is absent,

the social order of the civil society

will not last.” Greed and avarice

start when the love of country ends.

A leader’s love for country will

naturally extend to a love for his

fellowmen. Apolinario Mabini likens

the pinuno or the “Authority” to

that of a “skillful navigator” who

“guides his ship and its crew to-

wards their goal of reaching the

shores of the happy land of prom-

ise” (Majul 1967, 43). Throughout

this journey, the pinuno should care

for his people by “fulfilling their

desires and the satisfaction of their

aspirations” (Majul 1967, 44). Jacin-

to even mentions that the people are

“everything” because the leader’s

“blood and life”, “wealth and pow-

er” and all values should be for the

people (Agpalo, 1996, 73). A leader

should not assume office for his

own personal gains but for the bene-

fit of society, for his power was

“conferred upon him by his associ-

ates (the people)” (Majul 1967, 42).

In his own theory of Philippine

politics called the “Organic-

Hierarchical Paradigm”, Remigio

Agpalo stressed the dominance of

the head (pangulo) in relation to

how its respective parts (galamay) do

their corresponding tasks. Compar-

ing political elements to various

body parts, he called this concept of

the leader as the ‘pangulo regime’, in

which he states that this regime

“operates on the principle of the

supremacy of the executive and it

puts premium on the value of pag-

damay (sharing with and caring for

fellow persons).” (Agpalo 1999, 45-

60). Although there is a dominant

head, there still exists the value of

4

caring for its respective subordinates.

He relates this to a popular Tagalog

adage: “Ang sakit ng kalinkingan ay

damdam ng buong katawan” (“The

pain suffered by the little finger is

suffered by the whole body.”) Care-

fully analyzing his political thought,

we can see the paternalistic style of

leadership advocated by Agpalo; that

is, leaders treating their subjects as

their own children, along with it the

responsibility to take care of needs

and welfare of his/her people.

From the view of the supremo

comes the view of the pangulo.

Through the lens of a former presi-

dent, Jose P. Laurel’s political

thought on leadership can be de-

scribed as rooted in the concept of

morality (that is based on righteous-

ness). Morality, according to him, is

the foundation of good leadership.

Leadership must exist because it is

vital to society, and is necessary for

the immediate welfare of all the com-

ponent elements of the society. For

Laurel, a leader must lead towards

definite objectives whether material

or spiritual, which is not merely a

command nor obedience. A true

leader confines his/herself to people,

lives with them, understands them,

and develops and progresses with

them. A leader’s ideas must lead, but

his/her heart must follow the aspira-

tions of his/her constituents.

Considering the time period in

which these thoughts were con-

ceived, does these ideas still hold true

for this generation? While others may

consider these ideas as obsolete and

incompatible with the present cir-

cumstance, we cannot deny the fact

that we still somehow share the same

problems that our forebears had tried

to solve, and that these remedies that

they have suggested were not fully

utilized to their maximum potential.

History is said to be the mirror of the

future, in which we can see what was

done in the past and how we can be

able to build upon what was already

established by the ones before us.

Taking inspiration from these politi-

cal thinkers is something that we, the

future leaders of the country, should

be familiar and acquainted with, for it

is somehow in the past that we can

find the answers on how to lead our

beloved nation forward to where it

originally belongs. ■

————————

Agpalo, Remigio. 1996. 'The Political Philosophy

Of Emilio Jacinto'. In Adventures In Political

Science.

Bonifacio, Andres. Pag Ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa.

Majul, Cesar Adib. 1967. The Political And Constitu-

tional Ideas Of The Philippine Revolution.

