Tagle: Filipinos must hurdle and reject patronage politics

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle recently lamented the country’s inability to graduate from patronage politics.

His Eminence said such style of leadership is not really about service because it enslaves people.

"Socially, culturally, and politically our society has not graduated from patronage. And ultimately patronage politics or the patronage style of service, of leadership is not service," he said in his speech during the Servant Leadership in Public Service gathering in Quezon City the other day.

"There is a form of giving that further enslaves other people. There is a way of dealing with others that keeps them beholden to me and they do not grow and they do not contribute to the common good," he said.

"As they say, not everyone who gives is for charity. There is a kind of giving that makes one a captive. I gave you, so you are now mine. You are now my slave. Whatever I say, you must do," added Tagle.

Such leaders, he said, are what the public should be wary of.

"That is scary. It is not the common good (that they think of) but the partisan good, sometimes their personal good and their family," he added.

Real servant leraders And with less than a year to go before the May 2016 elections, Cardinal Tagle urged the public to prepare a symbolic gift package for the election winners.

His Eminence said the gifts, composed of a wash basin, pitcher and towel would hopefully remind public officials of what a real servant leader should be as what was shown in the Last Supper story when Jesus washed the feet of His disciples.

"Jesus did not have to wash the feet of others. He did not have to be a slave because he was not a slave. His social and cultural condition dictated that he be the one to demand of others that His feet be washed,” Tagle explained.

“But, No. In Jesus, becoming a servant, becoming a slave even is a matter of choice. You choose it. Even if your position dictates these are your privileges you choose to serve.”