UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND

POLITICS
Quarter 2 – Module9
Economy, Society and Cultural Change

WHAT’S NEW?
ACTIVITY 1
Directions: Write your answer in your activity notebook.

Create a comic strip of how you perceive the difference between a wealthy
family (owner of a mall), middle class family (both parents are
professionals), and poor family (both parents are high school graduates).
WHAT’S NEW?
ACTIVITY 2
Directions: Write your answer in your activity notebook.

Read the essay Readings 1 found at the last part of this module “The
Future Results of British Rule in India” By Karl Max below and share
your insights. Answer the following questions bellow:

1. When does the caste system of a person in India determined?

- Around 1500 BC, the Aryans arrived in India, caste system was
then established. The fair skinned Aryans arrived in India from
south Europe and north Asia. Before the Aryans there were
other communities in India of other origins. Caste system
determines a person’s status by birth. Loosely, it means that in
some societies, the opportunities you have access to depend
on the family you happened to be born into.

2. According to Karl Max “the most decisive impediment to India’s

progress and power is their caste system”. Do you agree? Why or
why not?
- I totally agree with Karl Max, caste system determines the
status of a person by birth, it means that being born in an
unprivileged family makes it hard to access resources and their
future is also dictated. The hereditary status of those from
privileged family sets an unequal perspective to those with
lowly family. Thus, it is always those unprivileged people to do
manual labors and even experience famine because of caste
system. Accordingly, Karl Max’ essay ‘The future results of
British rule in India’ conveyed how of a destructive impediment
caste system is to India’s power and progress wherein British
made an appreciable opportunity through establishing new sets
of rail ways to benefit both parties however, the deleterious
effect of caste system resulting to general repulsion and
constitutional exclusiveness makes it hard for them to achieve
complete progression.
WHAT I CAN DO?
ACTIVITY 3
Directions: Write your answer in your activity notebook.

Differentiate me. At this point, give keywords that you can associate
and/or differentiate from class and status.

CLASS STATUS
1. Power 1. Hierarchy

2. Elegance 2. Position

3. Classification 3. Popularity

4. Group 4. Influence

5. Authority 5. Level

WHAT’S MORE?
ACTIVITY 4
Directions: Write your answer in your activity notebook.

As I observed. List down below names of politicians in your

municipality/province/city and opposite their names is their positions.

Ex. Manuel Hipolito – mayor

Name Elected position in politics

1. Al Francis Bichara - Governor
2. Joey Salceda - Congressman
3. Victor Perete - Mayor
4. Junjie Jaucian - Vice Mayor
5. Roy Marco - Baranggay Captain
Process Questions:
1. Are there multiple positions occupied by the same clan/relatives or
families? Yes or no.
- No

2. How are political dynasties formed and maintained?

- Political dynasties started emerging after the Philippine
Revolution when the First Republic of the Philippines was
established. Politicians maintained their positions and gained
more power by making their families and constituents inherit
their positions making them a political dynasty.

3. Why do they get elected? Does winning elections any indicator of the
people’s will?
- Some were elected through genuine citizen votes, while others
were elected for power and prestige. Winning elections
indicates people’s will because they believe in the candidate’s
strength and capability to be an effective leader and govern
them effectively.

4. In such conditions, can there be a genuine democracy?

- Yes, a genuine democracy is possible, just as it is here in our
place, where there are only a few political dynasties. People
here thoroughly examine all candidates along with their family
background and the ability to be a good leader, even if he or
she is a novice politician. We should choose the best candidate
and scrutinize them before electing them as a leader in order to
have a democratic government. We have the ability and free
will to choose and elect our leaders, so we should not waste
this opportunity and democracy.
Write a one paragraph essay how your involvement and participation in
different types of social groups influence your thoughts, attitudes, values
and behavior.

