Philippine opposition told to consolidate amid rift in Marcos gov’t alliance
NONALIGNED voters who supported opposition candidates in the 2022 elections have yet to be transformed into a solid political base even as the ruling coalition led by Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. faces internal rumblings, according to political analysts.
“We have yet to see if the support base of the opposition in 2022 is still there since it has never transitioned into a working body or a real political force,” Arjan P. Aguirre, who teaches political science at the Ateneo de Manila University, said in a Facebook Messenger chat on Tuesday.
The opposition should have managed to sustain a support base that is “capable of organizing people other than those within their existing network of movements and organizations,” he added.
Mr. Marcos ran for President in 2022 under a platform of unity that in recent days has become difficult to achieve.
The Philippine leader is now being challenged by the family of VicePresident Sara Duterte-Carpio, who ran in tandem with him in the 2022 elections, after his allies in Congress stripped her of confidential funds worth P650 million in this year’s national budget.
The Marcos-Duterte quarrel is bad for the country’s investment climate, National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio S. Balisacan told a news briefing where 2023 economic output data were released.
“It’s okay to have all these exchanges and political debates,” he said in mixed English and Filipino. “That’s OK because that’s democracy. But it should not create political instability because it will affect the economy.”
Former Vice-President Maria Leonor G. Robredo, who lost to Mr. Marcos in 2022, managed to draw hundreds of thousands of crowds during her campaign. Ms. Robredo founded a nongovernment group composed of volunteers in July 2022 after her term as vice-president ended.
“There is a difference between an electoral mobilization and a political mobilization,” Mr. Aguirre said. “It’s not easy to transition from one mobilization to another. One needs to have a solid base of supporters who are always there to sustain the mobilization effort.”
On Sunday, at least two major political gatherings were held in the Philippines, one of which was an administration-led rally in Manila under the theme “Bagong Pilipinas” (New Philippines), which the President and Ms. Duterte-Carpio attended.
In Davao City in southern Philippines, ex-President Rodrigo R. Duterte and his supporters held a prayer rally where he accused Mr. Marcos of being a drug addict. His successor has shunned his key policies by standing up to China and pursuing closer security ties with the US.
The gathering that was highly critical of Mr. Marcos and his cousin Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, who has been linked to a so-called people’s initiative for Charter change, was also attended by Ms. Duterte-Carpio and presidential sister Senator Maria Imelda “Imee” R. Marcos.
CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
As the rift widens, opposition forces including Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and Akbayan Party are doubling their consolidation efforts as they plan to hold large anti-Charter change rallies next month in time for the commemoration of the popular street uprising that toppled the dictatorial regime of Mr. Marcos’s late father and namesake in February 1986.