Pedigreed pols hold sway in PH

Anent the latest exchange of “exposés and counterexposés” in the Philippine Senate (“Why Gigi Reyes is dubbed ‘24th senator’,” Inquirer, 1/24/13), it is needless to say that practically all institutions in this country are the private domain of the powerful and the affluent.

From the legislative halls of both the Senate and House of Representatives to the Supreme Court and lesser courts, to Malacañang and its attached governmental bureaus and agencies—all these are under the effective control of a few Filipino families.

If this is the structural makeup of Philippine politics and only pedigreed “trapo” can participate in governing the land and appropriate the money collected from the Filipino people, what is the point of holding elections?

—BOB GABUNA,

kapihan@hotmail.com