"Here’s Walden Bello on how his coalition intends to make a difference."
"Here’s Walden Bello on how his coalition intends to make a difference."
A few months ago, a new political coalition called Laban ng Masa (LnM) published a full-page ad in another daily broadsheet that outlined a 25-point program for radical change in Philippine society. Their program called for both short—as well as medium-term priority measures that they said would “begin the transition to a democratic socialist system” in the country.
The LnM consists of various sectoral groups of workers, peasants, youth, women, and teachers, among others. Their 25-point program is comprehensive, such as the reallocation of all presidential intelligence funds to a COVID-19 pandemic fund, a P1,500 daily minimum wage, price ceilings on basic commodities, cancellation of onerous debts, a combined income and wealth tax on the taxable financial wealth of the richest 250-300 Filipinos, regulation of the economic activities and investments of multinational corporations, and a truly independent and internationalist foreign policy.
The LnM lead convenor is Walden Bello, an internationally recognized expert on development issues. He shared with us online how the coalition hopes to make a difference in the lives of Filipinos by participating in the 2022 elections through a unique process of popular consultation.
What is the process being followed by LnM?
We initially decided to field three candidates for the presidency, Leody de Guzman, Lidy Nacpil and myself. But Leody and Lidy decided not to accept the offer. I was really quite reluctant and hesitant to run, so we decided we would do some sort of popular consultation and raise 300,000 signatures in three months ending September 15 to convince me to run. That would do two things: one, to see if my candidacy had any traction, and two, if we could do it, then we would have a strong organizing instrument for the elections, because it’s not easy to raise 300,000 signatures. The signature campaign would be a form of popular consultation in contrast to what traditional politicians are doing. On the one hand, you have the Duterte-Pacquiao word war that is purely ego-driven and you have big media covering it. It’s really quite disgusting that the media devote so much time to it.
On the other hand, 1Sambayan is going about it with backroom deals instead of popular consultation. What is important, I think, is to put the people at the beginning of the process, just like the primary system in the US, and let the people decide on who would be the opposition candidate
The important thing is to have a program. The problem now with 1Sambayan is that they have no program at all, it’s just who can best defeat Duterte. So it’s back to square one. I understand the importance of having one opposition candidate vis-a-vis Duterte, but that somebody should be chosen by the people, and that somebody should have a program. It shouldn’t be a popularity contest but a process of popular consultation. As you know, I am not really a politician although I’ve been in politics.
When we ran an ad on our 25-point program, there was nothing there on who would be our candidate. We felt that we had to get the program out first and make the choice of a candidate secondary. If the Duterte-backed candidate won, or the opposition candidate won, there would hardly be a change in the way politics is run in this country. That’s why inuna namin ang program. And we really thought about it, about one month worth of intensive consultations to come up with a program. And this is a work in progress. As things develop, we can revise the program, or add more points.
What if 1Sambayan fields Leni Robredo as presidential candidate? Will LnM support her?
It depends on Leni, if she has a good program. I personally have a lot of respect for her in terms of her integrity. But she has to bring more than just personality and winnability. We feel that a program should lead to real democratic empowerment in the economic and political spheres, if we want real change to happen. It’s time to break the cycle of personality politics, and a very important way of doing that is having a viable program.
Do you think the electorate is ready for a program like what you have?
We look at our program as part of a medium-term process. Duterte and the opposition have such a low view of the Filipino people. They basically dismiss the program that we have articulated. But our program has attracted a lot of attention, especially from young people. They are the ones now pushing the campaign and acting as foot soldiers. We should take the medium-term view and not just the elections as a one-shot game but as part of a process of political dialogue with the people.
Our people are tired of inequality, they’re tired of poverty, they’re tired of going around in circles, of having one messiah after another. People are beginning to realize that there has to be a break, and the task of the Left is to contribute to that break. Whether that break is revolutionary or reformist or what, people are tired of the same old personalities. The intelligentsia and progressive groups do not want political fistfights that the media focus on.
Are you not afraid that people might be turned off or even scared by the LnM goal of a transition to a “democratic socialist society”?
There’s nothing to fear from a democratic socialist society. We have a capitalist society where there’s a 30 percent poverty rate, one of the worst in Asia and no progress unless you go out of the country to get a job. And what has brought this about? Our neo-liberal policies imposed on us over the last 30 to 40 years. Our appeal is to our young people who will inherit this mess that the older generation has created. We have to go beyond pragmatic electoral considerations and think of more comprehensive change. The fact that people are flocking to LnM after reading our program shows that this is what they are looking for. Our people should realize that it is within their capacity to liberate themselves from this type of personality-driven political system that really deserves to go.
ernhil@yahoo.com