GMA’s best ally is her CD party platform - FROM A DISTANCE by Carmen N. Pedrosa

It’s time to release a basic document on her party’s platform. It is worrying that up to this time there seems to be no definitive paper on the Lakas-NUCD-UMDP party platform or the People Power Coalition. The same is true with the pro-Erap opposition coalition now called ‘Puwersa ng Masa.’ Both seem to be nothing more than an assemblage of personalities that are mainly anti-Erap or pro-Erap. Just like old times and old politics. The contending parties can also be described as in the main those who voted to open the envelope on one hand and those who voted not to open the envelope on the other. Unfortunately between the two groups the greater responsibility for pushing ahead with political reforms is with the new dispensation which promised new politics. President Macapagal-Arroyo’s party, the Lakas-NUCD-UMDP must demonstrate its will and sincerity about putting national politics on a sound track by giving the electorate in May a choice between party platforms or one between one with a platform and one without.

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A party platform is the antidote to internecine struggle. Completing factions within a party, especially one that came to power in extraordinary circumstances such as the Macapagal-Arroyo government had, is understandable and to be expected. May I venture an unsolicited advice. The best antidote for such infighting is for President Macapagal-Arroyo to impose party discipline. But this she can only do if she herself is convinced about her own crusade for a new politics of party platforms. When she spoke on her party’s platform before she became president, she constantly alluded to her party as Christian Democratic, the political legacy of the late political ideologue, Raul Manglapus. This legacy found a firm footing in the Aquino and Ramos governments. Through the years, I am aware that the local application of Christian democracy has been helped by exchanges and visits from fraternal parties in other parts of the world particularly from the Christian Democracy headquarters in Brussels and occasional assistance and support from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Manila.

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Why the CDI endorsed Fidel V. Ramos in 1992. The Christian Democratic International put its name in support of the candidacy of Fidel V. Ramos for president in 1992 because they saw in him a good example of how a military man can play a role in strengthening civilian government. Former military dictatorships in Latin America at the time were in a difficult transition period from military dictatorships to civilian democracies. Indeed, a speech General Ramos gave on civilian superiority was reproduced by the CDI office in Brussels in 1992 and distributed worldwide as an exemplar for the civilianization of government. Military dictatorships no matter how benevolent did not work. That was the lesson learned.

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GMA resignation speech was closest to a declaration of party platform. Given this background of the international political affiliations of President Macapagal-Arroyo’s party, she would do well to reflect on the implications for her government and the image she wants to project. The nearest to a definitive statement on a party political platform was made by her when she resigned from the Erap cabinet. This was released by the Lakas-NUCD-UMDP Directorate on November 7 last year.

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Adherence to this platform is her best ally in projecting a more cohesive governance. I do not think anyone should fault her if she hued as closely as she could to the principles and programs of her party. For example, all talk about the controversy that would ensue with her choice of a vice-president were silenced when she chose Lakas-NUCD-UMDP party president Teofisto Guingona, Jr. as her vice president over his rivals. Despite their qualities, they were not partymates nor were they consistent defenders of the principles of her party. Her choice of Guingona, Jr. was consistent with her pronouncements. That was new politics. That gave confidence to the public at large that this President is principled and does what she says. Moreover, it simplifies decisionmaking when it comes to competing advocacies and proposed appointments within the coalition. What is more simple nor more right than to stick to the party platform. Indeed, I would venture to say this adherence will be the only way to ensure the success of her Presidency. It demands that she be loyal to her partymates the way she expects them to be loyal to the Party and by inference its principles and programs.

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The return of the Coco Levy Fund to the coconut farmers will be her big test. If there is anything that would test President Macapagal-Arroyo’s mettle in balancing the forces within the People Power Coalition and her Christian Democratic party platform, it would be what she does with Coco Levy Fund. This issue has remained unresolved through three governments since it was introduced as Presidential Decree 276 on August 20, 1973 by the dictator Marcos. Without going to the complex details of what it is about, the Coco Levy Fund was how poor coconut farmers were made to subsidize the making of a multibillion fortune whose most famous beneficiary is Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr.

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Danding Cojuangco happens also to have been the main support and ally of both Marcos and Estrada. I remember how the Coco Levy Fund, when it was first exposed, galvanized international disgust with the Marcos dictatorship. How could he? Some coconut farmers barely eat three meals a day. How were they able to devise a financing scheme which was nothing less than getting money from these poor farmers to enrich Marcos cronies who subsequently became Estrada cronies. For that matter, some ask how come that the Aquino or the Ramos governments did not deem to return the moneys to the farmers as they should have? If it is true that we are now into new politics, then let us see how President Macapagal-Arroyo will deal with this thorny problem. Already, there is talk that Danding Cojuangco is maneuvering in the background so the Coco Levy Fund remains firmly in his control.

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My e-mail is [email protected]