The ruckus in the President’s party
The power struggle in the President’s ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) exposes the weakness of Philippine political parties. It shows that there are practically no party principles to speak of, just a gang of politicians who want to grab a seat of power in government.
Political parties are supposed to aggregate citizen’s views and interests, provide structured political choices to citizens, engage citizens in the democratic process, train and socialize political leaders, develop policies, and take responsibility for implementing them, and facilitate coordination within legislatures and between branches of government. A political party is likewise expected to exact accountability for the individual politician who ignores the electorate or abuses his power by exerting pressure from within the party to reign in his or her behavior (OECD).
Sadly, the verbal tussle between the camps of Senator Manny Pacquiao and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi with the backing of the son of the party’s founder, Senator Aquilino Pimentel 3rd and President Rodrigo Duterte, respectively, does not enlighten the public on what principles the party stands for. On the contrary, it exposes how individual politicians use political parties for their convenience.
The Asia Foundation observes that parties are structurally challenged in the current Philippine system to exert discipline over their members. Far from being stable, programmatic entities, Philippine political parties have proved to be not much more than convenient vehicles of patronage that can be set up, merged with others, split, resurrected, regurgitated, reconstituted, renamed, repackaged, recycled, or flushed down the toilet at any time (Nathan Quimpo).
The President’s harsh words against PDP-Laban, describing it as “asleep for a hundred years” only to wake up during the election when he ran for the presidency under the ticket and a “father and son” party, demonstrate how a politician buries party’s principles in the pantheon of oblivion once engrossed with fame and power.
Across several elections in the past, the Philippines had a record number of political parties: a staggering 18 parties or coalitions of parties that put up candidates for the presidency, and nineteen out of the current 24 members of the Upper House are dispersed across eight parties. Between 1998 and 2016, an average of 104 party-list organizations participated in the party-list elections. In just three election years from 2001, candidates for city or town mayor ran under 202 party banners. Those elected represent a remarkable 101 parties (Casiple and Ravanilla).
Perhaps, it will take decades before the Philippines will be able to have a mature electoral system with stable political parties. Until such time, we cannot expect the dialogues within and among parties to be at a desirable level of decency. The Filipino people deserve more than empty talks, motherhood statements, green jokes, and misogynist remarks from those seeking a public office.