In Part 2 we examined the basic (in)compatibility of education and politics by particularizing on local political culture of Catanduanes vis-à-vis the mandates of the Higher Education Institution (HEI). We have seen that while both assume patronal, clientelist framework, they are nevertheless diametrically different: patronage politics thrives on mendicant dependence while the HEI is devoted to empower and liberate its clientele for independence.
In this third and last installment we tackle the very issue that triggered this series. We dig deep into the basis for the widespread perception that the president of the Catanduanes State University is mounting an early campaign for a top local elective position comes May 2025 elections through the so-called Padagos na Patanos Movement (PPM). If true, this is violative of our sense of what is proper, right and just. A sitting public official cannot use the prerogatives and entitlements bestowed by virtue of his position for purposes of pushing political ambitions. Indeed, there is an anti-EPAL law which prohibits that. Of course, the PPM may be justified as part of the CatSU president’s disposition of official functions as university head. To be sure, it can be carried out with such care to preclude any direct evidence of EPALism.
But then the widespread speculations are not out of thin air. For one thing, denizens of the academe, intellectuals in their own right, are not exactly stupid. For another thing, the Catanduanganons are connoisseurs on this matter, they feel it on their skin the slightest hint of politicking. If they can smell a coming typhoon, they can sniff political ambition just as easy.
So what are the basis?
Thanks to social media, we have an abundance of indicators to base the perception on. The incumbency of the sitting CatSU president may be characterized as “governance-by-social-media” which arguably morphed into an “image-built-up-by-social-media” in the course of the supposed attempt to cross over to politics. Social media savvy can both make and unmake.
For our purposes here, the indicators come in three types, namely the textual, the symbolic and the actions. The first are the text-based conveyances – the words – which are the most explicit sources since words are efficient in carrying meanings. The symbolic are other types of signs aside from the straight-forward textual, such as gestures or non-text graphics that too send messages. The third refers to courses of actions, of purposive deeds undertaken to demonstrate to people what one is up to. With all that, it appears that the PPM is making use of the entire arsenal of tactics that any movement resorts to.
What do the words say?
A legitimate movement should have a document that outlines its framework, goals and objectives, strategies and social structure. The PPM so far does not have one, making for vague understanding of its nature, but nonetheless advantageous for easy denial of unwanted claims by observers. The most reliable source of PPM’s mindset is the lyrics of a jingle set to the tune of Voltes V and made to inflict on people’s ears at every opportunity. So let us do some textual analysis of this piece. Firstly, the title, which is the movement’s namesake itself: Padagos na patanos. The phrase is mentioned four times in the jingle for resonance and recall. It poses double meanings, one literal and the other suggestive. In English it literally means “continuing uprightness” which apparently is a statement commitment to sustain the supposed good governance at CatSU. But read in conjunction with the rest of the lyrics, it easily embraces the rest of the province in two ways: 1) through the Extension Services (Kaunlaran sa’tin alay ng CatSU, dadalhin sa baryo-baryo); but also could well be extrapolated to 2) a plan to pursue an elective position of provincial scope in order to facilitate the spread of the good life from University to the rest of the island. This second one is thus far an over reading, but could well be made compelling when seen together with the rest of the piece.
But is there really upright governance at CatSU in the first place? That is highly debatable, altogether another big question to ask; it will need another series of essays.
To embrace the provincial community is the whole premise of the jingle. This is so unmistakable set up by the first stanza of the jingle: Tayo sa isla nagkakaisa, hangad natin buhay na masaya. The embrace is not quite new; it is a given of the University’s raison d’etre, written all over the institution’s Vision Mission and Goals (VMG). But to create a movement around it is something else. The institution should be enough. So why a movement? The social movement is one of the most remarkable inventions in social engineering and had pushed history to significant changes. But then the movement also had been used famously for vested political interests. The Nazi and KBL were mga kilusan. And we have numerous of those small-time ones too, cropping up like kabute. Mga nakiki-uso. The movement can make history big time but if it doesn’t, it can make the small time take on more space than it deserves.
So let us go on scour the rest of the jingle text. It is all of five stanzas, two of them the same refrain. While some aims are motherhood statements and generic (buhay na masaya, pagsulong, asenso) some others are specific programs (pagkain, kalusugan, edukasyon, kalikasan, Economic Zone, the plight of abacaleros) which a University can adopt given its resources. But one goal is patently none of a University’s business: maging ciudad ang munisipyo. It is one for legislative initiative by a Congressman.
Overall, if the jingle is indicative enough, the PPM is about no simple matter of a local university announcing its regular mandate of embracing the locality. It is meant to set the stage for a much more grandiose cross-over with the University as launching pad to conquer the rest of the province. This is so unequivocally, succinctly summed up in a related slogan: Bag-ong Catanduanes, uya na!
What do the symbols convey?
The PPM is keen on exploiting the use of symbols. So far there are only two: the high five and the Voltes V music (as if may magic ang #5). The first one, the high five, is singular in its efficacy and efficiency in capturing the imagination of the people, and indeed exploited by the PPM ad nauseam. Groupies and selfies are staged in all imaginable spaces with the now-familiar one-arm high-five and the accompanying expansive paste-on grin, and made to fill up the CatSU president’s social media account. So if appearances are reliable, it would seem that PPM has the support of a multitude of enthusiastic high-fivers including both the ordinary folk but more so the fabulous-and-famous: the ASEAN ministers, Tito-Vic-and-Joey, Jollibee, showbiz personalities, an assortment of beauty queens. It should not surprise if soon the dead Queen Elizabeth II, Donald Trump, Netanyahu, and the Pope will pitch in their supportive kaway-kaway.
