.

Rn of
I The of
I
Familq in the Philippines )
Alfred W McCoy
r'
.For historians of the First World, national
history is often the sum of its institutional pans-corporatiOns, parties, unions,
legislature, and)exc_c;:_utive. Historiaris of Europe and America usually treat rhe family
as an aspect of social history not as an institution that can direct a .;arion's destiny.
In-the-Third·-World-, by contrast, the elite family has long been a. leading actor in
tjle unfolding. 'of the ·-national pageant. More specifically, in the Philippines, elite
families can be seen as both object and subject of history, shaping and being shaped
by th<l processes of change. .
Instead of treating the Philippine past solely as_the interaction of state, private
institutions, and popular move:ments, historians might well analyze its political
history through the patadigm ofelite· f.unilies. 1 Indeed, these fumilies have provided
a strong element of continuity tO the country's economic and political history over
the century past.Jn her survey ofl'hilippine politics, Jean Grossholtz described the
fami_ly- as "the 'Strongest unit of society, demanding the deepest loyalties of the
individual and coloring all social activity with its own set of demands." She chen
remarked, rather pointedly, thai!"the communal values of the family are·often in
-:conflicc,with·.'!he impt:_rsonal Values of the instiq.ttions of the larger society." 2
[ Despite the apparent-influence _Of family up·on the wider society and its politics,
most historians, both Filipino foreign, have ignored this problem and still treat
I Philippine policies through its formal institutional structures. 3 Even social scientists,
despite an obligatory bow in the direction of the family, have generally failed to
incorporate substantive analysis Of its _dynamics into their rendering of the country's
social and political processes.
As often happens in the stUdy of the Philippines, social science thus diverges
from social reality. Despite the <?ft-cited signjficance of elite families in Philippine
 2 AtFRED W McCov
politics, historical and contemporary analysis of their role superficial.
Instead of studying family,based oligarchies, as their Latin American colleagnes The Philippines
have done, Philippine historians have generally disregarded the leading Manila Land over 500 meters
families on ideological grounds and largely ignored the provincial eHtes. ISU
"
Throughout much of this century, the small coterie of professional Filipino
historians, many of them nationalists, have dismissed the country's
elites as politiCally treasohous or socially insignificallt. For Teodoro Agoncillo, the ·
doyen of postwar historians, the educated ilustrados of Manila's .
elite had committed the original sin of betraying the Revolution of 1898 and
. collaborating thereafter with American colonialism. Concluding his study of the
revolutionary Malolos Republic (1898-1901), Agoncillo describes Manila's elite,
whom he calls "the haves," in language remarkable for its bitterness: 4
?
When one studies the Revolution in its first and second epochs one finds that
... the middle class as a group betrayed the Revolution by a negative
attitude: they refused to lift a finger to support the mass·movement because
they did not believe ir would succeed .. , . In the second epoch, the betrayal
was consummated by positive action: they now entered the government by
the front door and tried to sabotage it by the back door ....
The betrayal in first epoch may be forgiven, but that of the second can ·
not. It is difficult, if not impossible, to rationalize the attitude of the "Haves,"
for when they accepted the high positions in the government they were, both
from the legal and moral standpoints, expected to be loyal to that
government.... [T]hey accepted the positions ... but by insidious means
undermined its foundations-through financial manipulations or through
secret with the Americans. Pardo de Tavera, Arellano,
Paterno, Bliencamino, Araneta, Legarda, and Others . . exemplified those
who, while still in government, were already in sympathy with.the American
propaganda line· of"benevolent assimilation." ... [T]hese men, the. first '
collaborators of the Americans, were· also the firsr-to-receive,the "blessings" of
· ·America and ... to rise in ·the social and economic ladder of the country.
The nationalist historian Renata Constantino, Agoncillo's contemporary, has
adopted a similarly dismiSsive attitude towards these same elite "collaborators" in his ' .
history of the Philippines. "Many of these individuals ..• prominent in the
Aguinaldo government .. : had held other posts in the Spanish government," he noted:5
Most . , . would again occupy good positions under the Americans. A few .·•
examples will ... demonstrate the agility with which men of property and Celebes Sea
··education switched their allegiance from one colonial power to another, with
a short ".revolutionary" career in between. T. H. Pardo de Tavera, Cayetano
Arellano, Gregorio Araneta, and Benit.o Legarda went over to the Americans.•...
 4 ALFRED W. MCCOY "AN ANARCHY OF fAMILIES" 5
A later generation of·radical analysts, writing in the 1960s and 1970s,
accepted the argument of Jose Maria Sison, founder of the new Communist ·Party,
Latin Rmerican Literature
that the country's elites were a alien element-either rural feudal In contrast to the of $outheast Asian studies, Latin America offers a rich,
landholders or urban, ·comprador bourgeoisie,6 Sison's intellectual hegemony theoretically infOrmed literatU.re on history that is applicable to other
collapsed after 1983 when the emergence of the yellow-ribbon opposition regions. 13 For several Latin American historians have used detailed
movement of Manila's upper and mlddle classes challenged his portrayal of these microstudies of elite families to discover new dimensions in their national histories .
elites as an insignificant political force. Acting on his hypothesis, the Communist .As a pioneer in this field, once argued, "anyone studying a people's .
Party alienated the moderate, middle-class leadership and had, by 1986, lost past ... will find that historical constants .are more· significant. than ostensibly
control of the legal opposition movement. Left criticism of the Sison analysis later ... disC_over,that what happened within the family ... is far
emerged in the "capitalism/feudalism" debate over whether the country was "semi· important. tl_lan ... events ... in presidential mansions, in
colonial, semi-feudal"- that is, whether or not capitalism had taken root and large .. .Applying this perspective to Brazil, Freyre found
developed a genuine bourgeoisie. 7 Although the debate broke the informal ban on that its mosi: distinctive elite f2.milies emerged in the sugar districts of the northeast
serious discussion of the burgis, it has not yet advanced far enough for research during the sixteenth fusing land, sugar, and slaves to become patriarchs
history. Lacking scholarly analysis of_either individual Filipino of "untrammeled power" and "total fiat." Arguing that the patriarchal family .still
:amtltes fam1ly-based oligarchies, we must turn to elite biography for basic exerts .a subtle influence on, ti?.e "the ethos of contemporary Brazilians," Freyre cites
mformatmn. - _ · the case of President Epitacio Pessoa who in .the early decades of this century was
. Most Filipino .biographies, the potential blocks for elite-family known as "Tio Pita'' (Uncle: Pit:\) in recognition of his penchant for appointing
studtes, are more hagmgraphy than history. Whether written by family, followers, male relations to key government posts. 14
or _friends, their. titles are often an apt index of their tone and content-Masur of· By the late 1970s the odd of family history was so well developed in Latin
Hts Sout The Lifo ofNorberta Ramualdez, published by his children; jose Yulo: The America that another Brazilian historian would the "family-based"
Selfless Statesman by Baldomero Olivera; or Days of Courage: The Legacy ofDr. Jose approach to political history as a "commonplace in Brazilian history." Similarly, an
P.. by Rose Laurel Avancena and Ileana Maramag.B essay on the role of kinship politics in Chile's independence movement began with
wnte as 1-f death were a cleansing sacrament that somehow exempts their subjects the words "The importance the family in Latin America goes unquestioned." 15 A
from critical examination. Just as they have begun to compile elaborate decade later, Latin American:historians were still unanimous in their belief that the
?enealogies, Filipino families now en'shrine their progenitors' memories elite family played a uniquely important political role in their region, one that
m prose .. and sycophantic. Olivera invokes a priest who describes Jose rcq.uired _special consideration. Introducing eight essays for the Journal of Family
Yulo as a · .. a complete and man."9 Avancena and Maramaq hail Hiltory, observed that "the family- in
Dr. Laurel s courage born of untarmshed love for his country. a love proven :aomore' ..force J_n shaping:
beyond any cavil ?f doubt. " 10 Maria Races, in another such work, describes her
. Fernando Lopez, as a "very likable man ... 'loved by all"' With "a natural Indeed, they found that "institutions in Latin American society
gtft for reaching out ... to the common folk." H'is brother Eugenio is an make much more social sense, particularly in the nineteenth century, if vieweq
of "the utmost professionalism" and "strong character" who created through, the)ens of family reiationships." l6
'brilliant ventures.'' 11 Such accounts fill a culturally prescribed formula In her writing on the. Pessoa family of Paraiba State in Brazil's northeast,
for filial piety-exoneration from the charges of their enemies, silence about their historian Linda Lewin has :produced some of the most refiiled historiographic
or corruptions, and a celebration of their contributions to the nation. The reflections on the connectiOns between familial and national history. Reacting to
that. thus emerge are devoid of sexuality, psychology, or fault, pale and reinforcing the weakness of the under the Old Republic
tmttauons of lives. While other Southeast Asian societies have produced {1889-1930), Brazilian families developed enormous political power. As Lewin
biOgraphies and autobiographies, the region still has little nondynastic explains in a seminal article, the "elite extended family has always loomed large in
famtly history that can serve as a model for future Philippine research,l2 interpretations of Brazil'S historical evolution, for the absence of a strong
centralizing state as well as ·the lack of other competing institutions has meant its
imponance has loD.g been recognized." 17
Lewin suggests that, at least for the Pessoa family in Paraiba, there was a
striking difference in the ethos of national and provincial politics. As one of the
 6 AlfRED w. M'.CCOY wAN ANARCHY OF fAM!t!ESw 7
"tightly organized oligarchical elites who controlled stat.e parties ..• by virtue of ·
their delivery of [loca1] to the presidential machine," the Pessoa The Filipino FamiiQ
family gained national influence, which further entrenched their local power in Even a cursory· survey of the country's past indicates that in the Philippines, as in
Paraiba. 18 Brazil's political leadership of this era was thus the' product of family- many Latin American settings,_ a weak state and powerful political oligarchies have
based oligarchies-not parties, factions, or social movements. ·cOmbined to make a familial perspective on national history relevant. The
reference to the web of relationships woven by its members ... it would be Philippines has a long histoo/ of ,strong families assuring social survival when the -
impossible to account for either Pessoa political control of their state or Epitacio's nation-state is weak. In this century, the state has collapsed, partially or wholly, at
exceptional national career," Writes· Lewin about Brazil's President Epiracio Pessoa. least four times in the midst Of war and revolution. After independence in 1946,
"Consequently, in many respects this book attempts tO· interpret Epitacio as the moreover, the Philippine cefltral government effectively lost control over the
creation of his political family." 19 Demonstrating a striking ideological flexibility,: countryside to regional politicianS, some so powerful that they became known as
Epitai::io Pessoa was "among ... the world's most distinguished diplomats" at the_ Reinforcing their .economic· power and political offices with private
Versailles peace conference of 1919 and a leading liberal on the national stage in armies, these warlords terrorized •the peasantry and extracted a de facto regional
Rio. Simultaneously, however, he operated as the pragmatic "state party boss" and autonomy as the price for deliverir)g their vote banks to Manila politicians.
