The Philippines needs a new national political party

With a limping leadership, the presidential and local elections in 2016 could be the worse for the ruling Liberal Party (LP) in the country. At the outset, every aspiring candidate and supporters would scramble in the search for a new, credible, and dependable political party in the national context.

The 2016 presidential elections would have been ripe for the Nacionalista Party (NP) to regain its status as one of the country’s reliable political organizations in the national and local level.

However, with party mates without solid political loyalty, the Nacionalista Party would be another candidate for the dustbin. Thanks to the formerSenator Manny Villar, the NP president, who sold the soul of one of the country’s enduring political party to the LP in the 2013 senatorial and local elections.

Today, the NP persona has lost its value and has shattered the dreams of the country’s “nationalist” virtue. What seemed to be the only alternative to attain a political change and governance that the NP could possibly carry out with effectiveness have become a whisper in the moon.

Undoubtedly, the Filipino people need a political party that would otherwise cultivate a new political value. There were various attempts in the past, like the formation of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), an ambitious political party that would cater largely to the needs of the impoverished Filipinos.

However, the political elite smells the filth of those living in squalid communities that the only recourse then was to send the PMP’s figure head to prison. As a result, the elite political party of the Lakas-Kampi sent President Erap Estrada to prison on trumped-up charges.

A mixture of elite and the struggling political personalities also formed what could have been a formidable national political party: The United Opposition (UNO). Organized in 2007, UNO was a coalition of the PMP headed by Pres. Erap Estrada and the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayanwith Vice President Jejomar Binay as the party President.

Although the UNO did not last long, there is now an attempt to form a new political opposition party: The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) headed by VP Binay. The UNA is formed in preparation for the 2016 Presidential and local elections where Binay is running for President.

The reorganization of the UNO and the formation of the UNA is necessary to weed out party mates whose alliance with the opposition is questionable. There is no question that some incumbent elected officials – in the Senate and in the locality – are “political opportunists.”

These political leeches are no more than “political turncoats” who would always jump, albeit with callousness into the wagon of winning political parties. While the character is prevalent in the locality, the same is true at the national level. Thus, perhaps, VP Binay should see to it that the UNA would not be infiltrated by political tyrants who would definitely sell the party’s principle.

One should know that the UNA has a formidable support by various opposition political parties at the local level. As far as one could remember, there are more than 20 local opposition groups throughout the country that are now fully supporting UNA. This is the reason that Binay’s popularity as a presidential candidate has not wavered in contrast to the popularity of other presidesidential bets.

We understand that more than half of the incumbent senators are now threatened that their re-election in the 2016 polls is now hanging in the balance. These senators are certified turncoats, and political opportunists who won their seats because of the support of the opposition.-0-