5

is famously known for his two

works, Noli Me Tangere and El Fili-

busterismo, which are believed to be

both his criticism of the Spanish

colonial rule in the country and his

way of persuading the Filipinos to

fight against the injustices and mal-

treatments afflicted by the Span-

iards. His works speak of the idea

of freedom and eventually of com-

plete independence; its concept,

manifestations and ways to achieve

it.

is one of the founders of Katipunan

(Kataastaasang Kagalangalangang

Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan),

an organization dedicated in over-

throwing the Spanish colonial gov-

ernment and attaining complete Phil-

ippine independence through armed

resistance. His work Ang Dapat

Mabatid ng mga Tagalog pronounces

the Spain’s failure to fulfill its promis-

es of providing justice, peace and

prosperity to the country, which

paved way to the necessity of a

bloody revolution.

EARLY FILIPINO THINKERS

6

is known as the “Brains of the Revo-

lution” and “The Sublime Paralytic.”

In contrast with Rizal and Jacinto, his

works were written during the course

of the revolution. He was trusted by

Emilio Aguinaldo with writing de-

crees which became the framework

for the New Republic. The decrees

he wrote cover the reorganization of

the local governments in provinces

which are already liberated from

Spanish rule and the reorganization

of the government from a dictatorial

to a revolutionary one, which lead to

the creation of Congress. On the

concepts of Man and Freedom, Ma-

bini believes that Men are by nature

good and just and are capable of un-

folding goodness and sense of justice

to others. In line with this, his con-

cept of freedom is about doing what

is good and just, that is doing what is

reasonable.

dubbed as the “Brains of the Kati-

punan, ” is well known for writing

the official teachings of the Kati-

punan called the Kartilya, and for

leading the revolutionary newspaper

called Kalayaan. His vision is centered

around the idea of equality, which is

based on the dignity of the human

person (Schumacher 1995, 43). His

Liwanag at Dilim is dedicated to differ-

entiate what appears to some people

to be good or important or of value,

and what really is such. Light repre-

sents the true value of Filipinos and

darkness signifies the false ones.

(Ibid., 47).

7

despite being a

product of Amer-

ican education, is

a major advocate

of the Philippine

independence

from the Ameri-

can rule. He be-

lieves in the abil-

ity of the Filipi-

nos to govern

themselves which

he manifested in

his writings such

as Self-Government

in the Philippines

written in 1919

and Development of

Philippine Politics in

1926. In his study

of Political Sci-

ence, he followed

the Old Institu-

tional Approach

which puts the

state as the main

object of study.

The influence of

his American ed-

ucation cannot be

discounted in his

principles of free-

dom and democ-

racy. For him,

FILIPINO POLITICAL SCIENTISTS

freedom is equal to civil and political

liberties, which are expressed in the

Bill of Rights of the 1935 Constitu-

tion, Philippines Bill of 1902, and the

Jones Law of 1916. The Ideal of de-

mocracy, according to Kalaw, is liber-

al, representative, and constitutional

democracy.

expanded Manuel L. Quezon’s con-

cept of Partyless Democracy. While

the late president did not go into the

specifics on how to achieve it, Pascu-

al’s work includes an extension of the

idea by including proposals on how

to effectively put up a Partyless De-

mocracy in Philippines, both on na-

tional and local levels. He proposed

the establishment of a national legis-

lature wherein its delegates come

from groups of people selected on

the basis of occupation and profes-

sions. In selecting the Chief Execu-

tive of the nation, Pascual asserted

for a Chief Executive who is elected

by the majority of the people capable

of exercising suffrage. This proposal

is in line with his assumption that the

president, naturally and constitution-

ally, is non-partisan.

8

uses Geopolitics in assessing the na-

tional policies and state of security of

the Philippines. He argues that the

Philippines is separated from the rest

of Asia because of its longstanding

identification with the West and its

isolation in term of geographic posi-

tion. In the ideological divide be-

tween Communism and Democracy,

Baldoria agrees with the idea of de-

mocracy propagated by the United

States because of the capacity of the

US to defend the Philippines. He as-

serts that in order to achieve peace

and security for a state and the world,

geographic position and physical

power should be the focus. In his

analysis of Philippine foreign policies,

he recommends a re-examination of

the country’s attitude towards its

neighbors in the north, especially Ja-

pan and China and a re-orientation of

the country’s national policy.

