“My family does not understand why I am getting into politics. (My father) does not really want me to run. His advice to me was to stay in the private sector if I want to help,” said Vivienne Tan, an entrepreneur and educator.

Despite this, the slim, smartly-dressed Tan is throwing herself completely into the role of candidate, mixing with the weathered, sun-tanned street vendors and bus drivers whose votes she is seeking.

Tan, 41, is running in the May national elections for a congressional seat in a grimy, blue-collar suburb of the Philippine capital, a long way from the skyscrapers of Manila’s financial district in which her father rules.

Her 74-year-old father, who was a close ally of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was listed by Forbes magazine last year as the second richest man in the Philippines and 522nd richest in the world with a net worth of 1.4 billion dollars.

His business empire includes national flag-carrier Philippine Airlines, while he also has interests in banking, tobacco, real estate and alcohol.

Ethnic Chinese tycoons such as Tan have largely avoided running for national posts in the Philippines, usually preferring to wield power behind the scenes by providing funding to politicians.

But Tan said she had long dreamed of directly entering politics.

“I am an independent person. I have an independent mind and I know what I am doing and I know what I want to do with my life and what I want to do is to be able to serve,” she said after giving a speech recently on the campaign trail.

Tan’s father has long been a controversial figure because of his close ties to Marcos, whose dictatorship ended in 1986 with a “people power” revolution.

The government has for years been trying to prove that Tan’s assets were ill-gotten through illegal deals during the Marcos years, but it has met with little success.

Vivienne Tan sought to distance herself from any comparison with her father and insisted she was not running to protect his interests.

“That’s my father. That’s not me. Leave all that to my father,” she said.

“I can’t do anything (about that reputation). All I can say is when I enter congress, they will know what I can do.”

Tan attributed her independence to her experiences in the United States where she studied mathematics, computer science, fashion design and manufacturing. She also worked there in a law firm and a shipping company.

Except for a stint as her father’s assistant in Philippine Airlines, she has also avoided getting involved in her family’s businesses.

Instead, Tan set up business schools and worked on social projects promoting entrepreneurship in the Philippines.

However, while Tan said she and her friends were funding her campaign, she conceded she was prepared to dig into her family’s enormous pockets if needed.

“If necessary, maybe I will approach them. We will see when we cross that bridge,” she said.

Despite her powerful family name, Tan is facing an uphill battle in her bid to enter the nation’s lower house.

Her opponent is incumbent congressman Vicente Crisologo, a scion of an established political family known to play rough in elections.

Crisologo spent five years in jail for burning down two villages that backed a rival politician in 1970.

“Even I’m a bit scared of him because of his experiences and his reputation,” Tan said.

Tan has positioned herself as a reformer against a traditional politician she accuses of not truly helping the people of her district.

“It’s time to trash the old politics that does not truly uplift and inspire the people,” Tan told a crowd of supporters, most of them female market vendors, this month.

But political science assistant professor Gladstone Cuarteros, of the De La Salle University in Manila, said he doubted Tan’s chances in this election because her opponent was so well-entrenched.

“The key is mobilising voters and, in the case of Mr Crisologo, he started as city councillor and he has been very strong in that area while Vivienne Tan is new in the area,” he told AFP.

“That area has a large number of urban poor and these voters will consider the previous help that was given to them,” he said, citing the many times Crisologo resisted efforts to demolish squatter shanties in his district.

Three of them have been doing "reconnaissance" missions in the past months in three of Pangasinan’s six districts in preparation for their congressional bids.

Former Armed Forces chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr., now chief of the Presidential Management Staff, has been very visible in the sixth district; former Philippine National Police chief Arturo Lomibao, now Land Transportation Office head, has been frequenting the fourth district; and Director Leopoldo Bataoil, PNP police community relations chief, has been visiting various communities in the second district.

The rest will be aiming for mayoral seats in their respective hometowns. These are Director Silverio Alarcio, integrated police operations chief in Northern Luzon, in Laoac town; former Rear Admiral Virgilio Marcelo in San Manuel; former Director Joel Goltiao in San Nicolas; former Director Ismael Rafanan in Villasis; and former Chief Superintendent Dante Ferrer in Calasiao.

Bataoil will retire on October 22 and Alarcio on November 29, in time for the last day of the filing of certificates of candidacy on November 30.

Two former police generals — Sta. Barbara Mayor Reynaldo Velasco and Bani Mayor Marcelo Navarro — will seek reelection. Governor Amado Espino Jr., a retired police colonel, and Rosales Mayor Ricardo Revita, a former police major, have also been preparing for their reelection bids.

Dr. Perla Legaspi, former vice chancellor of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, and professor at the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance, said most of the former generals who will be seeking elective positions came from the police.

And as police officers, she said, their decision to seek public office may have been influenced by their functions.

"Most of them have been dealing with the public, with the community, so they are attuned to civil functions. And because of these backgrounds, they know and they feel the thinking of the community and how to be attuned with [its] needs," said Legaspi, now program chair at the Lyceum Northwestern University graduate school here.

"Maybe, they think that they are better off than others who do not have military or police background because to them, their mission would guide them towards the achievement of certain goals," she said.

Lomibao said retired military or police generals have as much right as any civilian has in seeking public office.

"Maybe, it’s their sense of service to the people, sense of service to the country that they imbibed when they were still in the military service. Maybe, they will miss talking to people when they retire," he said.

"Being in the service, you deal with people, you handle people. You talk to people, you solve their problems [and] their concerns [and] you attend to them. And suddenly, when you retire, you stay home. ‘Yong iba nga diyan e naaatake, kasi wala silang kausap (Some even get sick because they have no one to talk to)," Lomibao said.

He said he knew of a general who, after retirement, still wore his uniform every morning and went to his office and read the papers.

"It’s because he still had hang-ups. These are the things that retired people — not only in the military and police — but even those who spend the best years of their lives in government, do. So, maybe we should give it to them," Lomibao said.

A local political analyst, who asked not to be named because he holds a government position, said it was unusual for many retired generals to be seeking elective posts.

"In the past, when a general retires, he usually looked forward to tending a farm or engaging in business. Politics was never an option then," said the source, a member of a political family who has been involved in local politics as campaigner and organizer since 1987.

He said the trend indicated that the police and military had been highly politicized, an offshoot of the martial law rule in the country for more than a decade.

"This is why when a general retires, he now looks forward to being appointed to a government position or running in an elective post," he said.

But Legaspi said that during martial law, the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos did not appoint retired military and police generals to government positions, unlike now, under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, where several former military and police generals serve as Cabinet members and undersecretaries.

"The military was politicized then only in the sense that the promotion system was not followed. Seniority was not being followed," Legaspi said.

She said there have been success stories involving former military or police generals entering the field of politics.

Lomibao said having several retired generals in different elective and appointive positions was not militarization of the bureaucracy.

"I don’t think so, because we are already retired. I think the term is not militarization. Of course, we [underwent] military or police training — we have our own system, we are mission-oriented, service-oriented. That’s our training. So, I will not say militarization. I’d rather say, civilianization of the retired military [men]," Lomibao said.

INQUIRER.net