"political patriarch" in provincial Para1ba.20 After ·generations of ex"perience Filipinos have learned to rely upon their
For Lewin, then; :I{JV/J _kew.vari:)bj<,!o.;u;<:OUI)t·.for the•extraordinlli}' political.:pOVf,c:<· families for the sorts of social services that the state provides in many developed
of•BritZil'it'f.imily-l>ased'''oligarcliies-k,iHshlP:, and the •Slatel. During the colonial era, nations. Indeed, the state itself has recognized the primacy of the family in
when the state was not yet well elite families, reinforced by patriarchy and _ Philippine society. In curiously loving language,
endogamy, captured control over land and labor in the country's produaive hinterland. states that ·public policy-
As the society changed during the late nineteenth century, patriarchy faded into the state admonishes its officials to respect
conjugality and endogamy gave way to Cxogamy. But there vt.1s no "linear decline in the the "family's primary for social welfare: "·Mutual ciid,.;both' moral an<;!.·
power of the eiite family." Indeed, a small group of these families "continued to defin.ea "rri.embers of·the j Udidal 'and
political elite" and "the parmtekt in the absence of a Strong state and class· .. mutual assistance;"25 Similarly, in ®t:d:elerna.
defined society, to offer the greatest individual security." Despite modernization of the makes the defense of the family a
society, elite families in Brazil's northeast maintained rrthe same landed monopoly of basic national. principle: the sanctity of family life and· ·shall
. b .._,. . .. »26
commercial agriculture and coercive nianipulation of the rural labor force." 21 a asic autonomous· soc1W. lnstttuuon.
Surveying the scholarly literature on Brazilian state oligitrchies under the 10ld I Until recently the Rom:ln Catholic Church, the nation's other leading source
Republic, Lewin found that of"poWer, either the. colonial state or its own institution·al interests,
,srstein''WitilB!ltreec1i>l<rMpp!ngi<o/jies'<Of!<i'!ill'i6llio/i'ihlkof<WliicltldoJili!ldedirupoiiillfam_Uy.i< reMaining largdy uninvolved i?_ social welfare. Although the Church has developed
states such as·Paraiba with a "prim"'l' strong social concerns since Vatican II, for most of its four cemuries in the
dependence on the ties·of family'' and integrated across sqcioecOnomic lines;. Philippin"es it an institution that extracted tribute and gave rituals in
other states such as Bahia or Pernambuco, :which •rcan be characterized as . ' return .
PersonalistiC oligarchies" that dovetailed personal ties "with kinship; a unique 'What' provide'. the family In the century past,
pattern of purer party governance in Rio Grande do Sui with "an impressive degree of while three empires. and five r:epublics have come and gone, the Filipino family has
bureaucratization in its organizational structure. "21 survived. It provides and edu.cates ·anc;l. socializes the-
Other Latin American historians echo and elaborate upon these themes. On its ·and _aged, and above all else,· to
the final page of his richly detailed history of Mexico's powerful Sanchez family,. . its.: name, ·honor, -capital; and- Values ·co the· "The
Chrj"les Harris offers an important insight into the political character of leading . most "important advantage of oUr family system," wrote educator Conrado Benitez
Latin American families that seems amply iiiustrated in his preceding three hundred in the 1932 edition-ofhis classic high-school civics text, 27
·'pages: "If there is one element that runs through the Sanchez Navarros' political
actiVities it is pragmatism, for they were prepared to work with anyone who would is that it provides for of minors, the sick, the incompetent, and the
work with them." 23 In sum, Latin America's oiigarchies achieved their dependent. In European and.A.merican countries, where the family is not so
power because, in·Eric Wolfs words, the state "yields its sovereignty to competitive a
pronounced civic unit, millions of pesos are spent by governments ...
groups tliat are allowed to functiOn in its entrails. "24 takiD.g care of the insane, the sick....
 8 AlFRED w. McCoY
'"AN ANARCHY OF fAMiliES" 9
Thirty-five years later, a Philippine college sociology text explained the
11
pragmatism underlying this practice: The Filipino family ... protects its members internal dispute compounded by her marriage imo another powerful political
against all kinds of misfortunes since the good name of the family has to be family of the same province.
