The highly esteemed political scientist chaired the UP Political Science department from 1993 to 1998, and the Center for People Empowerment in Governance since 2013
MANILA, Philippines – Filipino political scientist and reforms advocate Dr. Temario “Temy” Rivera died on Wednesday, September 18, after a bout with pancreatic cancer.
Rivera — Temy or Mario to his friends — died at 3 am on Wednesday, his family confirmed. The think tank Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) also announced the passing of its chairman.
“Prof. Temy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last month and his sudden demise left us all with a heavy heart,” CenPEG said in a Facebook post on Thursday, September 19.
CenPEG is a public policy outfit that advocates people empowerment in governance. It conducts research and policy studies as well as education and training on political and electoral reforms.
Rivera chaired the University of the Philippines (UP) political science department from 1993 to 1998, and was chair of CenPEG since 2013.
“He was a well-known and highly esteemed political scientist. For our family and friends, he has been the most loving and generous, he has been our rock and comfort. We are still having a hard time processing this profound loss,” said his sister, Alma Rivera Sarmiento.
The soft-spoken Rivera was detained for five years during the Marcos dictatorship.
In public fora, Rivera spoke of the need for political and economic reforms that would advance democracy and development in the Philippines.
In a forum in March 2022 on the May 2022 elections, Rivera lamented the country’s “political-authoritarian tradition and unending search for the ‘savior-leader’,” and its “weak institutions and party system” but “dominant clans.”
He called for “stronger public institutions and state capacity for economic growth” as well as an independent but effective foreign policy.
On charter change, he said last January that “there are already many laws which opened and liberalized the economy,” and “disagreed that the Philippine Constitution and restrictive laws are the ones that prohibit investment.”
“Foreign investors look more to stability, predictability of laws. Corruption is a big concern of the investors,” he said.
“Industrialization policy is still missing. Puro tungkol sa SMEs ang usapan. (It’s all about SMEs.) There is no plan to connect the Philippine islands. For example, jeepney modernization — it is a wrong response to rely on foreign manufacturers, because we have local industries and manufacturers like Sarao and Francisco Motors, offering to build modernized jeepneys responding to climate change, decarbonization goals, compliant with Euro 4 motor requirements. But the LTO [Land Transportation Office] and DOTR [Department of Transportation] prefer foreign vehicle suppliers for the jeepney modernization,” Rivera said.
He obtained his political science degree in 1966 and his Master of Arts in Political Science in 1982 from UP. As a Fulbright scholar and Rockefeller Foundation scholar, he completed his doctorate in Development Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.
Rivera also taught International Relations and Comparative Politics for more than a decade in the International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan.
His major work was Landlords and Capitalists: Class, Family, and State in Philippine Manufacturing, published by the Center for Integrative and Development Studies and the University of the Philippines Press in 1994. It received the Outstanding Social Science Book Award from the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) in 1996, the National Book Award (social sciences) from the Manila Critics Circle, and the UP Chancellor’s Book Award.
“Since the end of the Second World War, the Philippines has slipped behind neighbors it once surpassed economically. The promise of modernization in the 1960s and the 1970s, which shored the hopes of the generation that survived the war, has remained unfulfilled. By examining the formation and composition of the fraction of the capitalist class at the forefront of the postwar state’s import substitution industrialization strategy, Temario Rivera’s Landlords and Capitalists provides a significant part of the explanation,” wrote then-CIDS executive director Cynthia Rose Bautista in the book’s foreword.
“Rivera’s data showed the Tsinoy [Chinese-Filipino] companies were one of the groups that invested heavily on domestic industrialization. This was happening as the Cold War heated up, with China and the United States fighting a war in South Korea. There were reports of illicit trade between Hong Kong and the Philippines, but the legal companies kept their investments within the country,” said historian and Rappler columnist Patricio Abinales in 2015.
Rivera was also editor of the Philippine Political Science Journal, the official publication of the Philippine Political Science Association (PPSA). “Under his editorship for 20 years,” the journal earned “the distinction of being the first professional social science journal in the country to be awarded an International Scientific Index (ISI) status and is now published by Routledge,” said the Philippine International Studies Organization. Routledge is a global publisher of academic books, journals and online resources.
Rivera was the UP Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award in Democratization and Governance in 2019, and was honored by the Philippine Political Science Association with its PPSA Distinguished Leadership Award in 2017. He was editor-in-chief of the Philippine Collegian in 1967.
Rivera’s wake is at the Haven of Angels, Sumulong Highway, Antipolo City from September 21, Friday to Sunday. CenPeg is hosting a memorial service and tribute for him on Sunday at 1 pm. – Rappler.com
