WHEN STATE services are unreliable, a trapo’s generosity, even if performative, feels personal. That is not stupidity; that is survival. As political scientist Paul Hutchcroft argued, Philippine politics has long operated as a patrimonial oligarchic state — where officials use the state as a means of distributing favors and securing loyalty.
This is why labeling voters as “bobotante” is not just unhelpful; it is unjust. Many voters know the trapo’s game, but they have no better options. The reforms are few and slow. The alternatives are often inaccessible, unknown, or similarly compromised.
And let us not pretend that elite technocrats with Ivy League degrees and a thousand-slide platform always understand hunger better than a politician who grew up walking the same muddy path to school.
But awareness is growing. Young voters, more digital and issue-aware, are pushing back. The 2022 elections saw unprecedented volunteerism, alternative campaigns, and online discourse. Songs like Yano’s “Trapo,” written decades ago and “Liwanag sa Dilim, that became popular in last elections, have resurfaced as anthems of discontent. These stirrings should not be dismissed as elite noise. They are part of a larger cultural shift — slow, uneven, but real.
Still, culture is sticky. We are a people wired for relational ethics. As social anthropologist Melba Maggay pointed out, our values of loyalty, kinship, and reciprocity are not inherently bad. What is dangerous is when these are hijacked for self-preservation by dynasties and kleptocrats.
When public office is turned into a family heirloom, and accountability is dodged with a smile, democracy morphs into dynasty. According to the Ateneo School of Government, 80% of Congress seats have been occupied by members of political dynasties since 1987. This is not heritage. This is hoarding.
So what do we do with trapos? We strip away the showbiz. We ask: What have you done when no cameras were rolling? Who benefits from your bills? Are your promises new, or just recycled press releases? We should not vote out of spite or spectacle. We must vote from a place of clarity, not just charisma.
It will not be easy. No single election can undo decades of dysfunction, illiteracy, stupidity. But it can be a start. A clean start is too much to ask. But a better one is possible. Every barangay. Every vote. Every dream of a young student who deserves leaders who know more than acting roles.
So if the trapo is a character, let us give him a proper script. One with less drama and more delivery. Less tearjerking. More truth-telling. And maybe, just maybe, the Pinoy teleserye of politics can finally have a twist we deserve.
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Doc H fondly describes himself as a “student of and for life” who, like many others, aspires to a life-giving and why-driven world grounded in social justice and the pursuit of happiness. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions he is employed or connected with./PN