protected. "28 Much of..the passiop.,., power, and loyalties. diffused in First· World In applying the Latin American literature to the Philippines, it is useful to
societies· are family: within . the It commands an adapti,the two-•key'variables .found in most Mexican or Brazilian ·family histories-;---
individual's highest loyalty, life chances, and can serve as an emotional and a weak state. In particular, we must learn something of the
touchstone. character of Filipino kinship if we are to understand the influence of family upon ·
Once we entertain the familial aspect, its centrality to manY periods and Philippine politics. As anthropologist Roy Barton discovered in his prewar research
problems in Philippine history becomes obvious. Reflecting upon social among the highland Ifugao, the practice of bilateral descent is a central
to national development in the 1950s, anthropologist Robert Fox described the characteristic of Filipino kinship.3.2 Summarizing what he calls an "anthropological
Philippines as "an anarchy of families." 29 Indeed, Philippine political parties l)Sually truis.m," Jurg Helbling explains.· that bilateral kinship "produces overlapping,
have. acted. as of powerful families. Regimes can, as the Marcos era egocentric networks," fostering "characterized by vagueness and ambiguity,
demonstrates, become tantamount to- the private of the ruling family. Jn: if not by disorder."33 Unlike patrilineal Chinese family, which could form
the posrwar period leading banks were..often .extensions of family. capital (the Bank unilineal kinship corporatiOns to preserve property beyond three or four
of Commerce was Cojuangco, while Manila Bank was Laurel). In his studies of generations,34 Filipinos define kinship bilaterally, thus widening their social
Philippine banking, political scientist Paul Hurchctoft has found that: "There is networks and narrowing their generational consciousness. Instead of learning th..e
Hrcle separatign between the enterprise and the household, and it is often difficult principle of family loyalty by revering distant male ancestors, Filipinos act as
to discern larger 'segments of. capital' divided sectorallines;"30_ principals in ever-extending bilateral networks of real and fictive kin.35 "Filipino
Similarly, the chief of the Securities and Exchange Rosario kinship system is cognatic or bilateral in form with an orientation towards ego,"
noted in a July, 1992 paper that corporacions ..;un_qng the argues "The··FiiipiriO type of·kinship group is·, therefore, a
·one were ·publicly listed. bequ:!s_e;,most .F,iliplno.. ·of lineal or vertical cofl.tinuiry ·but expanded
glorified,;{amily Noting that .Filipinos seem to prefer relatives . P.orizotitallf'Within.t·eacli1igeheratiO_n'with:··ego as the central·figure."36 Of course, not
partners and shareholders, Lopez that: "There are socio!=llltural praFtices . all ·egos are equal and there:is qften both hierarchy and leadership within this:
that endanger the situation, particularly the Filipino of having [an] extended familial fluidity. ·
family concept."31 If banks and other major corporations are often Supported by an infoimal ideology that legitimates the role of kiriship in
with the history of a few elite families, so labor unions, Christian denominations, .. poli1tics, dire Filipino familieS. oft:en perform a broad range of economic, social, and
and even a communist party have been do.minated by single families. political functions. Not only 4oes Filipino culture articulate strong beliefs about the
In Philippine politics a family name is a valuable asset. Along with their land family in the abstract but as both leaders and followers, are influenced
and capital, elite families, as Jeremy Beckett argues in volume, are often by kinship concerns in makirig political decisions. In Filipino Politics: Development
thought to transmit their character and characteristics to younge.r generations. and Decay, David Wurfel the character of politics within a society based
Although new leaders often emerge through elections, parties voters seem to on bilateral kinship.37
feel that a candidate with a "good n;une" has an advantage. A Laurel in
an Osmefia in Cebu, a Cojuangco ' 1in Tarlac, or a Lopez in Iloilo stands a good The family has long been the center of Filipino society. As in most parts of
of polling strongly. Believing that an established name carries cachet and Southeast Asia kinship is essentially·Dilateta:l; that is,.·ancestty is- traced
qualification, parties favor scion of an oid line when selecting · =.through•both:th.e:·inoth.ees artd-the··fa:ther's'line. Effective kinship ties are
_Along wirli the divisiqn of lands jewels; f;rmiJies often try tO maintained with of both parents. A bilateral system gives a
apportion candidacies for provincial or municipal Qffices their heirs, potentially huge number of living kin, especially as five to ten children are
sometimes producing intense confllcts over this intangible legacy. as the not uncommon even in each nuclear family of each generation.
Cojuangco family's split in 1946--47 launched Jose Roy's long and distinguished
career in Congress, So internal family batdes can bear direcdy on the.country's local Within these radiacing:bilateral networks of kin-four grandparents, several
and national policies. In the case of the Cojuangcos, this local batde over political siblings, numerous aunts and uncles, dozens of godparents, scores of first-degree
legacy led Eduardo "Danding'' Cojuangco into a alliance with Ferdinand cousins, and hundreds of secOnd.; and third-degree cousins-an individual Filipino
Marcos and life-long alienation from his cousin Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, an necessarily forges selective personal alliances to negotiate his or her way through the
complexities of intr.af.im.ilial politics. Reinforcing this social fluidity, actual kinship
 10 AlFRED W. McCoY "AN ANARCHY OF fAMiliES" 11
relations often are superseded_ by the erratic influence of personal alliances and defined by economist James Buchanan, irents' are created when a _givest"an
antipathies. Using fictive kinship, for example, an individual can elevate to by ·teSrricting- of
the status of sibJings. Similarly, blood ties provide no that individuals will 'When extreine restriction cre3.tes·a monopoly, the consequences for the economy as
interact.. In political terms, the word family does not simply houuhold, as it is a whole are decidedly negative:- "No value is created in the process; indeed the
defined narrowly by demographers, nor does it mean kinship, as it. is used' more involves a flet destruction of value. The rents secured
broadly by ethnographers. Seeking a rerm rhat describes the political role of fomily, pj.yersion of value from consumers generally to the favored rent seeker, wtth a ner
we might Use-t/tih.ihiP''netwiir-k, that is,la .. loss_of value in the process." ·:sy·restricting'·m·arkets through, regulation· and
group1 r.dated b)' A. elite families bring such flexible ·to"a· favored few; states can spark an ."essentially political
kinship ties into the political arena, elections often assume a kaleidoscopic a process called:·rent· seeking.38 Reviewing che
complexity of and conflict, making Filipino politics appear volatile. half century of Philippine -history from this perspective, the theory of rent
Once a stable "kinship network" is formed, such familial coalitions bring seeking seems appropriate to both elite politics as it functioned under ·the Republic
some real strengths to the competition for political office and profitable and the "crony capitalism" that flourished under the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.
investments. A kinship network has a uni.que capacity to create an informal political The emergence of the -Republic as a weak postcolonial state augmented the
team that assigns specialized roles to its members, thereby coordination power of rent-seeking politiCal families-a development that further weakened the
and influence, Under the postwar Republic, for example, Eugenio Lopez became a state's own resources. "The state,_ as it evolved out of the colonial context, remains a
leading businessman in Manila while his younger brother Fernando was an active weak apparatus for econom-ic development," explains political scientist Temario
politician at both the provinci;ll and national levels. In particular, the pursuit of the Rivera in his study of the postwar economy. "Enjoying little autonomy from
state's economic largesse can depend upon the success of such teams, or doriii.nail.t social classes and C:ntrenched particularistic groups, the state is captured
coalitions, in delivering votes to a for office (senator or by ... competing societal int_erests. "39
president) ..Jf _.the: repay. the_ .9:ver · · This paradoxical relationship between a weak state and a strong· society is not
t_hrough t. q·c,:P,jr,....;s:_e;lectiye _ limited to the Philippines. Recent research on Third World politics has found that
regulations,. I? r social units suCh as family, clan, or faction can block the state from translating its
broadcasting. · · · · nominal authority into social action. "States are like big rocks thrown into small
pondS," writes make waves from end to end, but they rarely
catch any fish." He argues. that ThiFd- _World states suffer from ·an underlying
The Weak State .•... in penetrating societie:S:.and their surprising
Just as we must adapt the concept of the elite family to the Philippine context, so ' W:Cakl-fdS' in ·?C:ffe6tin:g; ·sO:chtl changes. "40 Seeking the source of the
we must accommodate the particulars_ of the Philippine state. Since elite families state's weakness, Migdal finds that-:ioCial-otganizations· such·as clans .. ·
and the state are engaged in a reciprocal relationship that defines Wd act ·as competing. sources -of author_ity.
redefines both, w·e need to place kinship networks within -the locus of Thus, the 01state leaders' drive for predominance-their quest for uncontested social
Philippine politics. corltrol-has stalled in many countries because of tenacious and resilient
. . . »41
Reviewing the literature on the Philippine state .. organizations scatteredrhr oughout rh eu soaeues. .
seem to h_ave contributed most to the · the historical processes that produced such a state m the
.. and a Philippines, it 'can be said that Spain and the United- States tried to forge a strong
bureaucratic ·apparatus based upon their own laws and social practice.42 Since the
Probing each of these aspects_, rents and a de facto provincial .autonomy, 9'eates a lrllodern Philippiiie state did hot evolve organically from' Filipino society, it cotild
broad political and historical context for rhe studies of rhe individual families found :not·indu_ce compliance ,thr'ough share& myth or-other.forms of social sanction.
in this volume. In so doing,. however, we must be careful not to separate Denied vOluntary cooperatiOn from their Filipino subjects, the Spanish and early
phenomena seem, in the Philippine context, synergistic. Simply put, American states derived m!lch: of their authority from the implied coercion of
. a,.. colOhial rule. COmpouriding these contradictions, American colonials extended the
-;md. _ . pOWerS of the ceiitral bUreaucracy they ha:d inherited from Spain whil-e
Within the literature·on political economy, the .theory of "rent seeking" best simultaneously experimenting-with grassroots democracy in the form of local
explains the economic relations between the Filipino elite and the Philippine state. As elections. In effect, the United: States tried to moderate the imagined excesses of
 12 ALFRED W. McCoy
•AN ANARCHY OF fAMILIEs• 13
Iberian centralization by in.troducing the Anglo·American tradition of local·
Movin.g in in 1907, a,nd launched entire industries for example) on the assumptiof!. that their
elections m .1935, the built politics from rhe investments would be protected.47 While primary industries such as sugar and
mumctpal_tty upwarc{,. provincial both local and much of the manufacturing sCctor (textiles, autos, and seed) were creations of the
national offices_. To restrain the and autonomy of provincial elites, Manila state's licensing powers, proyincial elites often relied upon other forms of state
Americans used their Philippine Constabulary as a political police force to check ·support. Instead of licenses ··per·se, provincial elites required a free hand from
of the peasantry term these colonials applied to Filipino loc:i.J Manila to exploit local revenues, and resourceS,· in effect, operating a·
with an intentional Latin Ameri_can connotation. During the early years benefice in the premodern sense of the term.
