Championing alternative politics for a better Philippines

Saturday, 16 January 2010 07:30 AM Dine Racoma

Nick Perlas on Blogwatch. Watch the livestreaming of Blogwatch’s interview with Nick Perlas on Monday, 18 January, from 6 pm to 8 pm. Watch at ustream.tv/channel/blogwatch and justin.tv/blogwatch. You may send in your questions in advance (post a comment, if you wish), and we will do our best to ask the questions on your behalf.

About a month ago, Nicanor Perlas, a candidate for the 2010 presidential race, was disqualified by the Comm ission on Elections (COMELEC) from the 2010 elections, much to his and his supporters’ dismay. Dismissed by COMELEC second division as a “nuisance candidate,” Perlas allegedly did not have the capacity to wage a nationwide election campaign and did not have enough supporters—he did not even have a political party. Naturally, Perlas and his supporters waged a legal and awareness campaign to reverse the ruling. The move proved successful, resulting in the issuance of Resolution 8743 where the Comelec en banc allowed Perlas and Liberal Party (LP) senatorial bet Danilo Lim to be included in the final list of candidates. The resolution recognized Perlas’ public service track record and his ability to wage a nationwide electoral campaign and that he had a network of supporters and ability to access national media. With this development, there are now ten candidates on the Presidential slot and 62 vying for Senate—the biggest number for both posts to date.

Let’s say, this is a blessing in disguise for Perlas and his supporters, who surprisingly are gaining in number. Talk about new politics and the power of the Internet.

I already made Nick Perlas the subject of a previous blog post , and I encourage you to read it in case you haven’t. There, I discussed the man’s personal credentials (he is, in a nutshell, qualified and competent for the job) and mentioned in passing that he had a solid, well-thought out and detailed platform of government. Just how detailed? If I wanted to print out the platform, it is almost 18 pages long—Ang Kapatiran Party (AKP)’s platform (which I reviewed in a an earlier post) pales in comparison to the Partido ng Marangal na Sambayanan’s (PANGMASA) platform. PANGMASA is Perlas’ de facto national party, which has about 700 regional, provincial, and municipal coordinators all over the country. Behind these coordinators are the hundreds of thousands of volunteers and supporters who contribute their resources, organization and time with the aim of overcoming traditional political reliance on money and machinery. Perlas is an alternative to traditional “winnability”.

I am not sure whether PANGMASA is already accredited by the COMELEC, but I am sure that the group was inspired by Perlas’ vision for the Philippines.

PANGMASA’s platform is physically divided into four parts, namely the preamble, the group’s vision, agenda for genuine change and the pillars of the group’s advocacy. I will try my best to discuss each portion as I understand it, but I highly recommend that you check out the entire platform for yourself.

Preamble. In the preamble, you will see that the group advocates true participatory democracy. The preamble explains that its platform is in the nature of a social contract with an underlying set of governing principles which is to become the basis of new politics. The platform took pains to emphasize how these principles are to be the basis of the “social contract” with the Filipino people and not personalities, as you will see.

Vision Statement. The vision statement provides that the group envisions genuine GINHAWA for all Filipinos. In the portion called Agenda for Change: Dimensions and Principles, it was recognized that the task of renewing our society is a difficult and complex one. It broadly identifies the problems in the Philippines today, explains the principles to address these problems and the specific measures to solution the problems identified.

Need for Genuine Change. The platform describes our country as having an economy with a jobless and ruthless growth because only the rich get rich while the poor are still poor. In politics, the people do not have a genuine voice in governance, in a country ruled by political dynasties and corrupt officials. We have a problematic culture because of moral rootlessness, as can be seen from the pervasiveness of corruption in all our institutions. The ecological state of our nation was also lamented. On a personal level, materialism and selfishness were lamented to have taken the place of values and striving for the common good.

Pillars of the Group’s Advocacy. The group advocates spiritual, human, societal, cultural, political and ecological development as its guiding principles in governance. The group advances these principles by focusing on its six pillars of priority, namely to: mainstream visionary initiatives, promote holistic education and inner change, build partnerships for social justice, uphold the integrity of creation, and advance moral and effective governance poverty and enhance quality of life. Under each pillar are specific and systematic plans of action.

Nick Perlas has written extensively on a lot of key issues that concern us all today—something I have not seen in other candidates’ websites. Even his political opponents can learn a thing or two from the man’s expertise and vision. Whether you will be voting for Nick Perlas or not, I highly recommend checking out his website at http://www.nicanor-perlas.com/ to get to know the man, and more importantly, his advocacies. Not too often do we find one who lives up to what he preaches. Perlas is one such man, championing alternative politics as he does and waging a national campaign consistent with his advocacies.

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