The last Congress made
history of sorts in November last year when it passed impeachment proceedings
against then President Joseph Estrada—the first of its kind in the
Philippines. But it was People Power 2 that completed Congress’ job by ousting
Estrada from power through a bloodless people’s uprising. In the thick of that
struggle was Bayan Muna, the Leftist party-list group which four months later
would top the party-list elections. It will be a new kind of struggle that the
party will wage when its three nominees occupy their House seats come July. But
first, a look at how Bayan Muna did it.
Voter awareness of the
party-list system remains in the main low even if it slightly increased in the
recent elections. If the recent poll results are any indication, however, the
prospects for an issue-oriented politics—represented by the Left’s Bayan
Muna—making a dent in the electoral system traditionally blazed by
personalities with guns, goons and gold are brighter. The end of traditional
politics has begun.
Based on the election
results, more Filipinos voted in the party-list system than in 1998: 14.01
million (or 45 percent of the total votes cast) as against 9.15 million (or 33
percent).
The increase in the
party-list votes (PLVs) can be partly attributed to the fact that the total
votes cast (TVC) in the last elections went up to 31.98 million out of a total
number of registered voters (TRVs) of 36.59 million, as against 27.30 million
from a TRV of 34.16 million in 1998. The Social Weather Station (SWS) exit polls
survey registered an 89 percent voter turnout in the May elections.
However, with 162 aspirants
this year, the number of party-list groups who made it to the winner’s circle
was smaller by 3 compared to 1998: 10 as against 13. While the winning parties
in 1998 needed at least 182,000 votes to gain a seat, those in the recent
elections needed 280,000 votes each.
Topping the list was Bayan
Muna, with 1.7 million votes or 11.71 percent of PLVs, with 3 seats in tow.
(Technically, the group’s total votes could have given it a total of 6 seats.)
Next, was the controversial Mamamayan Ayaw sa Droga (MAD or People
Against Drugs), with 1.5 million or 10.43 percent, also 3 seats.
Representing Bayan Muna in
the next Congress are former National Democratic Front (NDF) chief negotiator
Satur Ocampo, labor leader Crispin Beltran and Liza Maza of Gabriela. MAD,
reportedly a quasi-government party that under the 1987 Constitution should be
disqualified, will be represented by matinee idol Richard Gomez. Gomez was a
former youth adviser of ousted president Joseph Estrada.
Trailing far behind the two
topnotchers were APEC (726,974 votes or 5.10 percent, 2 seats), VFP (564,196
votes or 3.96 percent, 1 seat), PROMDI (428,366 or 3.01 percent, 1 seat),
Akbayan (357,274 or 2.51 percent, 1 seat), NPC (346,274 or 2.43 percent, 1
seat), Butil (321,062 or 2.25 percent, 1 seat), LakasNUCD-UMDP (321,013 or 2.25
percent, 1 seat) and CIBAC (311,027 or 2.18 percent, 1 seat).
The VFP (Veterans Federation
of the Philippines) is reportedly government-funded, CIBAC is the pro-Arroyo
party-list group of the Jesus is Lord Movement while PROMDI, NPC (Nationalist
People’s Coalition) and LakasNUCD-UMDP are actually major traditional
political parties (trapos, a Philippine colloquial).
Losers
APEC, a well-funded electric
cooperatives’ party, topped the 1998 party-list polls. Among the
“alternative” parties trounced in the last May polls were Abanse!Pinay,
which garnered only 125,041 votes, Sanlakas and others. Had not Sanlakas put up
another party-list group, Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) in the May elections, their
total combined votes of 336,684 would have earned them at least one seat. It was
yet another blunder for Sanlakas, a self-styled leftist group that bolted from
the mainstream national democrats in the early ‘90s.
Bayan Muna’s showing in
the May polls is acknowledged to be unprecedented. It emerged the topnotcher
despite smear campaigns that it was a “communist front.” The total number of
votes it got was three times bigger than that of the 1998 leader (APEC) and was
almost equivalent to the combined votes of the top five placers during the same
year. It was also way past the total garnered by the three major political
parties, the combined votes of five “leftist” party-list groups (Akbayan,
Sanlakas, PM, Amin and Atin) and those of seven reformist groups (Butil, ABA,
Abanse!Pinay, Ako, BagongBayani, Bandila and PDSP).
The Leftist party-list
group’s impressive showing had been in the political barometers of three major
national surveys: the pre-poll ratings of Pulse Asia (early March) and SWS (late
April) and in the SWS/ABS-CBN exit polls (May 14). The three surveys showed
Bayan Muna’s high ratings among the young and old, rich and poor, educated or
not, employed and jobless as well as among all shades of political and religious
beliefs.
The party’s relatively
well-organized grassroots machinery delivered the votes from the regions. Its
total votes would have been bigger had not the party been reportedly defrauded
of its votes in many provincial precincts and black propaganda unleashed against
it in the campaign homestretch by Akbayan, Sanlakas and other party-list
claimants. Bayan Muna reported 32 incidents where its campaigners including
leading nominee Ocampo were intimidated. In these incidents, at least 10 were
killed. One incident involved Sanlakas members beating up some Bayan Muna
volunteers with steel baseball bats.
Oust-Estrada struggle
Bayan Muna sources trace
their party’s electoral performance to the fact that from the moment the call
was sounded for Estrada’s ouster until his fall, it was among organized forces
in the forefront. Surprisingly, however, it was able to win votes even from
individuals and groups who remained loyal to Estrada. Similarly, while
projecting itself as the party of the poor it also gained sympathizers from
among the progressive middle forces and the elite.
Further, many individuals
who voted for reformist and “leftist” groups in 1998, went for the neophyte
Bayan Muna this time. Some of them said that having seen the mediocre
performance of many of the 1998 party-list winners, the new party-list group
holds the greatest promise of living up to its electoral platform.
But the election turnout
does not appear to be Bayan Muna’s only source of strength. Its entry in the
electoral arena has also infused some sense of hope in the country’s hopeless
political system as many individuals, particularly among the youth and students
in Metro Manila and in the provinces, have signified their interest in joining
Bayan Muna.
Still, the dominance of the
elite and traditional politicians in the next Congress remains intact, as the
election results show. Bayan Muna, together with the other party-list groups
will, quantitatively speaking, remain a minority. That is not to say however
that their participation won’t create a ripple one way or the other.
Listen to Ocampo: “Our
immediate objective as radical opposition in Congress is to articulate, argue
and demonstrate the urgent need for basic economic, political and social change.
Bayan Muna will oppose anti-people and anti-national legislation and push a
progressive legislative agenda, which can mitigate the harsh plight of our
suffering people."
The new Congress is indeed
worth watching because it won’t be the same again. To quote a recent newspaper
editorial, “Legislators can now ignore the party-list representatives at their
peril.” Bulatlat.com