And arguably, aliens from outer space too. In Spielberg’s movies (E.T., Close Encounter of the Third Kind), the stick-like aliens were humanized by their high-5’s. Apparently, they learned this exquisite gesture from humans. In the mid-seventies, the NASA project SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestial Intelligence) launched into deep space a package of information about our lonely planet contained in a gold disc. The idea was that somehow aliens would come across it; it was a means for humans to reach out to them. It included the sound of a baby crying, a sampling of various languages, strands from Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, and an illustration of a man and woman, both in the kaway-kaway gesture. This representation is not arbitrary. It has scientific basis. Anthropology particularly is engaged in studying the meanings of body movement. The universality of the kaway-kaway purportedly has roots in our primate cousins (chimpanzees, etc.). The hand-arm is the anatomical marvel that provided much of the primate’s survival advantages. It is their main appliance for both creation and aggression/self-defense. It is effective in conjunction with the rational/strategizing faculty: face-to-face with a ferocious enemy, it creates appearances of height and formidability for a smallish primate like the macaque or the Australopithecine. Aggressive tools (sword, spear, etc.) are essential extensions of the hand-arm. It’s no coincidence that implements of destruction are called “arms.” Accordingly, kaway-kaway is said to say that “Hey I can hit you but I’d rather not; be my friend!” PPM’s use of the high five is a master stroke of genius. Whether they realize it or not, the PPM comes in solidarity with the inter-galactic community through the high five. But are elections in vogue out there? Furthermore, like any human appliance, it is double-edged. It can make or unmake. Note that Hitler’s own salute (Heil!) was the stern version of the high 5. Now, all these overdoing of the high five has made the PPM appear both pathetic and absurd.
As regards the use of the Voltes V tune, it too lends powerful meanings: it conveys the upbeat, indeed cheerful aggressiveness of heroic warriors. It extends the friendliness of the kaway-kaway to an up-in-arms stance. So PPM as a waging of war? Arguably. Up in arms. On the war path. Pero sisay ang kalaban? In any case, the PPM must be cautioned about possible copyright infringement. The setting is still very much the academe where plagiarism deserves capital punishment.
What do the actions tell us?
The PPM is not all pure propaganda. Since half a year ago when it launched, it has engaged in various activities meant to improve the lot of beneficiaries in the community. In fairness, some of them are truly developmental and can easily pass up as legitimate university programs, except that they would be tainted with vested political motives. There are at least two of this kind: 1) student empowerment, through youth fora or leadership training organized by the now-in-hot-water Job Order personnel of the Extension Services; 2) livelihood projects for the barangays under DOLE grants. For this #2 type, it has been observed how the CatSU CEO has shifted to high gear as regards attention to Extension Services of the University which he had hitherto given minimal concern, dinedma lang. But so suddenly, he was uncommonly interested. Indeed, a separate team was formed as a kind of “Presidential Arm for Extension Services” to expedite things.
But such projects proved to be tedious to implement, what with complex requirements. So PPM had to double up on non-developmental activities for fast, easy and maximum exposure. They are of the dole-out types, either of services or of goods. For the first type, there are the medical missions to selected barangays. This is well-meaning except that the University medical unit is not mandated for this. The second type proved to be more varied. It included the “Edukain” project that gave free lugaw or sopas, first to student and later on to barangays. Then the Christmas give-aways: hamon (to CatSU employees, market vendors, parloristas, barangay folk), lechon (to tricycle drivers), nebulizers (to the hikain of Palnab) and calendars (to anybody who didn’t get their freebies from the intsik). But earlier, there was the much ballyhoo-ed tarpaulins that hung at the backs of tricycles announcing a Year-End Report (that it turned out pertained to the Chinese New Year).
It must be emphasized that the dole-out approach has no place in a university extension service program. The University is not a charity establishment. But in this aspect, the PPM has not outdone the imagination and novelty of the erstwhile competitor in the search for CatSU presidency, a former Extension Queen, who gave out kalson (panties) for the wives of sikad-sikad drivers. Ano’ng laban ng hamon du’n?
In any case, PPM as a scheme to promote a political career remains a hypothetical supposition, albeit of high probability of truth. In fact, the CatSU Prexy has posted on social media photos of him in grin-ny camaraderie with local political bigwigs of the likes of Cely Wong and Bong Teves, purportedly to shore up an alliance dubbed “United Opposition.”
Granting the PPM the benefit of the doubt, can it possibly be an attempt to effect a progressive change towards what was used to be known as “New Politics?” Hardly. By all indications the PPM is of the TRAPO (traditional politics) mold. That is what is so revolting about it. All the tell-tale signs are in place. It is patently informed by the precepts of patronage politics. Firstly, it is personalistic in approach: creating a cult-like packaging of the person involved through cheap propaganda stunts. Secondly, it thrives on dole-outs that promotes mendicant dependence on goodies provided by the patron. Thirdly, it solicits support from the trapo circles.
Back now to where we started in this series. Our whole argument is that the red line separating education and politics has been breached by the PPM and the motive force behind it, in a manner so brazen and unprecedented. Such red line is meant to preserve the integrity and independence of the academe and protect it from the ill-effects of partisan politics. It is so unsettling, causing much distress not only on the University but also the larger community it serves. It is sending the Happy Island University, our collective pride, into unprecedented depths of ignominy.
This madness has to end.