cheu rule, AmeriJ?IDs used. cpe term cacique to desc;ribe .. ..ellres. Starting from its role as the distributor of U.S. rehabilitation .and Japanese
.to ..gain .. reparation· funds after World ·war II, the Philippine state played an increasingly
countrystd:e. Similarly, the colonial executive tried to use insular auditors to restrain important role in the econ:omy through both its financial institutions and
rent seeking by an emerging national elite. Although it was effectively penetrated commercial regulations. By the lai:e 195.0s, the state role was so pronounced that an
and manipulated by these elites from the outset of American rule, the colonial. American financial consultant commented that "business is born, and flourishes or
bureaucracy managed to maintain its influence until the period of not so-mtich in the ffiarkerplace as in- the halls of the legislature."48 Under the
the 1930s. doctrines of economic nationalism and national development, the Republic
After independence in 1946, the. new Republic inherited the colonial task of eventually extended its nominal influence into almost every sector of the economy.
restraining both rent seeking and provincial autonomy. ':U;I:tHke the_ col.onial Although the state had broad economic powers under the law, Republic's
appointed by WashingtQ.I):, however, record of implementing its devt;:lopment schemes was erratic. Elected with the
th.e el<:ctoral support of provincial elites.1and Manila's. As might-be. support of rent·seeking political :brokers, successive presidents were forced to pay
expected, p,mch of the Rep.t,tblic's between off powerful politicians with local and national benefices, thereby compromising
.the presiden.''s l!pf>n to .deli-.:c;r the State's integrity and dini.inishing its resources. The Republic thus developed as a
..the laws agrunst vwlC:nce and to-these same suppon;ers. These cl}anges in state with both substantial economic resources and weak bureaucratic capacicy.49
the rol.e of the .e:ecutive c.ompoun<ied the pressures upon the It is this paradoxical pairing of wealth and weakness that opened the state to
a raptd degeneration in. the ef_ficacy of this state While the predatory rent ·seeking by politicians. As resources drained from government
service had operated with integrity and efficiency under U.S. colonial rule, the coffers, the state apparatus weakened and political families gained strength. In his
i
recent study of banking in the Philippines;¥Paul:I:Iutchcroftexplained the dynamics
postwar bureaucracy, in the words of 0. D.
low prestige, incompetence, I?eager resources, and a large
was "characterized mainly by
of cynical
'.' .. I
of a process that allowed the state to become "swamped by the particularistic
Compounding these corrosive influences, the intrusion of demands of powerful oligarchic forces."5°
poltncs mto the realms of appointments and decision making soon compromised
tl:-.e autonomy of the civil service.43 By the mid-1950s, the bureauC:ra'cy suffered 'FliC Philippine bureaU?mcy ... has long been penetrated ·by parcicularistic
from a "novel weakness" and was "hig}:lly attack by external parties · in.terests, which· have a firm independent economic base ... yet
(politicians). "44 rely heavily uPC?n their aCcess ro the· political machinery in order to promote
the. Republic Philippine used the state:s private ·acd..Iinulatiort..... Because the state apparatus is uriable to provide the
l,icensing powers '!5 bargainil)g dealings with and elit,;, calculability necessary for advanced capitalism, one finds instead a kind of
that. the;.dominant famill.;,: b_ased;- tiltim.ately,-"on the plunder of the-stare· appatatus by
within the paradigm of rent-seeking politics, ,\)le
b;lse<f,so mufh _o!l from. !'."')' ·
The Republic's weakness also led to an attenuation of state control over the
Ofi:-a ...of
.,Il],ani <r.eg.u.lat.ions to. ,a countryside and a loss of irs· ·nea,r·monopoly on armed force. As the state reached
existing. -"S ;:J;:l:lf:,Rep.Ublic•-.r.egulatecLa;-.wi"de'". into the provinces to promote democracy and development, it found itself
mMJ;., wiu!ug; lQgging, retail comPeting with local elites for .control over the instruments of coercion. The
t·rade, lJ!l,·P:C!t.t$., the extent that they required impact of this seemingly "simple :change upon Philippine politics was profound. In
from competition" to r'ain profitable.46 many entrepreneurs his analysis of Third World politics, for example, ly!igdal. identifies effective
·CQe.t;cion-·as a-key attribuce··ofa'stto-ng'state: "First, leaders aim to hold a.monopoly
 14 AtFRED W. McCOY •AN ANARCHY Of fAMILIES• 15
over the principal means of coercion in their societies by maintaining firm contror some significant instability. World War II, the combination of loose firearms
over standing armies and·police forces while eliminating nonstate controlled armies, and weak central control allow:ed warlords to emerge in many provinces. In later
militias, and gangs."S 1 decades, warlordism often reeffierg,ed in regions where instability was fostered by.
In the Philippines, World War II and independence coincided to allow the the land frontier, protracted rivalry, or particular economic circumstance.
rise of private armies that operated beyond Manila's control. Although the tendency On the frontiers, for elites formed private armies to defend their
towards violence was already evident in prewar elections, politicians were extraction of natural resourceS ·thrOugh logging, mining, or fishing-the basis for
not heavily armed and the state retained the power to intervene effectively in the wealth in many localities. LiC.enses for such extraction could be won formally
provinces. During the war, however, the collapse of central aUthority and the through access to national politicians in Manila or informally by. violent
distribution of infantry weapons to anti·Japanese guerrillas broke Manila's competition ln the countrysic;le. In these and other rural areas violence often
monopoly on firepower. Before 1935, the U.S. colonial state had used the occurred during elections rivals competed to deliver blocs of votes for
Philippine Constabulary, the successor to _the Spanish Guardia Civil, as its chief presidential candid3.tes in the hQpe of winning rents as their reward.
instrument of control, deploying its rifle to mediate between thC: Moreover, local used private armies in provinces where a key
demands of a center and the countervailing centripetal pull of . element of production or was vulnerable to expropriation through armed
provincial politics. When Manila•s over the countryside after force. To cite the rriost notorious example, human settlement in the province of
1935, and attenuated with independence in 1946, provincial politicians demanded !locos Sur is concentrated along a narrow coastal plain that seems almost pinched
neutralization of the Constabulary as a condition for the ddivery of their vote between the Cordillera and the ·south China Sea. Since most transporc moves along
to presidential candidates, thereby fostering_a de facto local autonomy eddemic a single national highway thar".'enters from Ilocos Norte and exits south into La
political violence. · Union towards Manila, groups could monitor most of the province's
By the mid-1960s, official crime statistics in_dicated a level. of violence that commerce from a few roadside, checkpoints. Although peasants produced Virginia
was extraordinarily high by international standards. In 1965, the year Ferdinand tobacco, the province's main export, on farms scattered along "this coastal plain, the
Marcos was first elected president, the Philippine homicide rate was about 35 per processing, or redrying, of the raw leaves created another choke point for a powerful
100,000 persons-compared to just_25 for Colombia that same year during a time family, the Crisologos, to extract a share of the surplus. During the 1960s, they
·of upheaval known there as "La Violencia." The Philippine murder rate continued maintained a private army of over a hundred- men and engaged in political violence
to climb, reaching a remarkable 42 per 100,000 persons in 1967. This violence was, that gave the province a homicide rate far higher than the national average. 53
however, neither random _nC?i' Statistical indicates that ·it was from Ilocos Sur. without dryi-ng· -it ·at rhe
to the electoral process. In !locos Sur, a province known for political ,exporc- ','tax" -confiscation ac
violence, the murder rate ebbed to 1 or 2 in the months between elections and By contrast, there were no
jiunped to 30 during the November 1965 presidential campaign. Two years later, comp:irable means by which a pUtative warlord could control the flow of rice
during the 1967 con&."essional elections, in _Iloc:os achieved. a produced irl the vast Central Luzon Plain. The highway grid that crisscrosses the
remarkable annual homicide rate of 134 per 100,000.52 · ·· plain lacked comparable choke ·points, whlle _both the production and processing of
The of ;rms and. a parallel of central aucliority allowed rice was widely dispersed. .
the rise of provincial politicians knoWn as the warlords. Under the p"ostwar Compounding this complexity, there are individual factors that lead certain
Republic, politicians who reinforced their influence with priVate armies included provincial politicians to both-adopt: and abandon the use of private armies. A minor
Floro Crisologo (in llocos Sur),. Armando Gustilo (Negros Occidental), Ramon datu such as Ali Dimaporo or an ambitious peasant like- Faustino Dy has very little
Durano, Sr. (Cebu), Mohamad Ali Dimaporo (Lanao dC:l Sur), and Rafael Lacson choice but to use violence to·_ establish his political and economic base. Mter
(Negros Occidental). Although warlords were active the Philippines, securing_ wealth and power in a locality through aimed force, provincial politicians
they were not found in every province. Powerful, politicians can begin to barter votes to win both immunity from prosecution and benefices in
controlled.much of the Philippine countryside but only some reinforced their the form of rents, cheap credit, or licenses. With his position thus legitimized, the
positions with paramilitary force in a.:way that made them warlords.. . family's founder, or his heifs, can enter a mature phase of old wealth and
..