in his “The Bureaucracy in the Philip-

pines”, defines bureaucracy as the

“administrative instrument or organi-

zation which exists in modern politi-

cal community for the attainment of

community’s social objec-

tives” (Corpuz 1957, 6). This work is

a careful and systematic study of the

history of Philippine bureaucracy

from the Spanish Regime up to the

state of bureaucracy at the time of his

writing, which features the evolution

of Philippine Bureaucracy through

time, and the flaws of each state of

bureaucracy. He ends his book on a

hopeful note as he claims that the

further development of the country’s

bureaucracy depends on the develop-

ment of the Philippine nation.

9

10

is known for his contributions in the

behavioral studies of policymaking

and electoral politics in the Philip-

pines. He envisions a Filipino Repub-

lic as one in which law, civility and

social justice are upheld. Quoting a

famous Tagalog line “Ang sakit ng

kalingkingan ay damdam ng buong ka-

tawan,” it serves as a guideline for the

Republic to live by the values of law,

civility and social justice, wherein the

defense or promotion of the interest

of the weak, the poor and the minori-

ty serves as an objective. He is also

an advocate of the supremacy of a

strong executive leadership who

holds the value of pagdamay, one that

is capable of connecting with his con-

stituents.

POLITICIAN

works cover diverse range of topics

such as the proper relationships

among the branches of government,

between the national and local gov-

ernments, between the church and

state, between the administration and

the opposition political parties, be-

tween conservatism and radicalism,

and among the states of the world, as

well as the role of morality in govern-

ment, law, and politics (Agpalo 1992,

163). Much of his political thoughts

are founded on his concept of man.

For him, man is a complex being; he

lives in and is subject to the laws of

three realms, the physical, the intel-

lectual and spirituo-moral. Based on

this context, government exists in

order to dignify man. Furthermore, a

good government and international

peace must be founded on a belief in

_________________________________________________________

Agpalo, Remigio. “Jose P. Laurel: National Leader and Political Philosopher.” Asian Studies 3

(1965): 163-192.

Bueza, Michael. “FAST FACTS: The life and legacy of Apolinario Mabini”, Rappler, July 23, 2014,

accessed April 20, 2015, http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/64047- fast-facts-life-

legacy-apolinario-mabini

Gorospe, Vitaliano R. “Laurel’s Political and Moral Philosophy.” Philippine Studies 11 (1963): 419—

427

Santos, Vicente. Review of Partyless Democracy by Ricardo Pascual. Philippine Law Journal. July 1952.

Schumacher, John N. “The Civil and Religious Ethic of Emilio Jacinto.” Landas 9 (1995): 37-52.

the Fatherhood of God and the

Brotherhood of Man, in individual,

national, and international morality

based on Divine Righteousness, and

in Freedom as a Divine Gift

(Gorospe 1963, 420). ■

11

12

Several Filipino political thinkers

have underscored the idea of ethical and

moral leadership.

Apolinario Mabini emphasized the

importance of a leader by arguing that

there are men who “desire to live at the

expense of others”1. His ideal leader is

someone “who by superior force and

intelligence, will prevent some individu-

als from usurping the rights of others,

and who will allow everyone to work, in

accordance with their respective special-

ization”2; he is someone who cares for

his people by “fulfilling their desires and

the satisfaction of their aspirations”.3

Similar to the social contract thinkers,

he reasoned that political power comes

from the consent of the governed; the

moment the leader disgraces himself

before his people, he ceases to possess

the power granted to him.

Jose P. Laurel maintained that lead-

ership must be based on righteousness.

He argued that “there can be no good

government, regardless of its form,

without morality”.4 He further argued

that “public service, in order to be de-

serving of public faith and confidence,

must be rooted firmly in the bedrock of

righteousness”.5 Leaders cannot be truly

effective if they are perceived as corrupt

or immoral. Thus, a leader must be

someone with integrity - what he or she

does is consistent to what he or she

says. He or she must be someone who

leads the people effectively not just by

the authority of his or her position, but

leads by example. A true leader is some-

one who has the right view of his or her

purpose and end as a political leader;

someone whose motivation is serving

rather than personal aggrandizement.

