The Philippine Online Chronicles

The current reigning political party in the Philippines is Lakas-KAMPI-CMD (Lakas-Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino-Christian Muslim Democrats). Lakas originally stood for “people power”, but it has been recently more often associated with the “Lakas ng Edsa” because of its major role in the historic EDSA Dos which ousted then President Joseph Ejercito Estrada. Today, the party is also known as the “administration party”, mainly because it is headed by no other than the highest official of the administration herself, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, as its National Chair.

The party was initially known as Lakas-NUCD. It was formed for the purpose of the 1992 presidential elections, when then Secretary of Defense Fidel V. Ramos and Emilio R. Osmena ran for presidency and vice-presidency, respectively, under its banner.

A possible reason why it was formed was because former President Ramos lost in the nomination to be the candidate for presidency of Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) for the 1992 national elections. As such, Ramos had to resort to a desperate measure of organizing a political party of his own, where he would surely be the candidate for presidency. In addition to this, Ramos, being aware of the reality that his then party (Partido Lakas ng Tao/People Power Party) had no sufficient machinery to match the resources of the other parties (i.e., LDP), decided to merge his party with the National Union of Christian Democrats (NUCD) of Raul Manglapuz. This resulted to the birth of Lakas-NUCD.

Since then, it has tied up with other political parties to strengthen the fighting chance of its members during elections, particularly for the 1995 mid-term elections when it coalesced with LDP, and for the 1998 presidential elections when it merged with Union of Muslim Democrats of the Philippines (UMDP).

The party’s influence in the Philippine political scene has remarkably become evident from the time of its inception up to the present. In fact, two of its presidential candidates had been elected to office by the people, namely: Ramos in the 1992 elections and Arroyo in the 2004 elections. Currently, the party represents the amassed strength of Lakas-CMD (Christian Muslim Democrats) and KAMPI (Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino), whose merger took place in May 2009. With this merger, its membership expanded to around 8,000 local officials and 200 national officials. As a matter of fact, in the House of Representatives alone, Lakas Kampi CMD has more or less 143 members, including the Speaker of the House Prospero Nograles (Representative, 1st District of Davao City).

The party’s advocacy has been primarily marked by and reflected through the recent clamor and movement by its members in the House of Representatives in revising the Constitution, which is targeted to effect a change in the country’s form of government from presidential to parliamentary. This radical advocacy of the party in changing the present form of government may have sufficient impact on the electorate which could effectively shape not only the outcome of the 2010 elections but, more so, the future of our country as a whole.