Political party loyalty

LOYALTY is the faithfulness of a person to his calling, to his organization or to his party. A person who proves his loyalty is highly respected by his colleagues. Loyalty is a person's emblem and it is earned after displaying fidelity.

Any political party should have loyal party leaders and members. I could still remember in the early political stage of our country that a politician could only have two choices, to be a member of the Nacionalista Party or Liberal Party. Amang Rodriguez was known to everybody as Mr. Nacionalista because through thick and thin, he stood firm with his party. Sen. Gerardo Roxas (the father of DILG Secretary Mar Roxas) went up and went down with the Liberal Party.

The statesmen politicians of Silay in the '50s and '60s were loyal partymen. The Locsins were holding the banner of the Nacionalista Party as consistently manifested by Dr. Jose Locsin. The Liberal Party was under the leadership of Jose Ledesma. The Silaynons could only be pro-Locsin or pro-Ledesma. When the election fever was over, these Silaynon leaders stood proud before the eyes of their kasimanwa because they mounted themselves firm on top of their political party. That was political party loyalty.

In the 2013 elections, we also look forward that the leaders of our province, districts, town or cities will embrace religiously their commitment to their party. If a leader has identified his party, he has to set two feet in that party. That is the trademark of loyalty. A political leader who has one foot in his party and other foot somewhere else, connotes uncertainty of personality and that is bad. In his desire to win, he wants to ride in two horses. He will end up dead. The two horses will split his body into two parts. That political leader is not only a political butterfly but a venomous snake also.

If he wins, how can we expect that he will be loyal to his constituents? That kind of political leader is selfish. He wants to protect only his vested interest. He is fooling us by making us his stepping stones. If we have one in Negros, in our district, in our town or city, we have to cut him early. Politics is science of good government. The government can only be good if we elect men who are good and can be loyal to the government.

The electorates should be on the watch for the political machine. Politicians who do not have concern for their constituents will always resort to use their influential positions to solidify and perpetuate the power of their political machine through dubious means. Machine politicians make free use of the spoils system and patronage politics. We don't want these political leaders to embezzle large amounts of money. Astute politicians may use the grassroots methods, such as local rallies and campaigns to build support for their cause.

The electorates should form a pressure group together with the power elite so that we could influence our political leaders to toe the line. We have to identify loyal politicians so that the political action committees formed by interest groups could funnel donation to these political candidates who are likely to support our ideals-power to the people!

I am saying this because we always pray that there will be goodness in our politicians. "No todo lo grande es bueno, mas todo lo bueno es grande." Goodness is not tied to greatness, but greatness to goodness.