Leaders should also be morally proac-

tive and have the passion to do what is

right. “Public officials should not dwell

in an ivory tower, aloof and uncon-

cerned about the sufferings and injustic-

es around them. What is unjust is im-

moral and what is immoral is stupid.

The same instinct should move public

servants to combat oppression and in-

justices in any form.”6

Public office is a public trust. This

principle of public service is enshrined

in our Constitution however, our lead-

ers often forget or ignore it. What kind

of leadership do we have in our coun-

try? Does moral leadership exist? ■

————————

1 Majul, Cesar Adib. 1967. The Political And

Constitutional Ideas Of The Philippine Revo-

lution

2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.

4 Laurel, Jose P. 1949. Moral and Political Orien-

tation. Manila: Jose P. Laurel

5 Ibid. 6 Ibid.

13

Talking about leadership is a very

timely topic mainly because of the stu-

dent elections. As students of the uni-

versity, we always see how the candi-

dates conduct their campaigns through

room-to-room visitation (rtr), debates

such as Upfront and Pasabog, and the

miting de avance. They also utilize social

media in order to share their platforms

online. As scholars of the nation, how

can we choose the leader that we de-

serve? Remigio E. Agpalo, a prominent

Political Scientist, offered his views on

leadership.

In his book chapter found in the

Adventures in Political Science, Agpalo

describes that a leader is the head of the

polity, which he refers to as “pangulo,”

and is expected “to lead, to protect, and

think for the people” (Agpalo 1996,

164). He expounded his idea more in his

journal article entitled the Philippine

Pangulo Regime, where the leader is

referred to as the “pangulo,” is operat-

ing on the idea that the executive is su-

preme, and that the “pangulo” shares

the value of “pagdamay” (Agpalo 1999,

46). In his discussion of the idea of pag-

damay, Agpalo explained it in his auto-

biography that the value of pagdamay is

compared into the set-up of a family,

where the father looks for the well-

being of his children (Agpalo 2003).

Agpalo operates on the idea that

leadership is like a body, where the head

is the leader and the arms are his min-

ions (Agpalo 1996). In this framework,

the idea on Agpalo’s leadership is that

the leader is very active when it comes

with the polity. The leader has to make

sure that everything is in order and that

he should look into every detail when he

works for the polity he is serving, and

that is the role which the head should

do. ■

————————

Agpalo, Remigio. Adventures in Political Science. Que-

zon City: University of the Philippines Press,

1996.

Agpalo, Remigio. “The Philippine Pangulo Regime.”

Philippine Political Science Journal 20 (1999): 45-60.

Agpalo, Remigio. Scrapbook of Remigio E. Agpalo:

Biographical and Academic Voyage, from

1928, his Birth Year, to 2003, his Diamond

Jubilee. Quezon City: University of the Philip-

pines, 2003.

“Ang sakit ng kalingkingan, ramdam ng buong katawan.”

—Popular Tagalog Saying as cited in Agpalo 1996

14

15

16

How relevant are the ideas of prior

political thinkers in the present time?

How did the concept of political

leadership evolve through time?

These are some of the questions we

asked to several Political Science

students, organization heads, alumni

and professors from our university

as they share their insights on their

conceptualization of political leader-

ship.

We conducted several interviews

with junior and senior students of

Political Science students and they

said:

“Political leadership is the capability

to run the state and its constituents.”

—John Lloyd Reyes, IV-BA Political Science

“The exercise of influence to move

people in achieving a certain goal”

—Brandon de Luna, IV-BA Political Science

“Coming from the root word lead,

political leadership guides the society

to a certain goal.”

