The Long View

The platform problem

By Manuel L. Quezon III
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:10:00 12/20/2009

Filed Under: Politics, Elections
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FORMER SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH ONCE gave a concise definition of a party platform
in 1994 when he explained the difference between his proposed Contract with America and the
Republican party platform. A platform, he said, is what we believe. In contrast, his proposed
management contract was a 10-bill legislative agenda that he hoped voters would support in
order to achieve the numbers required in Congress to pass them within 100 days of the session.
Senate President Manuel Villar Jr., interviewed by Ricky Carandang back when he was still
shopping around for a vice-presidential candidate, shared an interesting opinion about party and
coalition platforms. Lahat kami iyan lang ang sasabihin, he confided, to Carandangs
television audience, lahat ng kandidato sasabihin iyan. We will say the same things we will
have the same platform. He added, for after all, a platform dadalawang speechwriters lang
iyan tatanungin ka. Anong gusto ninyo, 3-point agenda, 10-point agenda, 15-point agenda o 25-
point agenda?
Recently, on my show, UP Prof. Prospero de Vera pointed out that the backbone of Villars
presidential campaign isnt the NP but rather, the network of managers of Vistaland, of which
Villar told Carandang he remains firmly in charge since he doesnt intend to divest himself until
he wins the presidency. Just how seriously Villar takes the NP is shown by its website, which
still includes a link to the site of Teofisto Guingona III, who is now an LP candidate.
Which may explain why the Nacionalistas, who pioneered the party platform in 1935, didnt
bother with a party platform for the first presidential contest since 1969 in which the party has
come out as a serious contender. The closest thing to a platform was finally produced upon the
insistence of the Makabayan Coalition, to formalize its alliance with the NP at the end of the
intricate maneuvering that resulted in Ferdinand Marcos Jr.s exorcism from the KBL and being
born-again as an NP guest candidate to satisfy those whom Argee Guevarra once (infamously)
called Jomas Witnesses.
Makabayan having done the hard work of crafting a platform, Villar signed with admirable speed
on Dec. 15 a statement of shared principles; and though Makabayan insists the statement is not
the NP platform, that may be as close as its coalition ally is going to get to producing a platform-
type document (Loren Legardas nine-sentence platform apparently having lasted as long as the
newsprint in which it appeared). After all, neither the NP nor Villars own site bothers to
reproduce the much-vaunted shared principles statementor Legardas platform, which she says
Villar has adopted, too.
This tokenism, however, still puts the NP ahead of the Frankenstein coalition, which is still
waiting, if the scuttlebutt is true, for Alex Magno to finish fleshing out its platform for the
Presidents anointed tandem. This, despite the PaLaKa convention at whichafter praising the
President to high heavens (dapat nating ipagmalaki ang Presidente! he said)the Annointed
One talked of a platform remarkably similar to the Presidents current 10-Point Agenda. It must
really be a headache for Magno to try to accomplish the kind of makeover the Frankenstein
coalition expects: it is not enough to keep the President out of sight, and therefore out of mind;
the usual suspects have to be gentrified, too.
As far as platforms go, Ang Kapatiran has the oldest, unchanged for some time now; Joseph
Ejercito Estrada announced the adoption of one in Tondo; Benigno Aquino III published his
platform and had his slates candidates sign on to a Credo of shared principles on the day he
formally filed his candidacy, while Richard Gordon has a combined manifesto and platform. All
four studiously dotted their is and crossed their ts, as did the Comelec-rejected Nicanor Perlas.
PaLaKas platform problem is, of course, uniquely theirs to wrestle with, just as the question of a
platform is one the Aquino-Roxas tandem had to hammer out because, as anyone who has
bothered to watch Aquino grilling officials during budget deliberations over the years knows,
hes the sort of detail-obsessed legislator who wants facts and takes a hand in deliberations on
policy. (But then hardly any member of the public has observed or noticed this because budget
deliberations put media and the public to sleep.)
On the other hand, Gordon, Kapatiran and Perlas have platforms that arent coalition documents
but rather, distillations of their personal beliefs, unencumbered by coalition dynamics. The
luxury of beliefspersonal or collectiveis something, on the other hand, that has been
calculated as inessential to the electoral bottom line of the NPs principal. It would be interesting,
if only the tight-lipped circle of corporate types surrounding Villar would talk, how much time
was allocated to the Mission/Vision exercises of their principals various corporations.
There remains some confusion about what a platform is or supposed to contain. A declaration of
the principles upon which a person, a sect, or a party proposes to stand, is one such definition; a
document stating the aims and principles of a political party is another. Yet there are voters
who want nothing less than either a full legislative agenda (which puts the cart before the horse,
as a party or coalition standing for election cannot plan without knowing what its numbersand
therefore, what is realisticwill be after the elections) or a sneak peek into a budget (when,
aside from the administration candidate, other candidates wont know the real score of the
budget or the state of the bureaucracy until it enters office, particularly since so much has been kept
secret by the present dispensation). Still, theres been a healthy interest in political platforms this
time around, much more so than in 2004.