Steven Rood

Since the colonization of the Philippines by Spain in the sixteenth century, the island chain has been at the center of global trade flows, imperial rivalries, and the globalization process. From its role as the main base of Spain’s Pacific Galleon trade to its conquest centuries later by the United States and Japan, the Philippines has been a focal point of economic and military rivalry. Decolonized in 1946, the Philippines is growing economically after years of stagnation, is ruled today by a modern populist, President Rodrigo Duterte, and is embroiled in disputes with the East Asia region’s rising superpower, China. In The Philippines: What Everyone Needs to Know®, Steven Rood draws from more than 30 years of residence in and study of the Philippines in order to provide a concise overview of the nation. Arranged in a question-and-answer format, this guide shares concise, nuanced analysis and helps readers find exactly what they seek to learn about Filipino geography and geology, ...

How many islands does the Philippines have? When at the 1994 Miss Universe pageant (being held in the Philippines), Philippine contestant Charlene Gonzales was asked, “How many islands does the Philippines have?,” she quipped, “High tide or low tide?” Filipinos loved the insouciance, though...

At the turn of the millennium, a team of economists from the Australian National University and the University of the Philippines published The Philippine Economy: Development, Policies, and Challenges, in which they declared, “The Philippines is one of the world’s major development...

How is the national legislature structured? The bicameral Philippine Congress works in interesting ways. In fact, constitutional designers have been ambivalent about bicameralism in the Philippine state. The revolutionary Malolos Constitution in 1899 was unicameral, the American colonial government was bicameral, and the original...

The general problem being addressed is how the patterns of natural resource use are defined in local practices in the community, how these local practices are affected by policy and activities of groups interested in the resource, and what these interactions imply for sustainability as indicated by the quality of life and environment. // We did full community studies in four sites (counting Mt. Data and Sinto barangays as, the Mount Data Plateau). In reverse order of proximity to Baguio (see Map on page ll), which is also (not coincidentally) in reverse order of extent of integration into the market, we begin with two communities in Sagada, Mountain Province (Suyo and Patay) which have begun to be commercialized, albeit in two different fashions. At the boundary between Mountain Province and Benguet we have barangays at the Mount Data plateau, where the mossy oak forest is being converted to commercial vegetable crop production in a process that has been going on for some twenty yea...

East-West Center The East-West Center is an internationally recognized education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen understanding and relations between the United States and the countries of the Asia Pacific. Through its programs of cooperative study, training, seminars, and research, the Center works to promote a stable, peaceful and prosperous Asia Pacific community in which the United States is a leading and valued partner. Funding for the Center comes from the U.S. government, private foundations, individuals, corporations, and a number of Asia Pacific governments. East-West Center Washington Established on September 1, 2001, the primary function of the East-West Center Washington is to further the East-West Center mission and the institutional objective of building a peaceful and prosperous Asia Pacific community through substantive pro-gramming activities focused on the theme of conflict reduction in the Asia Pacific region and pro...

In late 1987, American journalist James Fallows caused a stir with his article “A Damaged Culture” in The Atlantic, in which he took a pessimistic view of the Philippines. He argued against euphoria in the wake of the peaceful ouster of Ferdinand...

For the Philippines, it seems that geography is often destiny. The islands’ location, rather than the resources they held, was what made them attractive to the Spanish imperial enterprise. While the Spanish tried but failed to get to the Spice Islands, they ended up...

... struggle for autonomy. The Proceedings were published (Rood 1987) so that others could have the benefit of the preliminary discussions at ... Faculty members of the research team are June Prill-Brett (CSC Direc-tor), Violeta Adorable, Jessica Cariño, Athena Lydia Casambre, ...

Throughout most of 1989 it seemed that the "mini-Marshall Plan" for the Philippines would be the most prominent story about that country. It had been two years since the August 19H7 failed coup attempt, and the cycle of establishing a new electoral democracy was completed in March 1989 with the barangay (neighbourhood) elections. The country could turn its full attention to the task of economic development, and increased levels of foreign assistance looked to be central to that quest. This picture changed with the 1 December 1989 abortive coup, the longest, bloodiest, and most serious of the attempts which have dogged President Aquino's government since its installation in February 1986. After the coup, media attention turned to questions regarding stability: Would Mrs Aquino last until the end of her term in 1992, or will a coup oust her? While the answer to this question lies mainly in the military domain (for example, can effective discipline be restored?), there are also economic components. Certainly, the Filipino corporate ?lite believes so and injected money into the stock markets to prevent a post-coup crash, reflecting a desire for stability.1 And, prospects for post coup stability stem from other than just domestic sources. As The Economist has it:

This paper attempts to trace, using survey evidence, the electoral behaviour of Baguio City voters during two years beginning with the 1986 Presidential election contest between Ferdinand Marcos and Corazon Aquino. The revolutionary aftermath to this election issued in a new political regime, which held a series of elections. By January 1988 there had been a plebiscite to ratify a new Constitution, Congressional and Senatorial elections, and finally local elections for the Mayor and City Council. For all of these elections, local surveys were conducted in the City of Baguio.

... For instance, reacting to the 1972 reorganization of the Regions of the Philippines which placed Benguet and Mountain Province in Region I (Ilocos ... Even more radically, organ-ized agitation for 'autonomy' was launched by the Cordillera People's Alliance [CPA] in 1985. ...

Philippine political behavior has been viewed within a patron-client framework, where the politician as patron extracts support from voters in exchange for concrete benefits. These patrons then formed the basis for the factions and ever-shifting coalitions of Philippine politics. The patron-client model is in the keeping with a view of political participation which revolves around elections, said to be the central drama of Philippine politics. Certainly, the most dramatic moment in recent Philippine political history—the 1986 regime change—was inextricably bound up in elections, and the Filipino's determination that elections be restored as free exercises of choice.This focus on electoral activity tends to exclude other forms of political participation. There are other uses of “democratic space” in the course of everyday politics. Furthermore, modernization attenuates patron-client ties, raising the question of what basis citizens use for electoral choice.Non-government Organizations (NGOs) can be central to addressing such topics in two ways. Some contemporary NGOs which focus on “people empowerment” have interpreted their mandate as extending beyond community affairs to electoral participation, and engage in both research and education towards “generating an electoral bloc that can significantly influence the elections for national positions and in certain specific localities.”A larger class of NGOs disdain such direct involvement in a process which (hey feel systematically disenfranchises grassroots organizations. Yet, even they operate in a context where their clientele takes seriously electoral exercises. Thus, they are not free to isolate themselves totally from elections, but must decide on how to relate to the electoral arena.This paper reports on research into the interaction between NGOs and elections, using aata regarding both varieties of NGO to document these assertations. Implications for Philippine politics are then drawn.