Looking back upon the Republic two .decades later, several factors appear to
have encouraged the emergence ofWarlordism. Private armies seem to have been
respectable politics. "While the-agin'g_warlord usually retai_ns an aura of ruthlessness
akin to outlaw status, his children can. study at Manila's elite schools, become
more likely to appear in areas in which :l\.1anila's control was comparatively weak. lawyers or professionals; and marry into established families, thereby accelerating
specifically, systemic Political violence in periods provinces marked by the process of legitimation that discourages the continuing use of political violenCe.
16 AlFRED W. MCCOY "AN ANARCHY OF fAMILIES" 17
More than any other national leader of the Republican era, Ferdinand self-discipline and a high Sense of self-esteem that we could come up a
Marcos a product of this provincial violence. Marcos learned politics in his progressive country....
father's prewar campaigns for the National Assembly, and he began his own
political career as a defendant charged with murdering his father's rival in their From the contemporary system we hope to modify it-geared towards
home province of !locos Norre just after the 1935legislative elections. Hardened by the aims of the New Society.
wartime experience in combat, black marketeering. and fraud, Marcos emerged as a
politician Who combined a statesman's vision with the violence of a provincial .Apparently acting on this report, the Marcos regime organized a massive
politician. During his second term (1969-73), he built an informal, clandestine, youth organization, the Kabataang· Baran gay, led by his eldest daughter lmee.
command structure within the armed forces to execute special operations and also all youths aged fifteen to
cultivated close relations with provincial. warlords. During the political crisis of were required to join one of groups and many were.sent to remote
1971-72, he was the author of much of the terror bombing that traumatized rural camps for training through."secret rituals" that tried to instill in them a primal
national political life. loyalty to the first couple, 55 After -days of intensive·.indoctrination, the youths
After his declaration of martial law in 1972, Marcos's authoritarian state would ·assemble in a-candlelight:ceremony -to, swear-loyalty to the· father and mother-
!
exhibited both a punctilious public concern for legal proprieties and ;egul•r ..ofthe ·nation hefor., larger-than-life portraits of Ferdinand and Imelda.
recourse to extralegal violence. In a practice that Filipinos came to call "salvaging," . Although Marcos posed. as a social reformer, his regime rested upon a
loyalist factions within the Marcos-controlled military detained aq.d tortured coalition of rent-seeking families Aot unlike those that had dominated electoral
opponents, discarding their brutalized remains in public places. Although Marcos politics before martial law. by an expanding and an of
rapidly amassed ample wealth for entry into the Manila elite, his use of their foreign loan capital that eveniually totaled U.S. $26 btlhon, Marcos effecttvely
children as hostages, and later the public execution of a well-born rival, marked him central-iztd··politii:al···p6wet·•iri·the:arChipelagcf for the, first time _since the late. 1930s,
as a man apart. In the end, it was his use of violence, along with economic making oO.ce-autonomous politicians supplicants and reducmg. the
mismanagement, that forced the national elite to turn against him. politiCal· process to palace intrigues. During the early years of new _regime,
In fashioning his mechanisms of authoritarian control, Marcos exploited the Marcos·us.e&-his ma:rtial-law powers to· punish enemies among the old oligarchy,
family paradigm in an attempt to remake the Philippines into his image of a "New and· denying them ·the political n.eeded to
Society." In the months following the declaration of martial law in 1972, veteran SimultaneoUsly,· he··provided· his retinue of kin--and cremes wuh extraordmary
warfare specialist Jose Ma. Crisci, working through the Philippine private wealth.
Army's Office of Civil Relations,- convened an think tank to construct a ·· Instead of hts bro.ad marttal-law powers to promote development,
master plan tor social reform. report, Maicos expap.ded the role of rents Within the economy, fostering a virtual
argued that Marcos should exploit the Filipino family paradigm to purge florescence of "me political corruption he had once promised to eradicate. In 1981,
the country of values.54 r the business magazine sparked a storm of controversy with a report on this
: aspect of his constitutional .regime, the New Republic: "Marcos' principal
What is recommended therefore is an expansion of the family to a larger in 15 years in poy/er has been to help his friends and relatives build
group-the country. giant conglomerates."5 6 years later, economists at. the 'University ·of the.
where,the:Eres(dent'o.B.Jhe'<ll.epilblidi""the·fatlier'aii.d'hll\'th;;.citiiens""':ol!f )?hllippines pro_duced'.a''detailed;,rudy .of.rents .as they. had
1br-0thei's. From this new value we develop a strong sense of oneness, loyalty to .Jjsting•ail•,of-the 688'·presidential' decreeS· and 283 ·of•mstructiOn
the counny, and a feeling of Becawe all Filipinos are brothers, economy m one-"form or
we become just and sincere. There will develop in us a feeling Of trust
-
to explain how such "inassive intervention" had-led ·to the of
that values, such as lamangan, pakitang-tao, bahala na, etc, will be elimitiated interests over the study
from our system. • . . I ·-- .
The issue" ofexclusi'vetights·to import, export, or exploit certain.areas, the
Because the New Society pro;ides us with an opportunit}r to grow, it is the oollection·oflarge funds then privately controlled and
most appropriate· time to develop our very selves. The Philippines needs to be .expropriated,·and the preferential treatment of certain·fir:ms in an industry
economically stable" and it is only when we develop a value of self-reliance, for. purposes or crediuestructuring are among the·many instruments
that have been utiliZed ·hi thi:£ ·process. ·
I
J 18 ALFRED W. McCoy
i •AN ANARCHY OF fAMILIES" 19
I llluminating these broad trends with detailed case studies of corruption by
cronies, Ricardo Manapat described the Marcos regime as
eroded

cronies )Vho their earnings

apotheosis of
rent se·eking. which had divided "the whole economy ... into different fiefS managed
by: relatives the .dictator. "58
k a mix of regime paralysis, economic decline, and failing physical health
authority after 1978, Marcos became increasingly reliant upon courtiers

restoration, Aquino returned expropriated corporations to Manila's old economic

·oliga'rthy. of their assets and driven into exile by Marcos, the Lopez
family, to cite one example, returned to Manila in 1986 and began reclaiming both
its corporations and its provincial power base. ·
In the first hours of Fidel Ramos's administration, the rhetoric of the new
president provided an even sharper contrast between the principles and practice of
to deliver the blocs of provincial votes that he would need for a new mandate. Since family politics. In his inaugural. address, delivered on 1 July 1992, Ramos launched
t_he basis o.f!crqny wealth- was- ac<;:Jdental tie$- to, rhe;presiderit -rather than- ·a· stinging· attack on the country's pervasive system of rent-seeking familial politics
a<;:u.men, .most. . 'and pledged himself to reform.6 1
unstable, -Plagued,_by and.c_O,rr!Jp,tio.n, _these
c<?Ilapsed -with spectacular speed ::w}l"en"_the l9,8,1._ WC must make hard deciSions. We.shall have to resort to remedies close to
As Marcos's provincial political machinery withered, he suffered sharp in surgery-tO swift and decisive reform. First, we must restore civic
the 1984 and 1986 producing a crisis of legitimacy £or his regime. . order.... Then, we make politics serve-not the family, faction or
President Corazon Aquino canie to power in February 1986 with a the party-_but the And we must restructure the entire regime of
revolutionary mandate for change and few debts to any of the prominent political regulation and control that rewards people who do nor produce at the
families allied with Marcos's ruling KBL Party. Mindful of the abuses of the expense Of those who do, a system that persons with political
Marcos era, Aquino's appointive Constitutional Commission debated an influence to extract wealth without effort from the economy.
antidynastic clause at length, to prevent another president from making the
Palace a familial preserve. Less than twenty-four hours ·later, however, Ramos proved the poignancy of
presidential relatives from office. 59 his own Social critique when he cement
righr-ro..import cement duty-free for three years. While President
Quezon had used the potent symbolism of his Commonwealth Act No. I to
-:degree'·of,the ·llresideno,•hall'liio,ul;di!r·ilig.his;ten\!reyllc;'\\pJlJ!ifl!<!;c\· Members of establish the counuy's Department of Defense in 1935, Ramos had expended the
the Constitutional Commissions, ·or the Office of Ombudsman, or as drama of his first act upon· a· customs decree granting a coterie of
Sec.retaries, Undersecretaries, chairmen or heads ofbureaus or-offices, .establishe&:manufacrurers>a "Stranglehold"- over Observers noted
including government-owned or controlled corporations and their "that' 1the ·order had been by the incoming finance secretary, Ramon del
subsidiaries. Rosario, a Ramos confidante whose family corporation was a leading cement
.producer.62 .
