Money cannot
fix this problem

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

House Bill 6551, “An Act Strengthening the Political Party System”, that aims to reduce the dependence of political groups on private persons and businesses for funding by seeking an initial P500-million state subsidy for national political parties, has been approved at the House of Representatives.

Under the bill, the proposed subsidies will be used exclusively for party development, education and training programs, institution-building, outreach projects, information dissemination, advancement of advocacies, and campaign expenditures. The recipients will be political parties with national constituencies registered with the Commission on Elections based on platform of government, organizational strength and track record in elections.

The authors of the bill, Representatives Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City and Juan Edgardo Angara of Aurora, believe that they have to “institutionalize and strengthen our political parties by introducing reforms in campaign financing through effective and transparent mechanisms to level the playing field and eliminate opportunities for corruption”.

Government funding for political parties may seem like a good idea, but it can only benefit the country if those political parties are organizations that are based on principles, but that is nowhere near how our personality-centric political parties currently operate. In a country where pledges of allegiance to a political party mean absolutely nothing to a politician, especially if you look at the way they hop from one party to another; setting aside government funds so it can be given to political parties sounds like a surefire recipe for disaster. Anyone who thinks otherwise simply has to take a look at the senatorial slates of the Liberal Party-led administration coalition and the newly-formed United Nationalist Alliance to see just how irrelevant genuine political parties have become.

The authors of House Bill 6551 might want to reconsider that throwing money at a weak political party system cannot strengthen it if it has been undermined by generations of politicians who have forgotten how to stand for anything except for their own selfish interests. Unfortunately for this country, 500 million pesos will not be enough to fix what is left of the political party system after our politicos have been allowed to have their way with it for decades.*