—Kris Jeruta, IV-BA Political Science

“In a democratic setting, political

leadership – more so, effective politi-

cal leadership – begins with the craft-

ing of policy goals based on the gen-

eral will of the people. It is manifest-

ed in the effective transformation of

these policy goals into concrete out-

comes. Effective political leadership is

people-driven and accountable with

concrete plans and outcomes.”

—Maria Elize Mendoza, 3rd year

“Political Leadership is about doing

whatever it takes even if goes beyond

what is morally upright for the society

in order to serve one's interests and

the people he/she is serving.”

—Sween Khyzil Plaza, 4th year

17

“Political leadership is spearheading

the effort to organize community life

by coming up with collective decisions

which are binding.”

—Irish Jade Alimpolos, 4th year

“Political leadership is the capacity of

an actor to mobilize other potential

actors to participate in the settlement

of binding collective decisions for the

community.”

—Edcel John Ibarra, 4th year

“Perhaps to say 'political leadership'

is redundant, for the phenomenon of

leadership in itself is political. It in-

volves a relationship between a per-

son/group whose will shall be Law

(i.e. leader/s), and followers who

allow the leaders this capacity to de-

cide for them. No one is a leader if

no one will recognize him/her as

such. This kind of relationship is

inherently political since it always

involves an allocation of the right to

decide (and be obeyed), and a dynam-

ic between ruler/ruled.”

—Jayjay Lahoy, 4th year

Aside from the students, we also

asked the opinions of the heads of

different student organization and

their assessment of political leader-

ship in the context of the university.

Their insights are:

“It's more effective sa local level

(college level) than sa university lev-

el.”

—Xave Libardo, 4th year, Speaker, UP POLITICA

“In my opinion, political leadership

in UP varies depending on the enti-

ty/institution one is leading. After

all, these entities have varying pur-

poses. However, there is one thing

which is a common purpose that

binds these entities together - serving

the people. Having said that, I be-

lieve that at the heart of political

leadership in UP is being able to

mobilize people and light in them a

fire, the passion to partake and en-

gage in activities that seek to serve

the people.”

—Allan Cairo Reyes, 4th year, Presi-dent, UP Political Society

“UP prides itself of a strong partisan

politics. For the most part, I think

18

that is substantiated given their active

participation not only in elections but

also in how UP students' stands are

divided depending mostly on the posi-

tions taken by the parties. The polari-

zation of the stands taken not nly by

the party members but also unaffiliated

students dependent on the stances pro-

vided by the parties proves their effec-

tiveness in providing alternative poli-

cies.”

—Micah Manalo, 4th year, President, UP SAPUL

Last but not the least, it is important to

see the concept of political leadership

through the perspective of the aca-

deme. Here is the insight of one pro-

fessor:

“The question of political leadership,

more or less, delves into the individual

who occupies the position of leadership

both in the national and local levels.

Thus, our attention has been focused on

the study of political actors such as the

municipal mayors, provincial governors,

and the president. For all intents and

purposes, this conceptualisation is no

less valid. However, Philippine political

leadership must go beyond its agential

dimension. Political leadership is an

institution. It is composed of a set of

rules which governs the actions of a po-

litical leader. This kind of appreciation

reintroduces and merges the structural

dimension to the political leadership

question.

In our assessment of political lead-

ership, it is better if we look at it in

terms of how political leaders have as-

sumed roles and shaped positions. This

shows how iterative is the process of

defining and redefining political leader-

ship. The Philippines, through various

cases from the president down to local

chief executives, has been a rich source

for political leadership studies. Most

studies on political leadership in the

country, while sometimes focused on an

individual political actor, have taken

into consideration the dynamics that

happens within the larger political or-

ganization. These studies have argued

that political leaders have indeed exert-

ed powers and authority that goes be-

yond the formal. Philippine political

leadership, then and arguably, is an

interplay of the formal and informal

dimensions of leadership, with the dom-

inance of the latter over the former.”

—Prof. Jan Robert Go ■

19

20

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