Over .however, political pressures fOrced Aquino to Seeking to apply these general observations to particular case studies, this
compromise the spirit of this extraordinarily strict constitutional principle when she· volume's familial approach to :Philippine politics carries with it a series of linked
revived the legislature. In the May 1987 elections, many of the president's relatives that family-based Oligarchies are, to state the obvious, a significant
by. blood or marriage won seats with the supporr of the ruling politieal parrY headed factor in Philippine history; "" that relations among these elite "families" have a
by_ her brother-, Jose -Cojuangco. Moreover, Aquino, ocC4pying a .narrowing influence on the Course of Philippine politics; that elite families,
politieal center between the communist left and the militaty right, gradually move<( organized on complex of bilateral kinship, bring a contradictory mix of
into an alliance with the' provin_fial-elites who had chafed under Marcos's unified kinship networks and a fissiparous, even volatile, factionalism into the
centralized regime. Although initiiiy hostile to her reforms, politicians political arena; and that th!! interaction bet\:Veen powerful rent-seeking families
allied themselves·with her when she reopened Congress as an
assembly of elites with and a correspondingly weak state has been synergistic.
the authority to frame land-reform legislation. After a careful swvey of the election
resulrs, the Institute for Popular Democracy concluded that:_ "The· May 1987
elections for the Legislature ... saw- political·clans reasserting themselves t;h.e real as Stutlies of Filipino
source of power in Philippine electoral politics.'' Indeed, 166 congressmen, or 83 As noted above, the Republic's emergence as a weak, postcolonial state was a
percent of House membefship, -were from established "political clans," as were 56 necessary precondition for the rise of powerful political families. During the
percent of the local officials elected in 1988. 60 Paralleling this provincial troubled transition to after World War II, the country's civil service,
 •AN ANARCHY Of fAMILIES• 21
oftb..e Colonial _and Commonwealth states, -became framework to arise from the data. iec :_us illustrate this taking
by an efficient central bureaucracy, imaginary piece of graph paper and plotting a honzontal. ax.ts. of provmctal
r;')i!piii:idalls cnaJJenl;ea Manila's control over the countryside while autonomy and a vertical axis of access. As we reduce to
enltfefttei!eUJtS turned public weal into ptivate wealth. As·Manila lost its these two variables, and chen to imagi_nary dots, each represenung a smgle
on armed force, some politicians mobiliZed private armies, politician, tbe resulting graph would probably acros: the
--Produdng an extreme form of local autonomy in a number of provinces. reVealing an enormous diversity of i:accics. Comphcaung thts
Focusing on key factors within these larger processes, the essayS. in this representation of a three-dimensioiJ.al reality. our docs start shp shde
• ng ebanges iO. the character of indtvtdual families over ttme.
volume revOlve around the twin themes of corruption.in. .:eap.ital. and across the page, re fi eCt1 . .
tthe:·:p.r.b'Y:h:rce.s;. Indeed, a quick survey of tlie families profiled here produces. Focusing 011 major chemes within this of posstble
•·•.• .. · • I .
specrru!r! of !es.c!-ership from provincial w:uJor,Js R:.H"!'l')n
_. 0 . --· ·-· "·'- ;__...,t'..,.t. u,,.H.i1;.:L.:i, .IL) <..htf>a....:>if.o,:'-!.iH the history oJ many Pohticai L>a.slc UiHt.acnGcs in H:tnu.-;capc
several of these studieS, the Republic;s failure. to regain control over the . lt'hood the strategy of each opetat'es largely within a distinct domain. Un er
1Ive ' . h . d th
after independence in I 946 ailowed provincial across archipelago to most circumstances, political violence is prevalent m t e e
.t.
assume a de facto autonomy. Some of these politicians formed private paramilitary competition for rents is in the capital. the elites who
units, producing such warlords as Durano, Jwtiniano Montano, and Mohamad Ali opera.te within a culture of metropolitan civility, provinctal famthes are .to
Dimaporo. Similarly, the systematic corruption that accompanied the executive's en a ·e in systemic political violence either as agents or.opponents.
episodic attempts at econ·omic development encouraged rent seeking by. : •. g g ·· pubi'Ic lands pfecincts and transportation routes, provmctal
competmon over • ' ·al
entrepreneurial families such as the 1opezes and Osmefias. Despite their pedigree politics involves a zero-sum struggle for hegemony over an electoC:U or
I
and erudition, with i!ustrado antecedents such as the Pardo de Taveras, territory that ·encourages organized violence. By any a
wbo lived largely off old capital and thdt,good name, suffered a protracted politieal e · or warlord· mUst compete wtthm Mamla·s courtier socrety
.
rent, wb th er rmancter • .. . . d
eclipse until mafriage or personal ties hitched their fortunes to newer families that with its complex of palace intrigues, coahuons, tdeologtcal debate, an
wr.;e prospering th.Iough provincial policies and rent seeking. ' . · uJ t'ons While the provinces have often produced warlords,
b ureaucrattc reg a 1 . • . • h k"ll
It would he a mistake, however, to impose a. simple dichotomy upon tQ.e · al po1'ttlcs
nation · •m Man'tla has, at ,times, promoted leaders who comb me t e s I s
· complex web of postwar Philippine politics. We could identifY both national of both factional broker and nation_ai statesman. . . . . ..
entrepreneurs a provincial ba:se local warlords with only tenuow ties to Since independence in 1946, thE: territorial aspect of provmctal has
the capital. Most political families, however, fused local power with national aCcess. encourag'ed the extreme form of de facto local autonomy known as warlordtsm. As
Indeed, -91-any. found in for. renc,s cOntrol over the provinces receded after
. · and MontanO used private armies to control ,[ocahttes an
unless they could ddiver, by Whatever means, a substantial bloc of votes·tQ D.urano, D tmaporo, h d' d
Even the most violent of provincial warlords tried to win lucrative secure over ·offices. Elite familie_s t at 1 not
either through allies in Manila or by exercise of their de facto Io.Gal.. autonomy. · b'l' h · wn militia still had to deal with the inherent vtolence of the
Many of these families assigned members complementary roles as qr I ='•r=o
rovinces, either manipulating it, as the Lopezes have done, or con rontmg It 1 e
· ·rk
provincial leaders, demonstrating an efficiency that made family a force f Osmefias, Returning to his home province in the late 1920s years of
in the politic<_tl To cite the most prominent 'case, Eugenio Lopez used his I studies at the University of the Philippines and Harvard, Euge.nto ,Lopez allted
commercial and legal skills to beco.fle the· Republic's leading rent-seeking hiniself with Iloilo City's criminals to seize control of the provmce s bus
eiurep.reneur. Simultaneously, his yci}lnger brother Fernando maintained the l
company. When Lopez later to Manila, he a financter and
family's political base in the home provi"':tce of Iloilo and to bolster his climb philanthropist, assuming the ·a cosmopolitan entrepreneur and
to national elective office. avoiding direct involvemept in polmcal v10lence.
Given a paradoxical pairing of tbe personal and the official within the term The Osme.fias of Cebu a contrasting case that
political family, it is not surprising that a remarkable variety of politicians should highlights the significance of provincial violence. As one of the to
arise to defY any _neat dichotomy or typology. Focwing on individuals instead of ascend from provincial to national pr'ominence during the American penod, the
models or paradigms highlights the enormous variety in style and tactics found in Osmefias rarely employed violence. Soon after the U.S. Army landed in Cebu at
the Philippine electoral ·arena. Rather than forcing this complexity into a century's turn, the family's founder, :Sergio Osmefia, Sr., launched .his
procrustean bed of fiXed categories, we have .fdt it best to allow our analytical 'ng the suttender of armed bands of former revolutiOnanes who
career by arrangt : .
