The Wrong Way Forward: Political Parties as Moral Impediment to Progress and Social Transformation

The Wrong Way Forward: Political Parties as Moral Impediment to Progress and Social Transformation

In this country, election season rivals Christmas in heightened awareness, not necessarily in the creation of goodwill and joy of festivities. The 2016 election season started early with the emergence of moribund and dormant political parties, the demise of one (PDP-Laban) and the creation of another (UNA Party).

But what added to the bizarre revelries was the surge of VP Binay to the forefront of the 2016 Presidential hopefuls. This threatened the “majesty of the presidency” turning the hapless Malacanang occupant into a lame duck – as his own “heir-in-waiting” may have forever to wait. So PNoy had to tolerate his minions and allies unsheathing their daggers and broadswords earlier than usual and now we see shameless “wannabees” using their positions as ‘honorable senators’ of the land presiding over what they hope would be the quartering of the remains of the VP’s reputation.

But what we should be more interested in is the maneuverings of the other “dramatis personae” which may have a long term-impact on the political life of the people. I refer to these major actors in the theatre of political absurdities. Political parties are tied to the fortunes (or misfortunes)of personalities(like Binay) and patrons(like Villar, who may have a hidden hand in the Binay saga) and not on ideological moorings. They begin to appear from the woodwork around this time when personal interests and realignments are the names of the game.

Now let me cite them:

The ruling LIBERAL PARTY in power is now in the last two years of its dispensation, its ‘daang-matuwid’ straddled with pot-holes; with the uncovering of instances of massive plunder of the people’s money involving its own allies and political competitors; the accusations of bribery by the highest elective officials to impeach a Chief Justice; and the inability by its economic managers to translate economic gains into inclusive growth. Its leader who rode triumphant upon the passing of an iconic mother has no successor or at the very least a weak one in tow. It could go the way of the once formidable LAKAS-NUCD-CMD-KAMPI, after the 2016 election.

Moreover, Liberal party, with the inability of Roxas to become a viable presidential standard bearer has supported PNoy on his sudden declaration to an illegal 2nd term that raged his mother’s loyalists.

The LAKAS-NUCD-CMD-KAMPI whose remnants were absorbed by the LIBERALS is trying to stage a come-back but doesn’t know where to begin. Former President Arroyo, one of its titular heads is incapacitated and under ‘hospital arrest’, its two subalterns, former house speakers shelved (Nograles & de Venecia); and their 2010 standard bearer moping and licking his wounds (GiboTeodoro). The founder, President FVR is petitioning COMELEC to dissolve this merger; now forced to the periphery unable to group his once awesome ‘rainbow coalition’ – salivating perhaps for yet another go at the levers of power.

The only declared presidential candidate with street cred VP Binay has created his own vehicle United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), from the carcass of the PDP-Laban and a coalition of parties that supported him for his VP run in 2010 and whose leaders are now in jail. It is worthwhile to note that Senators Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada, top honchos of Binay’s coalition are all incarcerated for corrupt practices. The 3rd Senator in prison, Revilla, who threatens to run for the presidency too in 2016 is the President of the Lakas-Kampi.

The rest of the bit-players are milling around the fringes – mostly personalities attached to a semblance of ‘political parties’with unknown ideological leanings and platform of governance draped in motherhood statements and slogans of ‘anti-corruption’ and nebulous plans for ‘alleviation of poverty’.

The NATIONALISTA PARTY of billionaire Manny Villar, who for a brief moment in 2010 had the handle to the Presidency until the timely passing of Cory propelled the lackluster son Pnoy to power. The NP for a time coalesced with the Marcos martial law vehicle, KILUSAN NG BAGONG LIPUNAN (KBL) still headed by the Marcos son Bongbong – pining perhaps for the day that he be given the chance to exonerate the dictatorship of his father.

The NATIONALIST PEOPLES ALLIANCE (NPC) founded by a Marcos crony Danding Cojuangco, jr. as his vehicle for his 1992 run for the Presidency whose prominent ex-member, Senator Chiz Escudero, is rumored to be a viable presidential candidate with neophyte Senator Grace Poe, who was thrust to senatorial top-notcher in 2013 with the sympathy votes of her popular actor-father, the standard bearer of KNP (Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino) the late Fernando Poe, Jr.

We have some operating in the peripheries who with good intentions and ties to the religious right but bereft of political acuity jumped head-on with their own presidential slate (in 2013), the KAPATIRAN. We need not mention here the hundreds of Party List – single advocacy groups that mushroomed as a consequence of the ‘multi-party’ provision of the 1987 Cory Constitution.

The daunted COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES (CPP) has been reduced to rabble rousing with its twin the BAYAN MUNA; its armed group the NPA relegated to banditry divested of its leftist ideological leanings.

The AKBAYAN, one that has allied with the ruling LIBERAL PARTY but whose Social Democrat leanings have been watered down once their leadership were enrolled into the power equation.

But this political topography could be altered with the entrance of the BANGSAMORO JUSTICE PARTY (BMJP) an outgrowth of the ongoing peace talks in Mindanao between the GRP and the MILF – whose continued existence is predicated on the success of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) now excruciatingly undergoing scrutiny in Congress.

The LABAN NG DEMOKRATIKONG PILIPINO (LDP) has also been trying to reinvent itself along the tenets of Centrist Democracy. This regional party, headed by a local political dynasty, the Angaras of Quezon & Baler, is one of the few that were born out of the turmoil of the post-EDSA PEOPLE POWER Regime of President Cory. This was the splinter group of Cory’s then powerful brother Peping Cojuangco from the PDP-Laban of Senator Nene Pimentel created as a vehicle of the then Speaker of the House Monching Mitra’s failed presidential attempt in 1992.

The last two would be the logical parties that could form a coalition with the CENTRIST DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES (CDP - a party owned solely by its dues-paying members and has no patron; it has crafted internal democratic structures spreading to the grassroots level where their leaders are chosen by their members; it has evolved a platform of government based on the ideological precepts of centrist democracy; and it operates within the communities in between election periods. They could goalong the Centrist Democratic mold under the aegis of CENTRIST DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE (CDA). Talks and negotiations are now being conducted with the leadership of these parties. Let’s just let our hopes raise high!

What do we have?

We have a political environment worthy of condemnation as it is not to the benefit of the common good. For this reason we cannot blame our neighbors in pointing out the downbeat implications of a faulty ‘democratic’ model of governance.

In this country, elections are seldom the expression of the people’s will. They bear the semblance of the monopoly of power by some families who have been controlling their respective turfs for decades. These dynasties stunt society’s development. As a corollary to this, the lack of civic and political education of a people exacerbates the situation resulting in an immature political culture.

Tragically, the ignorance of the masses is to their advantaged as in combination with patronage widely dispensed, it becomes the main tool for preventing the masses from making the right choices.

The antithesis to this is the creation of real political partieswhose roles are to aggregate the varied aspirations of the citizenry giving them options – including the decision to emerge from their ignorance – thus breaking out from the clutches of the dynasties.

The CDP is one such party.

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Read 1841 times Last modified on Tuesday, 22 November 2022 12:43
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