the tension points of democratic left politics in akbayan's alliance with the aquino administration

7/28/2019 The Tension Points of Democratic Left Politics in Akbayan's Alliance with the Aquino Administration

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TheTension Points of Democratic Left Politics in Akbayans Alliance with the Aquino

Administration

Hansley A. Juliano

ABSTRACT: This study is a critique of past narratives and analyses of possibilities for the parliamentaryLeft in the Philippines, intending to provide a sufficient picture of a political party-cum-social movement thatmight be overextending itself. Akbayan Citizens' Action party's alliance with the Liberal Party, leading to itsrole as coalition partner of the administration of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, exhibits thelimitations of formalizing coalition networks into a uniform and standing political party. The leadership of theparty, which prioritizes winning electoral positions and getting their stalwarts appointed in bureaucraticoffices, appears to deviate from the aforementioned intent of their allied social movements to address thesocio-political issues they carry. The cases of the anti-administration stance of Akbayans labor ally, the

Alliance of Progressive Labor and the bolting-out of their rural sector ally, the Pambansang Kilusan ng mgaSamahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA) from Akbayan's network are highly illustrative examples. The partyleadership, their allied movements and their members vary in the priority they give to the importance ofgovernment-based tactics to address such issues. This, in turn, explain the dissonances and tensions betweenthe network of Akbayan, and why other leftist parties in the country such as the National Democratic Frontssectoral parties continue to pose real challenges to their efforts. These tensions could explain why, despitetheir seemingly-stabilized presence in national politics, Akbayans capacity to effect change remainschallenged in the context of a dynamically-evolving status quo of patronage politics in the country to date.

KEYWORDS: Akbayan, contested democracy, National Democratic Front, Philippine Left, Philippinepolitics, social movement theory

As of this writing, President Benigno Noynoy Aquino III is almost nearing three years of his

incumbency since he was elected in the previous, emotionally-charged 2010 national elections. The election

of Aquino, himself a child of the reformist-populist President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino who came into

power via the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, has been analyzed and (more often than not) eulogized

in recent publications. By virtue of upholding this legacy of People Power, he promised a renewed phase of

reform and institutional strengthening, if the motley network of social movements, non-government

organizations and interest groups that assembled for his campaign in 2010, specifically to engage the middle

class on [the] work on transformative politics(Rocamora 2010: 80) is any indication.

Considering that political reform movements have been one of the long-standing and prided

achievements of the post-authoritarian Philippine liberal democratic state since the 1990s (Tadem, ed., 2009:

2, 20; Abinales and Amoroso 2005: 237-242), their presence has become a large, if not persistent factor in


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shaping and determining the direction of democratization in the country. Moreover, their presence,

prerogatives and actions have contributed, for better or ill, in the political maturity and development of

Philippine local and national politics, as well as the subsequent image it presents to the global politico-

economic situation at large (Diamond 1999: 235; Hilhorst 2003: 232; Abinales and Amoroso 2005: 266-267).

It is not unreasonable to think that the presence of such networks, varying in robustness and capacity,

continues to leave their different marks in the continuing shifts of interests and priorities of political actors.

I intend to highlight the tensions, negotiations and situations involved whenever such social

movements consider entering institutional government/governance spaces. Other than the desire to expand

and strengthen their position in effecting their political projects, these movements also have to contend with

performing and participating in the very systems and dynamics they contest with for the larger duration of

their existence (Encarnacion 2003: 30; Escobar and Alvarez, eds., 1992: 11; Keane 1998: 23). Justifying these

transitions remains a point of concern and discussion within these movements, affecting the image they

present to their political constituencies and their own short- and long-term prospects for political survival.

For the purposes of my study, I find the presence of a self-avowed democratic socialist political

party in the coalition network of the Aquino administration of particular importance. Claiming and

performing the functions of a parliamentary leftist political party and socio-political movement, Akbayan

Citizens Action Party appears to be the locus of intersection by which peoples movements, reformist

political groups and civil society assemblages converge and participate. This network of movements claims to

be the representation of new possibilities for a Philippine leftist politics independent of the struggles of the

Communist Party of the Philippines or CPP (Quimpo 2008, 91; Aceron et. al., 2011: 116-117).

The history involved in organizing this network of movements to their alliance with the current

administration should point us to important insights. I intend to traverse existing questions on why and how

the prospects of a mainstream, governing leftist presence in the Philippines (and other countries which foster

political groups claiming to be leftist or at the left of the political spectrum) remains a muddy if not

implausible reality as a whole. Furthermore, I intend to pursue the question of how do social movements

conduct their politics in a political landscape increasingly integrated into the demands of global capitalism and


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yet maintain its long-standing institutions of elite hegemony by both incremental and tremendous shifts in the

practice of power. Akbayan claims to offer potential alternative to armed struggle and continuous extra-

institutional pressures through their simultaneous non-institutional struggles and reformist presences in

government. This project, drafted and continuously re-imagined by the people and groups who take part in it,

remains a source of tension, not only between them and their competitors, but more so within their ranks.

While such competitions occurring could be explained as part of internal party discipline and democracy (Van

Dyke 2003: 231-232; Przeworski 1985: 24-25), that such debates continue since the major 1992 split within

the Philippine Left suggests that the participants may be missing some very vital questions and variables.

