"Ang Pagbalimbing ni Juan" The Effects of Turncoatism on the Filipinos, Voting Behavior in the Recent May 2007 Senatorial Elections

Abstract

A candidate or a politician's act of switching from one party to another is formally known as political turncoatism. It is a political phenomenon that has been seen as a major contributor to the further degeneration of Philippine politics. On the overall, this study aimed to determine the effects of political turncoatism on Filipinos5 voting behavior in the recent May 2007 senatorial elections. Specifically, it aimed to study whether Filipinos' voting behavior in the recent May 2007 senatorial elections reflected knowledge of and a reaction to political turncoatism of senatorial candidates. This study also aimed to give recommendations as to how turncoatism can be minimized or eliminated from Philippine society. This study aimed to achieve the following objectives through the descriptive- normative analysis as its main research design. The proponent surveyed 100 Filipino voters from the Caloocan area. This area was chosen due to recent SWS surveys which revealed that voters from this area were strongly oppositionist in the recent May 2007 elections. The multistage sampling was applied to get 100 voters from the Caloocan area. Specifically, it employed a two-stage sampling technique. In the first stage, the lottery technique was used to get four out of the 188 barangays of Caloocan. Each barangay was assigned an identifying number, written on a piece of paper, ranging from 1-188. The pieces of paper were rolled, placed into a bottle, and shaken thoroughly. The four barangays were chosen by drawing (lie pieces of paper containing the identifying number one at a time. Barangays that were picked were Barangay numbers 20, 37, 32, and 38. In the second stage, the 100 respondents were chosen. Specifically, 25 respondents from each of the four chosen barangays were selected by going to the third house in every street of the four chosen barangays. In instances where there was no registered voters in the third house, the proponent proceeded to the next house and treated it as the third house. The survey was supplemented with key informant interviews that consisted of professors and experts from the fields of political science, sociology, and behavioral science from various universities and non-governmental organizations. The survey and interviews were supplemented by various literatures on the topic. Data was processed through the use of SPSS, content analysis, and coding for themes. Based on the findings, political turncoatism is defined by Filipinos as the "change of party by any elective public official under which he was elected from the time of the election up to the last six months before the succeeding election. It shall also refer to the change of political party of any candidate not holding any elective position within six months before an election., (13th Congress) In the Philippines, political turncoatisin is rooted in the prevalence of the weak party system, and the orientation of Filipino voters of voting based on the personality of the candidates and the perceived help that the candidates can give. At the same, political turncoatism tends to reinforce a candidate-oriented type of voting behavior in the Philippines, for the switch of politicians from one party to another leads to confusion on the part of the Filipino electorate as to the differences between parties and their ideologies and platforms. This has been the trending in the Philippines ever since. Since the institutionalization of elections in the Philippines, Filipinos, when voting, tend to focus on the candidates, personality and perceived help that they can give instead of on the issues and on the programs of the parties. With this, Filipinos appear to not care whether a candidate is a political turncoat or not when selecting their leaders, thus leading to the conclusion that Filipinos are unaware of what political turncoatism is and its contribution to the deterioration of Philippine politics. This kind of voting behavior leads to the conclusion that Filipinos are immature voters. However, in the recent May 2007 Senatorial elections, it appears that there seems to be a growing awareness among Filipinos of what political turncoatism is and its negative effects on Philippine politics. Based on the survey done, they define political turncoatism as the switch of candidates from one party to another so as to increase their chances in winning. They perceive the prevalence of this act as a contributing factor to the degeneration of Philippine politics. With this, in the recent May 2007 senatorial elections, they purposely did not vote for the senatorial candidates whom they perceived as turncoats. The senatorial candidates that they perceived as political turncoats were Vicente Sotto III and Tessie Oreta-Aquino who were recognized members of the opposition but ran under the administration ticket, Team Unity, during the 2007 elections. Moreover, the results of the survey showed that there seems to be a change in the orientation of Filipinos when it comes to selecting their leaders. Based on the survey, it appears that Filipinos are taking into consideration the ideology and the stand of the candidates on the issues that they deem relevant. It would be too much of a generalization to conclude that Filipinos have achieved complete political maturity based on just this study. However, this study is a step toward ascertaining whether Filipinos are politically maturing or not. Based on the results, it can be said that Filipinos appear to be taking small steps towards achieving political maturity of Filipinos in terms of voting. Hence, there is still hope of minimizing or completely eliminating political turncoatism from Philippine society. This, in turn, gives us hope for the achievement of a more stable political culture in terms of more effective leaders that govern well, and create a stronger ideological party system, and thus, a better government.