 "AN ANARCHY Of fAMILIES" 23
22 ALFRED W. MCCOY
were still marauding in the mountains of the inrerior. After his election as speakef factories but still he benefited as the patron of a high-profit industry operating
of the Philippine Assembly in I 907, he acquired the_ patrician air of a national exclusively within his territoty. The paltik is thus an apt the
statesman. When his later generations came home to Cebu City from faced character of the Philippine _warlord-a weapon of primordial violence Wlthrn
California or Manila to launch their political careers in the 1950s and 1980s, they Danao City and a precision that corrimands markets in the world
were stili forced to combat the organized violence of their rivals-the Duranos, beyond. . . ,
Cuencas, apd other local warlords. These latter-day generations of Osmeiias were Illustrating the importance .of rent seeking for a warlord's long-term s.urYival,
able to evoke a fa_milial aura of statesmanship and an ethos of managerial John Sidel recounts how Montano's failures in _Manila ultimately
competence. Most recently, as Resil Mojares argues his essay, che oveiWhelmed his success as a provinc;:ial warlord. For nearly thirty years, Montano
collective persona as modern managers, the antitheSis and alternative to the was Cavite's preeminent leader, his as senat.or
province's warlords, has become central to their political revival in Contemporary with an armed retinue of excraor'din<l:ty ruthlessness rn a provmce notorious for Its
Cebu. If only in their opposition to thc;ir rivals' use of private armies, violence has politkal violence. In the end, some signal failures at the national level
been a factor in the Osmefias' careers as provincial insured Montano's eclipse provincial politician. In the late 1960s, the
Although violence is their most visible aspect, all warlord families must seek Montanos turned against President Marcos and found themselves purged from
rents or state revenues in some form to assure their political survival. Despite some office after the declaration of martial Jaw in 1972. Denied access to state patronage,
striking differences,,politjcal f.unili¢5;;\t b.qsJl 1he proyinyiaj Montano fell back on family resources that were insufficient to sustain his political
,shar_e a. comm.oq i.t;lVt;?lvemep.t_ .politics, poli.ti<;:al . influence. Inept in the process of using public office, to create private
commercial.opportunity! There is an obvious economic dimension Montano had failed to build an aUtonomous economic base that would allow hrm
provincial politics that encourages rent seeking. Aside from the periodic need for to survive a period of alienation from the regime in power. At the .end of the
state funding to generate patronage and cash during elections, even the most violent Mai-cos· era, Montano, despite his long dominion over a wealthy
warlord requires an autonomous source of revenue to sustain his and private the resources for a political revivaJ, to Cavite from exile and hvmg_out
army. J_Jltimately these; financial imperatives breach the barriers within any putative. life in obscurity. Moreover, since Montano, unlike the Lopezes drd
typology that might seek to separate provincial power from national making ·flat produce an political heir, he not perpetuate h1s lmeage-a key
rent seeking a critical adjunct to the paramilitary power of even the most f.ailingwithin the Fllipino f.arnllial paradigm, , ,
autononious of warlords. · AS a provincial politician in Muslim Mindanao, Mohamad Ah
While a flair f?r violence and militaty o_rganization are essential in a warlord's maintaip.ed a purer form ofwarlo!dism, described in G. Carter with
rise, it. is fin3;ncial acumen ass1;1res his longevity. After using violence to feWer of the rent-seeking attributes of his elsewhere m the
establish political dominion over Danao City in the early 1950s, .R.arnon Since he used violence to defend hls constituency of Maranao Muslims agamst
the subject of Michael Cullinane's essay,ldefiyered. votes, to . Christian settlers, Dimaporo's mobilization of a private army, known. as :he
·in., exchange for. Japanese' ..to. -;ons,lru<;t Barracudas, reinforced his political popularity among an embattled mmority.
With this independent firiancial base, Durano theri ...i).ossessed · th.e Although he seemed interested in base among a_n
manpower and materiel to surviveJn the uq.fayorable political climate that impoverished minority living on a violent frontier demed h1m the s.orts of economic
followed. Although his wealth to pose as a philanthropist and financier r.; opportunities available in Cavite. or yebu. Instead of or real estate
in his later years, Durano remained .:fwarlord to the end, drawing upon private transactions, Ali engaged in a crude: form of rent seekmg, usmg the payroll and
resources to mobilize goons for through mid-1980s. Among its many construction contracts at State University-as his prime source of
enterprises, Danao City became the f!arlonal ce-9-ter for the manufacture of firearms, operational funds. He also in a of rent he
called paltik. Durano's role as patron and protector of these local arms faCtories gave made no moves towards commercial ;or mdustnal enterpnses. Despite h1s reliance
him access to an arsenal even after Marcos's martial-law regime confiscated nearly on these limited and localized rents, J?imaporo's role as a paramilitaty leader at the
half a million firearms from private armies across the archipelago. Under martial mar in of the Philippine state allowed him to survive for nearly half a century . .Aft:er
law, Danao City's paltik industry became, through Durano's influence, a particular
g
the declaration of martial law, Marcos used the armed forces to reduce D'1maporo's
sort of protected industty. By banning imports of firearms after 1'972 and failing to private arin}r. But a decade desperate to mobilize votes for his declining
enforce the strict prohibidon.on their manufacture in Danao City, the Marcos regime, MarcoS rearmed the Barracudas with military weapons. In the aftermath of
regime. inflated the black-market price for illegal firearms and created a rent of the "People Power" uprising of 1986, Dimaporo's reputation
extraordinary value for Durano's cl,ientele·. Durano himself did not own the ally and abusive warlOrd the hostility Of the· Aquino admmistrauon. Strll he
 24 ALFRED W. McCOY "AN ANARCHY OF FAMILIES" 25
retained sufficient firepower and following to weather a period of alienation from
be passed on, giving succeeding generations the means to compete for office.
the center until he could reconcile himself with elements of the new regime.
Although the probability of a zero r'eturn on any investment in elections is at least
Ironically, it was his role a leader of a cultural minority chat allowed him to
50 percent, the profits from a successful congressional campaign are so high that
become the country's archetypal warlord, a form of leadership ¢.at remains more
the risk is amply jwtified. Hence, the most successful politicians are those who can
complex and multifaceted elsewhere in the archipelago. Like Montano, however,
invest their heirs with the wealth-and the good name needed to campaign effectively
financial failure-will probably bar him from passing on ·for office-a factor that blends the individual with the familial, the provincial with
substantial wealth, the basis of political power, to the next generation.
the national, and warlordism with rent seeking.
These chronicles of failure serve as an important corrective to the thrust of In seeking the variables that account for the ability of politicians to capitalize
most of the essays in this volume. By selecting prominent politicians and upon the opportunities ·of office, one factor seems to stand out-legal skills.
recounting the stories of their_ inexorable rise, this collection could give the Although he was by all accounts a skilled corporate executive, Eugenio Lopez was
impression that all political famiiies succeed. Over the long term, however, most
educated in the law not in busiitess or firtance. Similarly, though Ramon Durano,
seem to experience decline and defeat. Bilateral inheritance fragments property Sr., was a quintessential warlor4 whose taste for violence was legendary in Cebu, he
accumulated during the life of a powerfi.tl politician. Although strong leaders can also had a sOund legal education· that allowed him to translate his political influence
leave name and money to their children, they cannot uansmit the personal mix of into Private wealth. To cite a .contrasting case, Ali Dimaporo, who was po.orly
charisma, courage, and cunning that guided their success. educated, has failed to move beyo'nd localized benefices to exploit the obvious
. At multiple levels within most of these essays, there is then an interweaving of for rent seeking in Manila. In sum, he failed to use his bailiwick as_a
individual biography and family history. To summarize very broadly, _the stepping stone into the elite and thereby to gain access to
underlying paradigm is but the narrative focus is often individual. That is, rewards beyond the .meager of his province. Although the Ph1hp_Pme
.·reflecting what the authors perceive to be the cultural ethos of the country, these state's enforcement apparatus weak, its legal codes governing elections,
essays describe individual actors operating within a familial context. In both pOlitics commerce, and corporations are .complex and comprehensive, enveloping the whole
and business, these actors seem i:o draw upon their kin networks to mobilize the universe of politics and with nominally strict regulations. Through legal
support they need for success. Despi\e this familial basis for both perception and education, politicians learn to manipulate these regulations in their ·quest for rents.
action, biography remains an important element of family history. · With this introduction to the· country's kgal culture, even the most virulent
Within the volatile, pressured markets of finance and politics, most competition is warlord has the tools to succeed as a rent-seeking entrepreneur. Marcos, for
individual-one candidate for each PC?litical office and a single chief executive at example, combined these elements. After a youthful career in violent
the apex corporate hierarchy. Eve.n amo_ng large families-such as the Lopezes, .proviticial polities, he became <consummate constitutional lawyer in one guise and
who count thousands of members spread over many generations-extraordinary an ainbitious rent-seeking politician in another. Once elected president, he a
individuals have played a seminal role in taking lineages to new ·plateaus of wealth mix of state vioiCnce and legal manipulation to acquire a vast array of rent-seeking
andpower.. .. cotporations for himself and his" entourage.
