Passage of law to allocate funds for poll bets pushed

MANILA, Philippines - Apparently disappointed over how people choose personalities as their leaders rather than looking into their platforms and programs, Senator Edgardo Angara yesterday batted for the passage of the Political Party Act which also aims to allocate funds for parties and candidates.

Angara said the country’s political system must not be confined to personalities but focus on issues and political platform.

“Political parties play a vital role in the country’s quest for political and economic development,” he said.

Angara noted that the present political system in the country is basically confined to personalities rather than issues.

“There have been many attempts to reform the orientation of our political parties in the past so as to veer away from the concept of traditional politics, but unfortunately they have not been successful because of lack of legal institutional framework to govern the system of political parties,” said Angara, who is the longest serving senator of the Philippines.

“Our history tells us that political parties in the Philippines are normally used only as political vehicles to win an election. Hence, most political aspirants change political parties for convenience, rather than because of conviction. This only shows the lack of ideological commitment of the members of the party because they choose parties based on the rise and fall of the tide of opportunity.”

Angara, chairman of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), said that it is in this light that the Political Party Act should be enacted. He said that it is imperative that the political party system should be strengthened if we want to develop and achieve genuine political development and democratization.

SB 67 seeks to create a Party Development Fund to provide subsidy to political parties of national character for their operational expenses and party building activities, not only for the electoral campaign but also for their developmental programs. These funds shall be appropriated in the national budget. – Christina Mendez