ORDINARY laymen for sure were confused on all of those eight days of filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs). The biggest surprise was the filing of Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa as candidate for president by the PDP LABAN. Immediately though, the netizens reacted to Dela Rosa’s move as an overall plot to shield Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte from criticisms. What happened to our political system? There’s really a need for a charter change because many of its outdated provisions need amendments. This substitution rule must end. The party list system for one must be abolished. The multi-party is another one. These systems are too confusing.
Let’s tackle the political system. I grew up knowing two political parties in our country, the Liberal Party and the Nacionalista Party. Our political system copied the two party system of the United States of America. The counterparts in the USA are the Republican Party aka GOP (Grand Old Party) now headed by people like Donald Trump, Senators like Mitch McConnell of Kentucky Ted Cruz of Texas, Marco Rubio of Florida and many known American political figures. The Democratic Party is led by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Now in our country all kinds of parties, local and national maybe are more than hundreds in number.
In 1988 when I ran for the top post in the Angeles City mayoral race vs the late Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin, I was then the sitting mayor because the elected mayor Edgardo Pamintuan decided to run for Congress vs then Vice Mayor Francis “Blue Boy” Nepomuceno. Under the Commission on Elections rules the two must resign their elected posts. Since I was elected number one councilor I assumed the mayorship. That was the rule then. Not anymore. Presently, no wonder incumbent officials run for other positions in their mid-term and no need to relinquish it and are back to their positions. This should stop.
There was a time when the voting age in our country was 21 but later on congress lowered it to 18. Curiously, I asked a few eighteeners to name at least two political parties now accredited by our Commission on Elections (Comelec). I got blank answers. Those above 21 whom I queried mentioned the Liberal Party and the Nacionalista Party. The Liberal Party (LP) is one of the oldest extant political parties in the country and pride itself with big names like Manuel Roxas, Elpidio Quirino, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino and Diosdado P. Macapagal. It was founded after the war, sometime in 1945. The oldest party is the Nacionalista Party (NP) which was founded in 1907. The NP was the ruling party from 1935 to 1944 and was headed by President Manuel L. Quezon till the war broke out. Quezon took the submarine with General Douglas Macarthur for the United States via Australia and left the country and the party under the care of Sergio Osmena Sr.
The NP big guns include former Presidents Ramon Magsaysay of Zambales, Carlos P. Garcia of Bohol, Ferdinand E. Marcos of Ilocos Norte and Claro M. Recto of Batangas. One national figure coming from Pampanga was the late Senator Gil J. Puyat of Guagua who became senate president. The late Rafael L. Lazatin of Angeles City and the late Congressman Igmidio Bondoc were the last known prominent members of the party coming from Pampanga.The leaderships of this country changed hands from stalwarts of these two parties. No political figure during those years can become president unless they belong either to the NP or LP.
I remember I was still in high school when Raul Manglapus, a brilliant senator ran as an independent candidate and assembled prominent names in his senatorial slate and all of them failed to get the approval of the electorates.
When President Ferdinand Marcos proclaimed martial law in 1972, the political system was overhauled and the multi-party system was born later. Today, we can no longer count with our fingers the number of political parties nationwide. Our political system became chopsuey. With the party list system, the population of the lower House of Representatives ballooned from the 104 members in the late sixties to more than 300 members now. There is a considerable view that the party list system is only an added cost shouldered by taxpayers' money.