Kevin Ray C.

Espinosa December 20, 2020

AB Political Science

The Evolution of Political Parties in the Philippines

Philippine politics has one of the most complex scenes in modern democracy. One major

reason is how involved the political parties are in the elections. Come to think of it, we never

really noticed how parties dictates so much about who to follow and support. To fully understand

how big political party’s role in the Philippine one must first start to where it all began.

The first three political parties that came to be were the Federal party, which advocated

peace and eventual statehood, the Nationalist party and the Democratic party. All of them were

established in 1900. It was not actually a two-party system not until the Japanese occupation

which developed the effective two-party system between the Liberal party and the Nationalist

party. By the year 1957 another party was formed with the support of the Ramon Magsaysay,

who eventually won garnering more than a million votes in the 1958 presidential election. By

1965, Nationalist party candidate Ferdinand Marcos won the presidential election polling 51% of

the total popular votes. He then went on to win the 1969 election which was never done before

by any other candidate under any political party. But by the year 1972, all political activity was

banned due to the start of the martial law regime. It was only reinstated a few months before the

1978 parliamentary election. It was then where the Marcos government’s Kilusan Bagong

Lipunan- KBLwon along with the 1980 and ’82 elections amid the strong opposition of the

Lakas Ng Bayan- Laban which was led by Benigno S. Aquino Jr. before he was assassinated in

1983.

In 1982, a coalition was formed that included Lakas Ng Bayan- Laban and 11 other

opposition parties that was known as United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO).
After the assassination of Aquino, some opposition groups together with other members of the

UNIDO all coordinated with each other with a common interest that is the anti-Marcos regime.

Through their combined efforts Corazon Aquino, Benigno S. Aquino Jr’ spouse, was able to

campaign against Marcos in 1986. This is when a revolution against the congressional elections

that was led by a newly formed legal political party. From then The Partido ng Bayan allied with

left-leaning groups in an Alliance for New Politics. This unsuccessful attempt for electoral

representation resulted in a return to guerrilla warfare on the part of the Communists. After

Aquino assumed presidency, she formally established the People Power Movement from the

prior party his late husband led.

May 1987 congressional elections, due to Aquino’s popularity, all of the members of her

party who ran for office won making them the major party in the country while Marcos’s KBL

was reduced to a minor party. Because of the loss, other members of the KBL formed their own

groups, a coalition of parties that seeks distance from Marcos while other members revived LP

and the NP in search of new leadership. Some point before 1989, the People’s Party (Partido ng

Bayan) was created, a party that support the political agendas of the New People’s Army. Juan

Ponce Enrile reestablished the Nacionalista Party in May of 1989. Then by 1991, a new

opposition party arose, the Filipino Party for the presidential campaign of Aquino’s cousin

Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco. But his efforts fell short to Fidel Ramos who won with 23.6% of

the Philippines popular votes. A peaceful resolution to the Communist insurgency was made in

1992 with repeal to the Anti-Subversion legislation of 1957. Then in August 26, 1994, Ramos

announced a new political coalition that would eventually produce one of the if not the most

powerful political group in the country. Lakas-National Union of Christian Democrats

(Lakas/NUCD) joined forces with the Democratic Filipino Struggle (Laban ng Demokratikong

Pilipino, Laban). Tha party would gain control of the senate with 14 of the 24 members in 1995.

The political landscape would then again change in 1998 as a newly created Laban ng

Masang Pilipino with their presidential candidate Joseph Estrada, would secure 12 seats to the

Lakas 5, PRP 2, LP 1, and independents 3. That party would also have majority in the House of

Representative as they captured 135 seats to the Lakas 37, LP 13, Aksyon Demokratiko1, and 35

independents.

By 2002 the political leaders of the parties are stated with the hope of continuing to push

for what they fight for. Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (New Society Movement), led by Imelda

Marcos; Laban Ng Demokratikong Pilipino (Struggle of Filipino Democrats) or LDP, led by

Eduardo Angara; Lakas, led by Jose De Venecia; Liberal Party or LP, led by Florencio Abad;

Nacionalista Party, led by Jose Oliveros; National People's Coalition or NPC, led by Eduardo

Cojuangco; PDP-Laban, led by Aquilino Pimentel; and the People's Reform Party or PRP, led by

Miriam Defensor-Santiago. In 2016 the political leaders of the parties became some sort of

dynasty as these parties wasn’t really known for being the opposition or the other, they became

known as to what political family controls them. For PDP Laban it is the Pimentels with their

candidate and eventual president Rodrigo Duterte, for the Nacionalista party it is the Villars and

Marcos’s and Pangilinan and Aquino with their candidate Manuel “Mar” Roxas. By 2019, the

political parties involved grew to 20 as more and more parties from coalition sprouted straying

away from the true purpose.

The question of why we the Philippines allow new parties to exist come to mind.

According to Article 9B, Section 6 of the 1987 Constitution, “A free and open party system shall

be allowed to evolve according to the free choice of the people, subject to the provision of this
article.” This means that there is not much provisions or limitations when it comes to the

political parties and how they are established. There are also speculations that because of this

provision, prominent political families and dynasties capitalized on it, keeping the power within

the family.

Throughout the history of the political parties in the Philippines, it has been noticeable

that there is no consistency when it comes to the political parties. According to Dr. Jean Encinas-

Franco of UP Diliman, the problem of the political parties is that they are immature this is due to

the fact that political parties splinter into different factions and then merge during elections and

later on form coalitions during certain elections creating a complex scene.

The political parties in the Philippines greatly differs from the political party scene in the

U.S. In the U.S., there is a clear difference from the Democrats and the Republicans, the people

identify themselves to what party they support, and the parties also provide the resources their

candidates need in order to effectively campaign. In the Philippines, it’s all about the personal

allegiances and political families. Unclear and disorderly as to what they really fight for and who

they are loyal to.

To sum up, the political parties started from two then eventually grow to different groups

and coalitions that made the political scene in the country what it is today. It still is a question of

whether or not these political parties should be institutionalized or not. For it to have

accountability and formal provisions in terms of their scope of functions and contribution to the

Philippine government.
References
Emmanuel C. Lallana. (1989, December 08). Political Parties, Political Clans and the Prospects
for Philippine Democracy. Retrieved from Brill:
https://brill.com/configurable/contentpage/journals$002fppsj$002f15$002f1-
2$002farticle-p43_4.xml
Dona Magsino/RSJ. (2019, May 13). News Nation. Retrieved from GMA Network:
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/694238/immature-political-party-
system-allows-candidacy-of-pols-with-poor-credentials-up-prof/story/
Philippines Political Parties. (2009). Retrieved from Nations Encyclopedia:
https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Philippines-POLITICAL-
PARTIES.html