ALPSaguado.com

It’s just weird that for this election season, nakalagay ang mga party affiliation sa mga campaign materials. Anong meron? :)))

Nice blog entry, Alps. I would like to add some inputs:

Ang Kapatiran is like the extreme right of the GOP. Ultra-conservative. The CCP, on the other hand, is on the extreme left. Other than the two, you are right, there are no legitimate political parties in the Philippines. This is if you define parties the way they define it in Western democracies. Indeed, even the Nacionalista and the Liberal parties during the pre-Marcos era were not really serious ideology-based organizations like the Dems and the GOP in the States.

The only period where we had serious political parties was during the American period where there was the Partido Federalista which advocated US statehood and Partido Nacionalista which advocated independence. When the Commonwealth government was establishment, we almost became a one-party state; the NP was the only dominant party. The pale imitation of the two party system was born when Manuel Roxas, a Nacionalista, decided to run against Osmena in 1946. That’s when the LP was born. So as you can see, even before, parties were used as a vehicle for a presidential campaign. The only difference is, turncoatism is more rampant now because when the 1987 Constitution was promulgated the machineries of the two major parties were already gone; hence the development of small parties that we have today.

To be fair, some parties like PMP and Lakas do follow some sort of ideology. Lakas is conservative right of center while PMP is more to the populist left of center IMO. This is why Lakas was pro-Liberalization, anti-contraceptives etc while PMP is pro-protectionism (Erap removed sovereign guarantees and subsidized agriculture) and pro-contraceptives etc.

But the reality is, the Philippines is not really a modern state. It is an oligarchy where few families rule and play a role in the selection of the monarch we call president. Parties, therefore, are subsidiary to political families, which are the real players in Philippine politics today. Indeed, many parties serves as fronts of prominent families: NPC for the Coujangcos (Danding side), Kampi for the Arroyos, PMP the Estradas, KBL the Marcoses; and to some extent LDP is controlled by the Mitras and the Angaras, Liberal the Osmenas and the Rectos and Nacionalista the Laurels.

Added perpective on parties in Asian context: in Japan, until last year, there was a virtual one-party system. The Liberal Democrats was in power for half a century. But that party is not ideology-based. It is composed of politicans of different political ideological backgrounds ranging from left to right but brought together by a party machinery supported by the zaibatsu industrialists and the bureaucrats. What served as Japan’s political parties were the intra-party factions that competed for party leadership. This set-up was for many years the status quo in India and Malaysia. This set-up almost happened in the Philippines two times in its history:

1. When Nacionalista made the Federalistas irrelevant in the Commonwealth years. It seemed then that Nacionalista, which was composed of factions already, was headed for one-party dominance similar to the LDP of Japan and the UMNO of Malaysia. But war broke out. When the Commonwealth was re-established, Roxas, who had the support of MacArthur, formed the Liberal Party to run against Osmena. That ended NP’s dominance and gave birth to the two-party system.

2. When the LP and the NP decided to draft Magsaysay as a common candidate for his second term. Magsaysay was then already planning, allegedly, to have a super-party. But he died in a plane crash. Boo.

Laurel established a one-party state during his Second Republic: the Makapili. Marcos established one-party state during the New Society: the KBL.

Turncoatism is indeed one of the culprits. But more than that, I think this set-up will change if real politicians, as opposed to those who are either part of the ruling oligarchy or frontmen of the oligarchy, would dominate our politics. Sadly, it’s difficult for real politicians to challenge the machinery of the oligarchs. Lalo na sa probinsya where only the kamag-anaks of the dynasties or their tuta win. Tara, magtayo na lang tayo sarili political party! Hehehe.