ANARCHY and FAMILIES

This is found on the front page of one of the blogs I regularly visit (http://donavictorina.blogspot.com/).

ANARCHY and FAMILIESNereo C.Lujan (Iloilo News)
THE RAGING controversy involving the Gucci Gang and Australian landscape designer Brian Gorrell continues to draw spectators from all walks of life. The personalities involved in this online drama are too sensational to be ignored. High-society devotees and lifestyle observers are glued to this hullabaloo minute by minute. As gleaned from the now very popular blog, the main target of the tirade is Delfin Justiniano “DJ” Montano II, whom Gorrell alleged to have duped him of US$70,000. Caught in the crossfire is Philippine Star lifestyle editor Celine Lopez, whom Gorrell accused of not only allowing her best friend to commit the rip-off but supporting him as well by covering up the con and striking back at him.The accusations against Montano and Lopez are simply sidelights to the intriguing story of their equally controversial families, which have become subjects of case studies on political bossism and the practice of rent-seeking – phenemenons which are watermarked all over the Gucci Gang controversy. Blog fanatics will surely be amazed over the titles of two chapters – Chapters 3 and 9 – in the book An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines edited by noted American historian Alfred McCoy. The book, which was conferred the 1995 National Book Award, examines how some families in the Philippines were able build their political and business empires in a manner replete with FRAUD, DECEPTIONS, TRICKERY and VIOLENCE.A now very familiar name is bannered in Chapter 3, Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man: Justiniano Montano and Failed Dynasty Building in Cavite, 1935-1972 by British scholar John Sidel (who wrote another book Capital, Coercion and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines that also has an interesting chapter on the Montanos and on politics in Cavite). Chapter 9, Rent-Seeking Families and the Philippine State: A History of the Lopez Family was written by McCoy and is a must-read for those who everyday turn on their TV (ABS-CBN and SkyCable), drink water (Maynilad), use electricity (FirstGen and Meralco), or make a call and surf the Internet (BayanTel), among other daily consumer activities.The rise and fall of former Congressman and Senator Justianiano Montano (DJ’s grandfather) is a story of political murders, warlordism, criminal activities, corruption and his “skillful exploitation and manipulation of the law.” Sidel described Montano as “a fearsome pugilist and an aggressive interloper who depended for his success not only on bluster, bravado and bullying but on the persistent threat and use of violence.” Montano, according to the author, made headlines by brawling with his rivals on the stairs of Cavite ’s Capitol Building and whipping out his .45 caliber revolver before fellow congressmen on the floor of the House of Representatives. To perpetuate himself in power, Montano endeared himself with political patrons in Manila , installed his sons in positions of political and economic prominence, and delegated powers to his municipal wards. He was alleged to have enlisted the services Cavite ’s most famous criminal, Leonardo Manecio alias Nardong Putik (remember the Ramon Revilla movie?) as his political assassin. Among the quotable quotes attributed to Montano include “I HAVE NO TACT!” and “I’ll KILL YOU, DAMN YOU!” Montano also managed to have his sons Delfin elected as governor of Cavite and Justiniano Jr. appointed as chair of the Games and Amusement Board (who was later implicated in match rigging, race fixing, toleration of illegal betting and the management of boxers through dummies for his personal profit). His other son, Ciriaco, was tasked to manage the family’s expanding real estate and construction investments, cornering juicy infrastructure contracts.But the rise of Ferdinand Marcos signaled the downfall of Montano, who was an ally of Diosdado Macapagal, the late dictator’s political nemesis. Montano himself got the ire of Marcos when the Cavite kingpin was tagged as mastermind in the smuggling of blue-seal cigarettes, thus threatening the Ilocos-based tobacco industry, the lifeblood of politicians in the north. When Marcos became president, he engineered the ouster of Montano from political power, which eventually led to his self-exile in the United States when Martial Law was declared. After the 1986 EDSA Revolution, Montano already found himself old, and his former grip of Cavite now in the hands of the Remullas, a Marcos crony who had switched to the camp of Cory Aquino shortly after the people power revolt.Like the Montanos, the Lopezes were also victims of Martial Law. But unlike the Montanos, they were able to stage a political and economic comeback after the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship, using the practice of rent-seeking. Rent-seeking, according to McCoy, is characterized by the political manipulation of the regulatory powers of the state over businesses to favor a few, paving the way for installation of business empires. A classic example of this, added McCoy, was how the Lopezes were able to establish (before the Martial Law) and reestablish (after Edsa) their conglomerates by exacting favors from the powers-that-be whom the family had earlier helped to gain political might. It’s patronage politics on the national scale.This brilliant idea was perfected by Eugenio Lopez Sr., a rich sugar planter, who launched himself as a power broker in Iloilo City in 1929 by publishing a successful Spanish newspaper El Tiempo together with his brother Fernando (Celine’s grandfather who became mayor of Iloilo City, Senator and Vice President from three times). Fashioned as a crusading media, El Tiempo’s rigid campaign against illegal gambling even caused the removal from office of Mariano Arroyo (the First Gentleman’s grandfather) as governor of Iloilo after he was accused of receiving funds from jueteng operators. Three years after El Tiempo’s maiden issue, he also came out with the only English newspaper in Iloilo City then, The Times. “With these newspapers, and later a Hiligaynon edition, Ang Panahon, Eugenio Lopez maneuvered to establish himself as the city’s most powerful and professional media voice,” wrote McCoy. Endearing himself to President Manuel Quezon, Eugenio used the compadre system and factional alliance to gain access to executive power, expanding their business to sea, land and air transportation, and eventually monopolizing land transportation in Panay .But the growth of the Lopez business empire was also marred with trickery and maneuverings, and their employment of violence to forward their interests. Wrote McCoy: “After the war, when they joined the national economic elite, the Lopez brothers moved into a world of corporate connections remote from the provincial violence that marred postwar democracy. But before the war, they had engaged in provincial struggles, with clear territorial manifestations over bus routes, waterfronts, precincts and congressional districts. The territorial specificity of local politics created a zero-sum game, a win-or-lose situation, that made violence a necessary instrument for every player.”As “kingmakers” before the war, they wielded strong influence over Iloilo City through Mayor Oscar Ledesma and over Bacolod City through Mayor Alfredo Montelibano whom Quezon had both appointed to office upon the intercession of the Lopez brothers. During the war, while the Lopez brothers befriended the Japanese by publishing the pro-Japanese daily Panay Shu-Ho, they remained in close contact with the guerillas. Fernando, for his part, operated a gambling casino under the protection of the Japanese army. When the war was over, the Lopez brothers were accused of collaborating with the enemy, but they successfully parried all charges with the help of their associates. In 1945, Fernando became mayor of Iloilo City and senator two years later, with their businesses growing all the more.Moving to Manila – Eugenio as media mogul and Fernando as politician — the brothers used ABS-CBN and Manila Chronicle to their advantage. They either took over or established several profitable ventures, one of which is Meralco. But little did they know that the man – Marcos – whom they made President would also the same man that would destroy them. When the dictatorship was toppled down, the Lopezes regained their wealth and political influence, with Eugenio “Geny” Lopez Jr. at the helm.Concluding his essay, McCoy wrote: “By skewing investments and regulations to favor its allies, the Philippine executive has, as an institution, compromised the integrity of the bureaucracy and allowed the privatization of public resources. Over the long term, then, we can conclude that such policies weaken the state and empower elite families, ultimately limiting the capacity of the bureaucracy to direct entrepreneurs and lead the country’s development.”After these brief lessons in history and politics, we go back to the GUCCI GANG to learn, as what an anonymous author aptly wrote, that “children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.”