- We humans frequently socialize with people from various

social groups in order to gain knowledge, experiences, and
connections. We adapt to their values, attitudes, and behavior by
socializing, and they sometimes influence our emotional state.
Despite my inner fear of being judged, I enjoy talking to people
and groups who share similar interests. By listening to their life
stories and opinions, I am able to fully understand them and
eventually form a bond with them. Friendships are relationships in
which members can comfort and rely on one another. By
becoming involved in their conflicts and predicaments, I gain
experiences and improve my analytical thinking, allowing me to
think rationally in a variety of situations.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED?

ACTIVITY 5
Directions: Answer the processed questions cited in the basic block list.
Write your answer in your activity notebook.

1. Go to youtube.com and search any senate, congress, session on talk

about the party list system: From teachers, farmers, workers, women.
Question: What are the legal parliamentarian struggles of these groups?

- Parliamentarians are supposed to represent the

marginalized, but as I've seen in the videos, the representatives
are mostly mistrusted because they operate in the same manner
as political dynasties. They inherit their positions on their
constituents and families in order to maintain their power and
prestige. Some of them are already powerful people and they lack
ideologies wherein the term ‘marginalized’ were misconstrued. All
the party list from teachers, farmers, workers to women should be
represented along with their ideologies and thoughts on society
but their struggle begins with their supposed to be representative.
 They are refuted the right to free expression, and their only hope,
the parliamentarian, lacks the motivation to speak up for them
because all they care about is themselves.

2. What is good governance for me? What are the important social
services to be delivered by government? How do we ensure our right
to social services? How to achieve good governance? Create a vlog
and upload to your social media account tagging your teacher.

- A good governance, in my opinion, has systematic rules

that must be followed to keep the country in order. It aims to
provide stronger communities and effective organizations that will
bring positive feedbacks from the public. From a human rights
perspective it refers primarily to the process whereby public
institutions conduct public affairs, manage public resources and
guarantee the realization of human rights. Social services are
critical for a country’s economy and for it to have a better
governance. It benefits both the public and its leaders by providing
quality education, medical care, housing, and job opportunities. All
of us have the rights to equally acquire social services even
though there are those who are more privileged, there are no laws
that hinders all people to acquire these services regardless of their
social status. Our rights to these services can be guaranteed by
laws and organizations, and states also provide social security. In
order to have a good governance a country should have a unified
foundation wherein the leader and its scope understand the
opinions of each other. Leaders must also be aware of the
precedents that must be prioritized, as well as have a mindset that
will benefit people and the country.
3. Debate: Should we abolish the pork barrel system? (300 words only)

Pork barrel system should be abolished. Pork barrel is

appropriation of government funds given to any legislators to use for
localized government projects dedicated to the public. It is used to
ingratiate the legislators and its constituents to favor them in an election.
Road projects, flood control, irrigation and building of infrastructures are
included to the scope of pork barrel funds. These government funds are
also a great help to the marginalized as it is the fund used for the
scholarship of unprivileged people.

Any party-list representative can handle these funds and has the
ability to use them in projects regarding societal issues. However, some
of the government officials and representatives discreetly misuse the
funds on illegal purposes while the public are unaware of their activities.
When asked about pork barrel, former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile said,
“it equalizes the allocation of funding in different parts of the country.”
The term "equalizes" emphasizes the purpose of these funds, which are
supposed to be dedicated to the public. That being said, former Sen.
Enrile along with other ex-senators were linked to the running pork
barrel scam. He was out on bail and some were detained. Whilst Janet
Napoles, the principal suspect of the case was found guilty of plunder
and was penalized of reclusion perpetua. Several members of the
government was involved in this case where they misused the Priority
Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) that is supposed to be spent on
priority development projects.

The pork barrel scam became a major issue in the political

system, bringing to light corrupt politicians, whom the public stereotyped
as crocodiles in government. This system influenced the public’s
perception of them as having a negative impact on society as a result of
their own actions. Because of this, I believe the pork barrel system
should be abolished.