"Local leaders simply are not as influential as they had been in the past. One well-known congressman, scoffed an observer, 'could not deliver the votes to his wife in his own home wotn.' Another politician in Manila, 'could not deliver his followers to his own father'. A third reputedly powerful urban 'trapo', running for reelection, 'almost lost to a newcomer even though he gave a motorcycle to each of his baario captains'." - Post-Marcos politics : a geographical and statistical analysis of the 1992 presidential election