Elections as clan reunions

Elections as clan reunions

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: May 19, 2010

AS IN PAST POLLS, LOINA CAYAD-AN-PANTALEON HAD TO cook extra food for lunch for an expected reason during the May 10 political exercise.

Just a stone’s throw away from the two polling precincts in Barangay Poblacion in Kibungan, Benguet, her house has become the convenient second home and venue for instant reunions for family members and relatives, who have preferred to vote in their hometown than in their places of work, such as Baguio City and Metro Manila.

“We have something special for you,” Cayad-an-Pantaleon, the Sangguniang Bayan (municipal council) secretary, said as she welcomed guests. She was referring to the kini-ing (smoked meat) and other recipes that her family prepared.

The kini-ing was processed by her 89-year-old father, Celino Cayad-an, who was again excited to welcome his grandchildren, nephews and nieces.

Exhausted and hungry clan members appreciated the sumptuous lunch plus overflowing Arabica brew, which, they said, were enough to compensate for the three-to-four-hour queue they had to bear under the heat before they cast their votes on May 10.

The smoked meat was the elder Cayad-an’s endearing way of welcoming clan members, some of whom have made him proud.

One of the prominent members is Jurgenson Lagdao, a provincial prosecutor, whom the old man would always like to meet and welcome every election.

Although he and his family built their home in Baguio, Lagdao had never transferred his place of voter’s registration. Every vote he casts is his way of helping bring change in his own hometown, he says.

Political caucus

As Cayad-an reiterated the schedule of a bigger clan reunion in 2013, discussions over coffee would unavoidably shift to politics.

The instant get-together at Cayad-an-Pantaleon’s house had thus become an informal political caucus. The discussion became political also after Lagdao and Octavio Cuanso, an environment official in Benguet, took turns in suggesting ways for the country to return to a two-party system.

Other clan members agreed that a two-party system could help simplify the country’s electoral process.

“Through a strict screening process, each party can finally push for highly competent people, who can really run the country,” Lagdao said. “Maybe we can learn from other more mature democracies, including the United States.”

Cuanso also suggested mobilizing nongovernment and people’s organizations in helping facilitate discussions and forums to tackle the country’s return to a two-party system.

“If we have an efficient two-party system through which chosen leaders could really serve the country, maybe we can even do away with these party-list groups,” he said. Maurice Malanes