"The survival of the fittest is not necessarily based on integrity, competence and performance."
"The survival of the fittest is not necessarily based on integrity, competence and performance."
Politics, we are constantly told, is addition. But it’s really much more than this: It also involves the other numerical calculations of subtraction, multiplication and division.
What’s happening in the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP) illustrates this. This is the dominant political party at present, because its chairman is no less than the President of the Republic. He became the party chairman not before but after the May 2016 elections, out of deference to his successful run for the highest elective position in the country.
Gearing up for the May 2022 presidential elections, the PDP has been divided into two factions: one faction is led by Duterte and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi as party president. The other faction is led by Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, who is the son of party founder and democracy icon Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. Pimentel III was party president until he handed over the position to Sen. Manny Pacquiao in an acting capacity.
The Cusi faction took over the two leading positions after the Pimentel-Pacquiao faction earlier expelled Cusi and others from the party.
But the Pimentel-Pacquiao faction isn’t taking the coup d’etat in the PDP sitting down. We could see fireworks erupting in the direction of the PDP once Pacquiao returns from the United States and starts to gather and consolidate his own forces within the party.
If the split in the party widens and staying on is no longer a tenable option for Pacquiao, he could transform the People’s Champ Movement based in General Santos City into his political vehicle for a stab at the presidency next year.
Here, we can see that in order to strengthen their hand in electoral battles, political parties do employ various methods of subtraction (dismissing unwanted members); multiplication (actively recruiting more members) as well as division (sowing intrigue or undermining the unity of rival parties to draw in more members) to ensure victory.
In other words, it’s a no-holds-barred situation from hereon, with the survival of the fittest not necessarily based on integrity, competence and performance, but perhaps through the tried-and-tested formula of guns, goons and gold—and of late, even troll armies.
The country’s political landscape has now metamorphosed from the two-party system composed of the Nacionalistas and the Liberals in the post-war period to a monolithic Kilusang Bagong Lipunan during martial law to what is now a multi-party system where various political groupings have no distinct ideologies nor platforms but simply gravitate toward the powerful and the influential.
Apart from the PDP, we have the Lakas-CMD, Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), and the National Unity Party (NUP), among others. The post-war political parties—Nacionalista and Liberal—are still there, but reduced to shadows of their former selves by time and circumstance.
At any rate, the Cusi faction of the PDP is endorsing Bong Go as presidential bet and Rodrigo Duterte as vice president. But that will depend on what happens when their national council meets this September.
Will this take place with Pimentel and Pacquiao just looking on and not doing anything? Not likely. The latest development here, however, is that the Commission on Elections will decide on who the legitimate party representatives of the PDP for 2022 are.
The big question is whether Sara Duterte-Carpio will run for president. We really don’t know at what stage the preparations are for such a run, including the all-too-important question of who will bankroll this. But if news reports from various areas are any indication, there’s a serious effort to push her presidential candidacy, with “continuity” as the key campaign platform.
We understand that there’s even a Bongbong Marcos-Sara Duterte tandem in the works. That is supposed to bring together the northern and southern political blocs.
President Duterte has said he considers House Majority leader Martin Romualdez as very qualified to run for vice-president. Months back, it was also reported that Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr., who ran for the presidency in 2010, had already talked to Sara regarding his political plans and could be her running mate.
At this point, the political opposition represented by 1Sambayan has yet to come up with a definite line-up of standard bearers and senatorial candidates. Vice President Leni Robredo still appears undecided on whether to go toe-to-toe with whoever is chosen as the administration candidate. Former Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes, a staunch Duterte critic, is angling to be Robredo’s vice presidential bet should she finally decide to run for president.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Senate President Tito Sotto have already announced that they are definitely running in 2022. They have even released the names of prospective senatorial bets. They say they are neither pro-administration nor part of the opposition, but pro-Filipino. The Partido Reporma founded by former Defense Secretary Renato de Villa and led by former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez is supporting the Lacson-Sotto tandem. Lacson took third place in his presidential bid in 2004. Can he perform better this time around? We seriously doubt it.
How about Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso?
He was recently elected as President of Aksyon Demokratiko, the political party founded by the late former Sen. Raul Roco. Aksyon Demokratiko also has rising political star Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto as one of its key leaders.
Who else is running for the top elective positions? Let’s wait for the deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy before the Commission on Elections in October. By then, we will know if there’s still hope for this benighted country. Or none at all, and therefore all we can probably do is, well, weep.