The TV Democracy; No Joke: Everyone likes to laugh at the Philippines for actor-politicians, but they're a prototype for your next leader.

Byline: Jessica Zafra (Zafra is an author, journalist and former Manila television talk-show host. She has no plans to run for office, yet.)

The Philippine movie industry is in a slump, but many actors have adapted nicely to the crunch. They've landed roles in another high-profile, if less glamorous, field: politics. In the last elections Fernando Poe Jr., the King of Philippine Movies, posed the most serious challenge to the incumbent President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Three actors known for playing tough-guy heroes made it to the Senate, one of them the son of the former actor and deposed president Joseph Estrada. Movie and television personalities were elected governors, congressmen, mayors and town councilors. Two former TV news anchors squared off in the vice presidential race; the winner was Noli De Castro, best known for exposing government scams on his long-running show.

To the casual observer, the entertainer-slash-politician is a source of amusement, another example of the quaintness of Third World democracies. To Filipinos, it is simply the next stage in the evolution of democracy. We've always known that politics is a form of show business with less attractive players. Elections are always huge hits in the Philippines: voter turnout is never a problem, unlike in so-called mature democracies where the people have lost interest in their leaders. So go ahead and snigger, but we know the Philippines is the cutting edge of participatory democracy, not an isolated joke. It's happening all over the world; people just haven't noticed yet--and I don't mean just Arnold Schwarzenegger. I mean that we're entering an era in which TV not only shapes democracy but provides the most popular forms of democracy in action.

Pundits cite several reasons for the success of entertainers in Philippine elections: the absence of a real party system, the astronomical cost of election campaigns and an electorate that associates the candidate with his on-screen image. But the theory of the credulous voter is inaccurate. The average Filipino viewer does not confuse actors with their characters; we don't even see characters. We see actors playing roles, and we never forget who they are.