Unfortunately, the political parties we described in our debut blog do not exist. We do not have such parties in our country. As a matter of fact, we have no real political parties by the reality that they are not functioning as political parties. It’s an irony since we have acquired our democracy ages ago. Our political party system is weak. It follows that our democracy is weak, too.

The question is ‘Is there a strong link between the leaders and the members of the political parties?’ And there are two issues that need to be addressed; first, the relationship between the party both inside and outside the legislature and second, the process of how parties select their candidates.

To answer the question, there is no strong relationship between the members and the leaders since in the Philippines there is only personal interest aggregation instead of the party being the overseer and mobilizer of the members’ interests. The members/voters have no say to the policies which should have been the summation of the party’s interest as a whole. The parties should be members-based.

Another pressing problem is that members of political parties in the Philippines do not pay dues and do not have a real stake in them. These parties are funded by self-proclaimed candidates, party big-wigs and oligarchs. They dictate what programs and platforms to present to voters and who would run for public office. Patronage politics is the reason behind the massive exodus of members from political parties. Political manna constantly flows from the incumbent regime.

Having said this, it also follows that the relationship between the party inside and outside the legislature is weak. It is anchored by the fact that political parties in the Philippines only exist during elections and for the reason that our political parties do not provide clear procedures for nominating candidates for public office. They also do not enable members to influence the programs and platforms of their candidates. Platforms are done barely weeks or even days before a campaign starts.

Such is the perverted centralized system we have today. They also have not developed a system of sanctions and rewards for political leaders to stick to a political party. But then, that is the subject of yet another blog: “Turncoatism.”

While it was meant for good - that is: to provide political access to representatives of marginalized groups -- the Party-list system only leads to factions in Congress. It has so far been heavily misused by powerful and rich families and personalities.

The Constitution and its implementing law introduced this system only for a transitional period of three elections. It is perpetuated due to vested interests of many persons who directly benefit from it.

The members of the House should be elected in a mixed system of 50% direct elections in Congressional Districts, and 50% election in a proportional system or Proportional Representation (PR) through party-lists. These should be drawn from all parties registered and accredited for participation in the elections. Proportional Representation is the process of transforming votes into seats in the Congress. There should be no limits for the seats of each party depending on the percentage garnered by the party-lists which will be translated into seats in the House of Representatives.

This would ensure a very effective representation of different sectors and marginalized groups as candidates on the party lists of major national parties compete with one another for the votes of the groups of citizens.

CDP will fight for the reform of the election periods of national and local elections. Members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives should be elected for four years with possibility of re-election twice. Governors, mayors and all elected local officials should be elected for five years with possibility of re-election for two times.

This will strongly improve the quality of the work of these democratic institutions, enable them to follow more medium- and long-term objectives for the benefit of the citizens and save money as the number of costly elections would be reduced.

In order to institutionalize political parties, some things must be done first: Reform the Party List Act: open Party List elections to all legally-registered political parties and distribute seats in proportion to that party’s share of votes.

These steps can be done without having to change the constitution.

For long-term improvement of the quality and stability of Philippine Democracy, however, strong existing connections between economic and political power should be dissolved. The rule of law should also allow changes in the constitution.

 

MANILA, Philippines - A senior administration lawmaker yesterday urged the Senate to pass the Political Parties Reform Bill that would institutionalize reforms in electoral campaign financing, promote fairness and transparency among candidates, and reduce opportunities for graft and corruption.

Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, president of the Centrist Democratic Party (CDP), was referring to Senate Bill 3214 authored by Senators Edgardo Angara, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Jinggoy Estrada, and Franklin Drilon.