U.S. political consultants have been involved in Philippine elections since the Marcos era, contributing their expertise in campaign techniques to homegrown politicians.

by Yvonne T. Chua

	Joseph Napolitan, believed to be the first private U.S. consultant to work in the Philippines, helped in Ferdinand Marcos's 1969 campaign.

WHEN the U.S. Democratic Party primary season opened in January, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry hardly looked like someone who could be the party’s candidate in the U.S. presidential election this November. Although already a fourth-term senator, Kerry was being outshone by Vermont governor Howard Dean, who the media had all but proclaimed the Democrats’ presidential bet.

But Kerry had a few surprises up his sleeve. Putting all his resources in Iowa rather than New Hampshire, Kerry posted an upset victory in the Midwest state — the first in a string of key wins. By the time the primaries ended on March 2, Kerry had emerged as the Democratic Party’s likely candidate to challenge President George W. Bush. And Dean? Well, he has begun stumping for his erstwhile New England rival, even proclaiming Kerry as the next president of the United States.

Behind Kerry’s come-from-behind showing is a team of advisers that includes Mark Mellman, president of the Mellman Group. According to the Boston Globe, the Mellman Group is now the “hottest” political consulting firm in Washington. Its website certainly lists an impressive array of clients, from U.S. senators, congressmen, and governors, to corporate clients like software company Intuit (the makers of Quicken) and United Airlines. Mellman himself, meanwhile, has been known to have exported his skills outside of the United States, at one time even doing consulting work for a prominent politician in the Philippines.

Swiss political consultant Louis F. Perron was told this by Mellman himself in the course of an interview the former was conducting for a study. But Perron says Mellman declined to identify his Filipino client — who may or may not have had the same kind of luck as Kerry — because the prominent consultant was bound by a nondisclosure pact that is popular among non-U.S. politicians.

	Mark Mellman, a consultant who worked on Senator John Kerry's bid to be the Democratic Party's 2004 presidential candidate, has also recently done work for a Filipino politician.

Perron, who was in Manila recently to attend the World Association of Public Opinion Research’s regional conference, says that three of the 19 U.S. political consultants he interviewed for his study had been retained by Filipino politicians at one time or another. But this is not really surprising since the Philippines is a former U.S. colony and its elections are essentially patterned after those in the United States. Indeed, each election this country has ever held after World War II probably saw more than one U.S. political expert working in the shadows, shaping campaigns and drawing strategies for clients, most of whom were aiming for the presidency.

Now that the Philippines has more than 17,000 public positions filled through elections every three years, expertise from abroad may have become even more sought after. As Perron explains, “Modern campaign techniques…become more important if the number of elected offices is high.”

In fact, in a paper he presented at the conference here, Perron says that while Latin America (Venezuela, in particular) has become a big market for U.S. political consultants, Southeast Asia is perceived to be a fast-growing market — and may even become the biggest soon — all because democratic processes have been put in place in many countries in the region.

The Philippines, however, still tops the list when it comes to the country with the longest experience in hiring U.S. consultants-and heavyweights in the profession at that. Quoting a forthcoming book (Going International) by Dennis W. Johnson, associate dean of George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, Perron names Joseph Napolitan as the first U.S. political consultant to work in the Philippines. “His involvement (in this country),” says Perron, “probably even marks the beginning of modern international political consulting.”

Napolitan would serve as adviser to nine foreign heads of state in the course of his long career. He also founded the American Association of Political Consultants and the International Association of Political Consultants. In 1969, he came to the Philippines to help in the reelection campaign of Ferdinand Marcos. Then already a veteran of the successful Kennedy and Johnson campaigns, Napolitan was said to have polished Marcos’s image and assisted in the soon-to-be-strongman’s overall campaign strategy.

Part of that strategy was to maximize the use of radio as a campaign tool outside of the greater Manila area (at the time, there were few television sets outside the capital). In addition, Napolitan supposedly suggested the shooting of videos on the Marcoses. As Perron tells, it, the Marcos campaign “secured 15 trucks outfitted them with movie screens and projects, and drove them from village to village” showing these videos.

Perron’s paper mentions U.S. media consultant Robert Squier as having worked with Napolitan. But Raymond Bonner, in his book Waltzing with a Dictator, says that Marcos had hired another Washington political pro, former Democratic Party national chairman Lawrence O’Brien, to work with Napolitan. According to Bonner, Marcos spent a whopping $50 million for his reelection bid, part of which was used to pay for the services of Napolitan and O’Brien.