Philippine political landscape exudes censorship, informational exclusion that creates the climate of fear and anxiety, and suppression of political opposition – factors that thwart the public opinion.

Take Maguindanao for example. What first comes to our minds when we speak of Maguindanao is its infamous massacre case that remains unresolved until this point in time. The Filipino populace and the world mourned over the brutal killing of 58 persons, 32 of which were journalists, masterminded by Governor Andal Ampatuan, Sr.
What bothers me more is to know that there are 74 (according to COMELEC) of the Ampatuans who are running against each other in the upcoming election to continue their political dynasty. PCIJ reckoned that 34 of them are running with the United National Alliance (UNA), a coalition between Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban ng Pilipino (PDP-Laban) and former President Joseph Estrada\'s Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP). Nine Ampatuans are running with the Liberal Party of Pinoy.

How is this even possible? That’s for us to ponder why the administration and the current electoral system allowed this to happen.

We all know that most people there are tight-lipped when it comes to this matter. They live in a society of fear even after the arrest to Andal Ampatuan Sr., he still have eyes in Maguindanao.

“Many dictators in the world have achieved gigantic electoral victories even without any overt coercion in the process of voting, mainly through suppressing the public discussion and freedom of information, and through generating a climate of apprehension and anxiety.” -- Samuel Huntington

These parties that I have mentioned of course understand this. That is why they took in the Ampatuans in order to get votes in Maguindanao – compromising the choices of the voters. That’s the biggest assault in these voters’ dignity – not presenting them good choices of candidates to choose from and blaming them to electing ineffective and incompetent officials afterwards.

Right after the 2nd World War, the Philippines was the number 2 economy in Asia, after Japan even ahead of Korea and China. Today, we are probably still number 2 – before Bangladesh. So today, we find ourselves in a condition where almost 50% of our people are poor. There is a sense of desperation permeating our body politic. We have a weak rule of law and there is no real democratic participation of the citizens. The problems are with the system – not with the Filipino.

Last year, September 12, 2012, the Centrist Democratic Party was founded. This is the main instrument for us to begin our fight against these ills of our society.
Let me give you an intimate narrative of my own journey for redemption.

II. A BLAST FROM THE PAST 

Decades ago several of us were recruited by Raul Manglapus when with Manuel Manahan, the heirs of late President Ramon Magsaysay regrouped and formed the Party for Philippine Progress (PPP). The PPP was meant to be the third Political Force in Philippine politics, an alternative to the Nacionalista and Liberal Parties – faces of the same oligarchic coin. In 1965 Manglapus in a 3-way presidential fight was trounced by Marcos of NP and Macapagal of the LP who came in second. But that was not meant to be the last attempt at creating an alternative political force.

In 1967, Manglapus, Manahan, Johnny Tan of FFW and Jerry Montemayor of FFF organized the Christian Social Movement. In Davao City Rey Teves and I were the early adherents, while Nene Pimentel, Mordino Cua, Berchman Abejuela and Vic Callejesan were among the original members in Cagayan de Oro. In 1972 a coalition of sectoral groups sympathetic to Centrist (Christian) Democracy was formed in the hope of forming a third force political party.

This was not to be. Marcos declared martial law and the Centrist (Christian) Democracy based political party was still-born. Our leadership went into exile, some were imprisoned, others were killed and some of us in Davao were emasculated. I decided to get married.
But the fires of passion for change burned within us. It didn’t take long for its embers to glow. In the late 70s and early 80s, the Centrist Democrats from Cagayan de Oro and Davao City met to form what was then known as the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP). We began the arduous task of creating a real dues-paying, ideology-based political party whose members must undergo a 2 to 3 day Basic Membership Seminar (BMS).

1983 saw the assassination of Benigno Aquino, Jr. This precipitated a political convulsion that impelled PDP to merge with the fallen hero’s party – Lakas Ng Bayan (LABAN) eventually catapulting Ninoy’s wife, Cory to power in 1986.

The leadership of the PDP–LABAN were conscripted into the government of Cory and some of us landed in cabinet – unprepared.

The rest is history. Who was it that said that the “…a revolution tend to eat its young.” We were eaten alive.

Now comes a full circle. The years 1986 to 2009 will not be a subject of my chronicle today. This will be a subject of a few chapters of a book I may write on my retirement.

I will jump to the year 2009. Rey Teves, my partner and I decided to conceptualize the SUCCESSOR GENERATION. We felt we were advancing in age and we needed to leave a legacy of political technocracy – pass the torch, as it were to a new generation of Centrist Democratic political technocrats and operators who may have to carry on the task of lifting the Pilipino from the socio-political-economic quagmire we, the older generation have helped put them into.

But Rey decided to die in November of that year. Enter into the scene in late August 2009, Peter Koeppinger, the new Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) country representative. A member of the CDU, the leading Christian Democratic Party in Germany and our sponsor since Manglapus’ time, he understood the necessity of forming a real political party.
Thus, the creation of the Centrist Democratic Movement (CDM) – compose of young professionals who must first understand the uses, misuses, abuses and even non-use of political power.

In 2011, Peter and I brought along leaders of the CDM Federation headed by their chairperson Jun Dumaug, Jr. to Germany to see first-hand how a country devastated by the World War II picked itself up from the ashes and through the Christian Democratic concepts of Social Market Economy elevated their people propelling their economy to no. 4 in the world today.

May 9, 2011, at the Maritim Hotel in Berlin, 13 CDM leaders drew up a document declaring their intentions to transform the CDM into a political party, as some future date.
The document is called the “Berlin Protocol”. The political party is the CDP “Centrist Political Party,” Ang Partido Ng Tunay na Demokrasya.
Davao City is the incubator that helped nurture ideas that emerged into the political firmament: Kusog Mindanaw, Peace Weavers, Alsa Masa, Lihok Pideral, PDP and CDM.
It was on 22 January 2010 in Marco Polo Hotel where we “midwifed” the first sibling of that young movement. In a span of less than a year, the movement sprouted new roots all over the country, Northern Mindanao, Zamboanga Peninsula, Central Visayas, NCR, and Northern, Central and Southern Luzon; there were 10 regional movements founded up until 2011 when the leadership of CDM metamorphosed into a living, breathing organism – the CDP.

III. CONCLUSION 

You, I hope, will be the new set of leaders. I want you to succeed. You fail and I fail, but the greater tragedy is that we will fail the Pilipino. They deserve better.
Democracy’s power to bring forth change for the welfare of its people rests on the choices they make. In order to make democracy as they key to national development, people must weave intricately political technocracy into our daily lives.
This is our duty to our country.