June Duterte
We have been witnesses to the rise and fall of so many political parties in the country through all these years, prompting many of us to ask whether these aggrupations of political wannabees can really be trusted to shepherd the advent of responsible elective leaders in our country and our communities.
The ordinary men on the street can not be faulted if they ascribe so much derision on the nature of political parties since we have seen them to be a dime too many and unable still to improve the lot of the struggling Filipinos whose lives they promised to uplift during their campaign sorties.
For instance, I got this assessment from Prof. Danny Arao of the University of the Philippines (UP) who is convinced that the fundamental weakness of political parties are that they are generally personality-oriented and bankrolled by the rich and the powerful, worsened by the apparent absence of clear ideological differences giving rise to the strengthening and consolidation of power by the power blocks.
I would agree though that a political organization with clear, logical and unequivocal ideology and worldview of government and governance may be the answer to the public’s woes such as ineffective albeit corrupt leadership, pseudo public service and the like but do we really have such parties today?
From Dr. Christopher Ryan Maboloc of the Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) comes this next insight: Many parties are driven by vested interests, not much by party principles, there is not much party-building and the setting of a vision for the future, many groups arise from a top-down approach of organisation dictating what they want politicians to do, eventually the direction of their policy-making.
For us to ensure quality leadership, Maboloc opined, we must see to it that parties must be truly democratic, inclusive and transparent aided by a mature political culture that empowers the electorate to choose based on platforms, not money, pressure or influence.
So the next time we hear of new political alignments including so-called Uniteam or the true party of the people, it would be well to reconsider that none of the common denominators that has brought them together could be assured of longevity: The moment electoral victory is assured and the levers of power are safely ensconced in the hands of their trusted allies, then the loyalties are checked to see who’s still with them or no longer with them in vision, policies and ideology.
That is why it might be of great utility, too for us to deeply study the political party system under parliamentary setup, which might provide us enough food for thought in our appreciation of Filipino political parties.
When we see duplications and no innovative approaches enshrined in the platform of government of parties in the running, I think it is a signal for all of us especially those who craft our laws to totally overhaul our ‘copy paste’ plata porma de govierno and thus compel our political party functionaries to come up with brighter, newer, fresher ideas on how best to serve the masses.
One more thing: I think we have arrived at a period in which we have to revisit our partylist organizations: Maybe we can commence our little acts of contrition by abolishing this useless system of election that only appear ideal on paper but which, in reality have been largely misused and abused by so-called traditional politicians to circumvent our election laws so that they can continue to perpetuate themselves in power, at the expense of the real marginalized and underrepresented basic sectors of Philippine society. (June Duterte)