WatWatWorld: Philippine Political Organization Mushroom (Lilitaw - Lulubog)

As early as two years ago, I already noticed the formation of different organizations and associations geared towards the 2010 elections. Recently, Facebook, MySpace, Friendster and Twitter are commonly used to boost up their membership. Creating a political organization prior to an election is a common practice and just like mushrooms, many of this organizations disappear after the elections. Politicians commonly use the youth sector in mobilizing membership by promising a good platform and objectives. Fact is, every politician has his/her own platform to show during the campaign period but more often than not, the realization of the platforms presented remains to be seen. If you follow the history of Philippine elections, it maybe safe to say that after elections, the platforms earlier presented remains in the piece of paper where it was written. Only a few really practice what they are introducing during a campaign.

Promises are also common in political organizations even if the members join as "volunteers", in many cases, these volunteers end up as cash cows or foot soldiers with a promise that if the candidate they are fighting for will win, they will receive some incentives either in form of grants, scholarships, positions, jobs or contracts. Allegedly, the political organizers also "earn" because they handle the channeled finances for the organization. However, we will not deny that there are also organizers and volunteers who really believes in what they are campaigning for thus doing it in their own free will and sacrifices. I have seen this before in our province wherein volunteers really used their own money, time and effort to campaign for a senatorial candidate. After the election was over, the volunteers where not even recognized. The organizers got all the thank you's and wishes. Soon after, the organization faded away.

The most common victims of political organization mushrooms are "promdi's" like me. All of a sudden organizations are mushrooming all over the provinces. Fact is, those people organizing are more often than not the same faces you saw organizing for another party or politician during previous elections. I call them "political dance instructors", and I will allege that they are earning a living or even more from what they are doing.

Political organization mushrooms maybe temporary in nature but they serve their purpose very well. I may not agree on how the organizers manipulate volunteers but at the end of the day, something is achieved and that is the spreading of political awareness from the national capital region to the far flung areas in the provinces. This is the only time where politics and politicians reach the ends of the provinces and the only time where "promdi's" like me can see our favorite actors and actresses in person.
To illustrate, if there are 100 politicians running for President, there will be 100 or more political organizations that will mushroom up and each of these newly born mushroom will have their own programs, policies and platforms to show. Each mushroom will try to gather as mush volunteers and as history dictates, the volunteers will stand their ground for the candidate they are endorsing even if it means physically fighting with the other political mushrooms. Again, at the end of the day, whatever the result is, the political candidate may not even know what is happening in the field.

All having said, even if these organizations are actually historical mushrooms,  I believe they still serve the purpose even for a limited time. These purposes are:
1. To spread political awareness up to the ends of each province and islands in the Philippines;
2. To gather the sentiments and needs of the people;
3. To bring medical missions and a plastic of goods containing 1 kilo of rice, two noodles and 2 cans of sardines to the poor communities;
4. To give a sense of power or control to the ordinary people; and
5. To bring actors, actresses, comedians, dancers and singers to entertain the people in the province for free!
What can you say?