Similarly, even the most individual seek$_: to associate In terms of the essays presented here share a common
himself with an established family. Ristng and politicians reinforce their to write Philippine national history from the vantage of the leaders of specific
positions by identifying with prominent anceStofs. Within a. society based on "families" that have played a role in national or provincial politics. Instead
bilateral kinship, individuals have some flexibility in the construction of their of using familial anecdotes to illustrate a national history marked by.wa.rs and
genealogy, selecting from maternal and paternal lines to create the most . empires, these essays, in effect, subsume these larger events Wtthtn the
advantageous lineage for public advertisement. As Jeremy Beckett explains in his microhistorical perspective of individual- families. Through their vet:y structuce, these
discussion of the Maguindanao elite, a family name is a negot!able asset essays mimic the familial world view of their subjects, reducing the panorama of a
that commands attention among voters and allegiance among followers. national election to one family's business opportunity or viewing a decade of
Many politicians try to transform their electoral offices into lasting family dictatorship, with all of its •. as a personal misfortune. Although these_ essays
assets, building what Filipinos call a Once entrenc:hed, move forward chronologically, ,major events natucally intrude upon the ltves of
their subjects, the national is to the familial throughout. By a
,effect.seeking.•.;o .\l!auh.ey . political narrative marked by- baptisms, marriages, murders, and board
•1.!-:ga:cy..:for.: thek;family. For all politicians, provincial or national, office is inevitably rather than war, revolution, or diplomacy-readers hopefully wtll gatn an
ephem.eral. But private wealth gained during their term in power, if substantial, can understanding of, even an empathy for, the p_erspective of a Filipino political family.
 26 ALFRED .W. McCOY _,.- "AN ANARCHY OF fAMILIES" 27
Although. essays in this volume share these larger concerns in one form or ·
Adopting a more conventional approach, Alfred McCoy's study of the Lopez
another, there are Signifi_cant differences in emphasis. Instead of detailing the
famUy chronicles the career of Eugenio Lopez as the most successful rent-seeking
history of the Osmefia family, as he has done in his earlier biography of Serging,63
entrepreneur of the era. His specracular rise and sudden fall highlights
Resil Mojares offers a -theoretical reflection on the meaning .of family identity'
the paramount role of public-sector nianipulation in shaping the careers of even the
within a system of dectoral politics. Similarly, Jeremy Beckett probes the significance
most powerful of patriarchs. ·
of a family name as a political asset in the Philippines and then illuminates this theme
Despite their differences of approach, the essays in this volume share a
with a brief history of political competition among the Maguindanao. Moving from
common concern with the role of family in Philippine politics and seek to open
family history to political biography, several authors analyze the careers of the
thereby a novel perspective on study of Philippine history.
Republic's leading warlords. Whether peasant, lawyer, or Muslim aristocrat, provincial
politicians with a flair for paramilitary mobilization used violence to gain office '
under the Republic, becoming, in Brian Fegan's words, entrepreneurs in violence,
NOTES
Although their private armies and defiance of the law made them seem
autonomous, if not independent, these warlords proved, like Manila's rent seekers, During 1987-88, this essay began -Co take form amid a series of long conversations in Sydney
remarkably vulnerable to state pressure when Marcos declared martial law. wirh Dr. Brian Fegan of Macquarie. University. Nor only did he influence rhe initial
Finally, other essays provide detailed, multi generational studies of two of theoretical perspective but in later correspondence he made extensive critical comments that
Manila's most prominent POlitical families, the Pardo de Taveras the Lopezes. have·been incorporated inca my final draft:. During the paper's first presentation at the
Association for Asian ·Studies meetings in San Francisco in 1988, the panel's discussant,
Reflecting the distinctive character of each family, Ruby Paredes efl?.phasizes the Professor Benedict Anderson of Cornell University, offered some yeasty, even provocative,
role of the Pardo de Tavera women and Alfred McCoy examines the career of a remarks that in.spired further refinements in conceptualization. As these ideas later took
leading Lopez male. Starting with the career of Dr. Mira Pardo de Taverci, the ' shape in Madison, the University of Wisconsin's communicy of Philippine scholars-Ruby
Paredes, Paul Hutchcraft, Michael CUllinane, and Daniel Ooeppe.rs---contributed careful
secretary of social welfare in the Aquino administration, provides an
readings· that led ·ro significant changes in the text. I am also grateful to Pr.ofessor Florenc.ia
interior view of an elit.e family's ideological and material life--its struggle to Mallon, a colleague in the History Department, for a thoughtful readmg of the Lattn
maintain a lineage in the i/ustrado tradition and its bitter internal disputes over American section. This essay, like all those in the volume, has benefited from the careful
inheritance. Although Mira's grandfather, Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera, founded the editing ofJan F.inally, I like s.ean Kirkpatrick, the Center's
coordinator, for hiS asSiduous attention to the mynad details that make up rhlS ennre
Philippines' first political party and dolninated the country's politics for nearly a
volume,
dec;:ade at century's end, Paredes turns away from the male, public realm to focus
on the domestic sphere controlled by the family's strong women. Through this .... fiThcre is, of course, a literature on the ways in which, in Jane
i· . Schni!ider's words,. "corporate gCoups and. formal instirurions are often 'infiltrated' by
emphasis on the household, Paredes illuminates key issues of marriage, inheritance,
and succession implicit within the other essays. powerful personal networks." For the tole .of such thc:r
. friendship or patronage"-in as alternanves 10
Indeed, the central event in this family history, the 1892 murder of Paz see Jane Schneider, "Family Pammomes and Economtc ..m Western Steil>:",
Pardo de Tavera by her husband Juan Luna, .provides powerful testimony to the -:Anthropological Quartcrly42, no. 3 (1969): 109-10; Peter Schneider, Honor and Confltct
efficacy of this volume's familial approach to Philippine history. This murder has in a Sicilian Town," A!fthropologfcal· Quarterly 42, no. 3 (1969): 130-54; Anton Blok,
"Peasants, Patrons and Brokers in Western Sicily," Anthropological Quarurly 42, no. 3
been excised from the nation's history and reduced to an exculpatory footnote in
(1969): 155-70; and Anton Blok, The Mafia of a Sicilian Village. 1860-1960: A Study of
the biographies of Juan Luna1 a brilliant painter and a Philippine national hero. Violent Entrtprtneurs (Nevi Harper and Row, 1975), 5-16.
Within the national story, the civic canonization of Juan Luna required the At a broader comparative leVd, Eric Wolf surveys che influence of a range of personal
villificacion, even the extinction, of his wife and Paz.64 In studying this era associations, kinship included, upOn social and political relations in "complex societies." He
concludes that "anthropologists need to pay more attention to the rise and fall of families
froffi the perspective of a single family, Paredes rediscovered the murder itself and
than the:y have done in the pasr." Starting from Lewis Henry Morgan's dichoromy berween
uncovered original police reports that she has used to create: a new understanding of societas based on kinship and where "relations of political economy ... curtail the
the Filipino nationalist movement. Her essay restores the victim Paz to the national functions of kinship," Wolf then· asks why families should be the main functional entity
chronicle, unifies the political and the domestic, and articulates, for the first rime, "within kin circles.". Aside from performing key economic and social functions, the family
remains the dominant form of kii_uhip because it is "maximally adaptive to the conditions
the way in whiCh Filipino nationalists constructed gender under an oppressive
that define and circumscribe its existence." See Eric Wolf. "Kinship, Friendship, and Patron-
colonialism. By retelling the old story with a new character and a new dialogue Client Relations in Complex Soci.l::ties," in Michael Banton, ed., The Social Anthropology of
drawn from the domestic sphere, Paredes deepens and enriches our understanding CompkxSocieties (Londori: Tavisto_ck, 1966), 2, 6-9.
oEPhilippine national history. Although Philippine social research has been influenced by some of this literature, it
has generally ignored Wolf's emphasis, on the !inponance of the family and family history.