We need more ‘provincianos’ in the Senate

WITH the fanfare with which some senatorial candidates have filed their certificates of candidacy in recent days, we often hear hopes that our Senate represent more of the Philippines, because truth is that most of the senators are from Metro Manila.

If my math is correct, since the revival of the upper chamber in the 8th Congress in 1987, only eight senators from Mindanao and seven from the Visayas were elected out of the 74 elected to the Senate.

Moreover, we have had only two Muslims since then, former Senators Mamintal Tamano and Santanina Rasul, whose respective terms ended in 1992 and 1995. No other Muslim has since been elected to the Senate.

Everyone else was from either Luzon or Metro Manila, many of those recently elected are children of former senators. Most have built their political networks in the capital region.

That said, we in Mindanao often bewail our miniscule representation in the Senate, which mirrors the larger alienation of the island and its unique concerns from larger political discourse, which is dominated by what Manila’s elite across the spectrum prefer to talk about or their preferred perspective when looking at our issues.

This exclusion over time may have created the following outcomes:

First, almost 3/4 of all national budgets since 1986 go to Luzon and Metro Manila, with the rest of the country sharing what is left, despite having a bigger portion of territory and population.

This brings us to the second point. Persistent economic inequality was never solved by the governments we elected since 1987, with the most underrepresented regions in Mindanao remaining the poorest and conflict -prone until only recently with the end of hostilities between the MILF and the government.

It is not surprising, therefore, is that 2/3 of our GDP has always come from Metro Manila and nearby Southern and Central Luzon. Most of our manufacturing remained in these regions where better infrastructure and connectivity is present. Their GDPs per capita mirror that of Thailand while the rest is at ASEANs bottom levels.

This raises the argument that if more budgetary support was brought to the south, their levels of infrastructure and economic growth would be higher, and their poverty levels would be lower.

This would have made our economic development more balanced and peaceful over the last 30 years since the EDSA revolution that promised to bring the nation together in a more equitable way.

The last two years exposed the truth that much more could have been done by previous governments that seemed blind to this inequality. Had the Senate been more representative of the regions, the argument is that legislative priorities would have given the regions more attention and resources.

Persistent inequality despite the presence of these rights allow only a select to enjoy its freedom. This breeds a contempt for the system, creating constant conflict.

Now that the Visayas and Mindanao economies are growing in their GDP contribution, the efforts in the last two years to even out the imbalance by granting bigger allocations to the regions are laudable. Yet much still needs to be done.

Of course, we can always argue that the Senate was never meant to be directly representative of constituencies, unlike the House of Representatives.

More important than formal representation is the opportunity to be heard, especially on the emerging issues such as the need for broadening the peace and development gains of game changers like the Bangsamoro Organic Law, monitoring the effectiveness of Build Build Build, and pursuing reforms in modernizing our public transport system, food supply, and our countrys readiness for climate change impacts, among others.

These are matters that affect us in the regions in a fundamental way.

Can today’s senators and likely winners in 2019 help us deal with these? Will future Senate committee hearings and investigations reflect the people’s concerns, or have they simply been reduced to a schedule of political circuses for Manila’s elites?

Will our perspectives on them land a spot in those hearings and deliberations? Will we be heard? This are the questions we pose. Real democracy is not just about giving the underrepresented equal rights on paper or the noisy few the chance to keep talking.

It is making sure that everyone’s voice is included, heard, and all are able to reap its benefits and feel they they belong, and will thus uphold the system.

At any rate, may future senates include more “provincianos” so that the attention given to the Philippines outside Metro Manila is given the due and the more inclusive democracy we all deserve. For reactions: