A platform for the silent majority

I dropped by the launch of Unlad Party at the Sulo Hotel last Thursday with trepidation. Will this be another third farce, ehem…force? One is tempted to think that Unlad, having nothing but the vision of Charter change does not stand a ghost of a chance against the bigwigs who are all struggling to get a slot in the senatorial lineups of the administration and the opposition. They all just want to be senators. Unity is the cover up for the opportunism of these tickets. What chance has Unlad against the array of status quo forces marshaled against them? Anyone with a bit of sense knows that the senatorial winners in this election, as it has done in past elections will be the first to block any change that would restructure society for meaningful elections. It will suffer the fate of all other ‘idealistic’ efforts. I thought.

But there are other measures of success. It may fail in a contest of money, popularity and political machines but it will win in articulating the vision so many Filipinos both here and abroad long for Inang Pilipinas. It would support Raul Lambino if he did decide to run on the platform of Charter change. But it will support other candidates as well, especially local executives who had helped in the Charter change campaign. It is being launched to offer an alternative for the silent majority who do not want to be part of the circus. But most of all, it will continue the political education of the masses which is a never-ending duty.

Speaking of local executives they should be reminded of how some of these ‘senatoriables’ laughed at them for pushing for a people’s initiative. I remember how some local executives warned that without them, the senatorial candidates are nothing and that when the time came local authorities will make them understand that. They hold the local vote. If they forget that this is the real struggle then they will have forfeited their role as the guardians of their constituents.

The campaign for Charter change would eventually give more power where it should belong – local executives and their constituencies. It helps that Unlad’s secretary-general Ferdinand Topacio, was a former assistant secretary of then Interior Secretary Alfredo Lim and that among its backers is the Barangay Association for National Advancement and Transparency (Banat). Banat and Unlad’s partnership will continue the Charter change advocacy and pursue the signature drive for People’s Initiative in order to introduce amendments to the Constitution. You have to understand irony to appreciate Unlad’s role in the coming elections. "Our main agenda is still Charter change and the shift to parliamentary system." By using the Charter change platform in its campaign to restructure Philippine politics, it will show up the rotten system.

Moreover Unlad Pilipinas has the support of overseas Filipinos. In the mission statement drafted by former UP president Jose Abueva, it calls for a "coalition and linkages with global and intra-country organizations and civic leaders to build a community of Filipinos worldwide, who are responsive, committed and empowered politically, economically, and socially." The idea of overseas Filipinos playing an active part in home politics is not new. It began in Europe when a group of Filipino groups under the umbrella of the Confederation of Filipino Overseas Organizations (COFOO) supported former President Fidel V. Ramos. It had a five-point agenda which included the enfranchisement of Filipinos overseas that is now a reality.

That enfranchisement must be used in order to break the hold of the vanguards of status quo in Filipino society. COFOO calculated that if every Filipino overseas were to influence the vote of his or her dependents and relatives at home, it would have the biggest and wealthiest bloc vote. During the Ramos campaign we wrote every organization to write home and tell their folks that a vote for Ramos was a vote for the agenda for Filipinos overseas. It was a start and I daresay something that can be strengthened and improved with time. We have another opportunity in the May elections to revive that vision. Imagine a partnership between local executives and their partner organizations of Filipinos abroad. Having lived as a Filipino overseas for more than 20 years, I know that there is a real desire from Filipinos in all parts of the world to participate actively in the political mainstream.

If Filipinos overseas play an active role in this election and they make a difference, it ought to pave the way to fulfill what came to be known as the Pedrosa amendment. This was proposed by former Ambassador and chairman of COFOO Alberto Pedrosa to a study committee on Charter change that Filipinos abroad ought to be represented in any future Parliament. That study committee antedated the appointment of the Constitutional Commission. The proposal was for Filipino communities from major areas like the US, Asia, Europe and the Middle East to be allowed to vote for their representatives among themselves in Parliament.

At a recent dinner given by Speaker JDV for the Speaker of the national assembly of the Republic of Korea, Lim Chae Jung, he told the guests that party funding was crucial to the success of Asian political parties that could later be evolved into an Asian Parliament. If he has been frustrated from pushing it in the Philippines he could be more successful in the region.

He had asked Congress to give the Political Party Act of 2006 the highest priority for approval, but failed to get it passed in time for the May elections. Had it been passed in time for the May elections, the Political Party Act would have disciplined political turncoats. We would not have had the spectacle of the politics of convenience now unfolding before us so blatantly. We would not have had this charade of ‘unity tickets’ or ‘third farce… oops force. It is the high cost of winning elections that prop up the influence of power brokers like drug lords, gambling lords and financial brokers. This is the rentier culture of the present system that gets in the way of good governance. No wonder power brokers blocked Charter change. A parliamentary government with reduced constituencies would have ended or at least minimized their influence. They were able to lull the public with the swan song of elections first before a plebiscite on Charter change.

The Political Party Act is Committee Report No 2024 of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reform. If implemented, the Act would have provided some P500 Million in electoral funds for political parties. Candidates, whether rich or poor, will have the same access to media. This is the practice in several European and Asian countries. The party system would have been strengthened. Their members will have to stick to the party’s platform instead of ‘personalities" responsible for the election of brainless celebrities.

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