ON christmas day, Archbishop of Caceres Leonardo Z. Legaspi asked in his message: “Keeping in mind what transpired this year, (2009), we cannot help but brace ourselves for an unknown year to come. Would it be a year of more blessings or more chaos? Will we have better leaders or the same old ones?”

        On New Year’s Day, the Archbishop explained in his pastoral letter “Hope and Wait with Perseverance” the criteria the clergy of Caceres have drawn up to gauge if the candidates running for the national and the local positions will be “better leaders.”

        Measured against these criteria, Team Naga a.k.a. ubos kun ubos, gabos kun gabos seem to fall short of “better leaders” since they have been into power hoarding, one of the marks of political oligarchy which the Archbishop’s pastoral letter rejects as worthy of support. States the letter: “Many politicians seek to perpetuate themselves in power. Upon reaching their term limits, incumbent politicians endorse bench warmers so they can easily reclaim their posts after three years. Others simply shift from the executive branch to the legislative branch such as from governor to congressman or mayor to congressman and vice-versa.”

        Who were the bench warmers of Team Naga? One was Sulpicio “Cho” S. Roco who conceded to run for mayor when Mayor Jesse M. Robredo reached his term limit in 2002. Now that Mayor Robredo has decided to abandon Aksyon Demokratiko, the party of the late Senator Raul S. Roco, to manage the campaign of the Liberal Party in the region, he and his team literally turned their coats even as he “anointed” through a consultation process another bench warmer in City Hall, in the person of Atty. John Bongat.

        Even taken against the frame of costly campaign or quid pro quo politics, Team Naga cannot earn high marks. During the Christmas holidays, Team Naga front runners were in all barangays in the city distributing bags of goods and foodstuffs ---- of course with their names on these bags --- containing noodles, cans of sardines, packs of spaghetti and sauce with a brand name “Bonus” which are reportedly the products of SM Group of Companies. Are these goods the quid pro quo between the City Government of Naga and SM Naga which was given a warm welcome as well as a favorable traffic arrangement and a warm commercial site for its mall?

        For years these candidates have earned the reputation of not being generously generous so as to draw from their own pockets that much amount of goods or cash without those residing in the barangays asking for them. The forthcoming campaign season has practically given them a make-over. Cast against the features describing oligarchs who patronize quid pro quo politics, Team Naga appear to fit into the frame. According to the Pastoral Letter, “What binds or unbinds our political leaders is quid pro quo politics which means ‘something for something.’ Political leaders enter into arrangements with other politicians that benefit both of them. Also called transactional politics, this exchange of favors is self-serving and is detrimental to common good.”

        It also appears that the candidates of Team Naga are getting into the mood of costly campaigns, which the Pastoral Letter decries as becoming “more expensive when competition becomes intense, when economic stakes are high and when the electorate continue to expand. Tri-media advertisements are used long before the campaign period.”

        Understandable then why the Archbishop is asking the electorate to have discernment and not lose hope in these troubled times. The political landscape, with its seemingly insurmountable issues and with no available solution at hand, “have caused many Filipinos to focus on personal godliness and to distance themselves from communal responsibility. Hopelessness has crept in and has weakened the Filipino spirit.”

        Several candidates of Team Naga are from the middle class which as poetically described by the Catholic Church’s Plenary Council II as “neither so poor that they have nothing to give nor so rich that they have nothing to need.”

        According to the Pastoral Letter, “more than income and resources, the middle class is identified by their attitude towards and participation in society. The middle class can be self-reliant and can break away from mendicancy or dependence from the ruling elite.” But as things are, running under Team Naga, these “middle class” candidates have virtually submitted themselves to the party’s program and platform which have the unmistakable marks of a political oligarchy.

        How true is that Scriptural statement: By their works, you shall know them.