In this study, we therefore ask: Why is Akbayans participation in the Aquino administration a continuing

tension point not only between and among its leaders and members but also between the party and its allied social movements?

What does this tension reveal about the nature and dynamics of participation of Leftist groups in Philippine electoral politics?

While an integral view of democracy (Quimpo 2008) argues that participation in a liberal-democratic structure

is an expected and viable direction for Leftist politics, Akbayan's experience puts this optimistic appraisal to

question. Its self-framing as a party which is independent from the social movements fosters a level of

detachment from the latters issues, which contribute largely to the internal and external tensions that

members and allied networks have with the party leadership. These tensions involve alienation from an

increasingly governance-centric political tactic, an unsettling comfort with taking part in bureaucratic

concerns, and a perceived neglect of the issues of currently-marginalized sectors such as labor, agriculture,

fisheries, indigenous peoples, environmental sustainability in the policy and advocacy level.

I argue that Akbayan's political project in cultivating a political environment friendly to socialist and

social-democratic identities remain problematic despite their position as a reformist political party with

strong links to different social movements and reformist blocs in national Philippine politics to date. The

leadership of the party, which prioritizes winning electoral positions and getting their stalwarts appointed in bureaucratic offices,

appears to deviate from the aforementioned intent of their allied social movements to address the socio-political issues they carry.

The party leadership, their allied movements and their members greatly vary in the priority they give to the importance of

government-based tactics (which operate largely around national and Metro Manila politics) to address such issues.This, in


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turn, explain the tensions between the network of Akbayan and could thus be used to explain why, despite

their seemingly-stabilized presence in national politics, their capacity to effect change remains challenged in

the context of a dynamically-evolving status quo of patronage politics in the country to date.

The Need for Hybridity: An Integrated Framework

I will use an amalgam of the Goldstone-Desaiframework of social movements-political party

formation/maintenance(Desai 2003) and complementing their actions with Quimpos contested democracy

framework (see Fig. 1). Illustrating how social movements act as political parties and vice-versa, the circular

figures marked 1-4 denote the dynamics involved:

1. Cyclical institutional politicsas a system that has its own rules which, nonetheless, could be affected;2. Protest actionsmobilized by social movements to affect institutional politics, while the state (which

is the repository of institutional politics) can similarly deploy such tactics;3. Associational actionslike network-building and alliance-forging that affect the standing and capacity

of both the state and social movements to maintain their institutional integrity as well as theircapacity to enact their political projects; and

4. Any social movement involved, which in this case will be Akbayan

Considering that social movements/political parties, by virtue of their fluid identities, can engage

formal and institutional politics in a variety of ways, it is understood that Akbayan itself could conduct itself

accordingly, all for their so-called purposes of enunciatingintegraldemocratic politics. This also applies for the

member movements and agents within the reach of Akbayan (which I label broadly as sectoral groups issue-based

groupsand individuals), who in turn compose and, by virtue of their presence, shape the identity of the party.

Taking from the above theoretical frameworks, my study will attempt to explain how the tensions

inside the network of Akbayan occur. Insofar as the integralview of democracy is concerned, social

movements struggling within liberal democratic systems is understandable and desirable behavior. But

considering that historically-situated liberal democratic systems are precisely fraught with contradictions and

issues, political prospects and aspirations that intend to depart or do away with liberal democratic systems

remain a possibility. As such, Akbayan is similarly bound by its situation to either consider preservingintegral

tactics, or they may inevitably entertain instrumentalistoptions, as this study will illustrate later.


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What puts the Party in tension with its affiliated movements and networks, however, is the fact that

they themselvesARE social movements and, as indicated above, have the potential and capacity to wage their

own notion of politics as well (or for that matter, build their own political parties to represent them in

Congress). As the current situation would show, Akbayan was able to manage their intentions and projects to

keep them in line with an integralappreciation for democracy. While Akbayans party leadership maintains

their commitment to strengthening liberal democracy, the affiliate movements dissatisfaction with the issues

the Aquino administration focuses on (thus, implicitly, what Akbayan also focuses on) leads them to clamor

for extra-institutional political projects beyond the formal line of the party. Depending on how Akbayan is

able to deal with transforming relationships to their allied movements and these movements perception of

how political participation should be done in different kinds of administration, they might be able to maintain

the status quo of their working alliances or experience potential key changes in turn. (See illustration of Fig. 1.)

Akbayan, despite its evolving status as a political movement and electoral party, is not different in

this aspect. While their presence and subsequent growth as a political party is well documented in periodicals

and internal documents, there is a gap in the literature with regards to the internal politics and tensions which

has characterized the networks which make up and support Akbayan. Such a gap, I surmise, inhibits the

parliamentary Lefts appreciation of its precocious situation in Philippine politics, where their notion of

activism, citizenship and waging reforms social change appears static despite the continuing evolution of elite

hegemony and its accompanying environs as shaped by globalization and evolving capitalism.

I precisely chose to use and build upon the contested democracyframework and the Goldstone-Desai

framework due to key indispensable relations which they tackle, but more importantly with regards to what

they lack individually. As it stands, the contested democracyframework has a particular respect and privileging of

the current liberal democratic space and the role that the Philippine Leftist groups can play in it, yet is

somewhat stunted by its classificatory biases and documentary appreciation of leftist politics. The Goldstone-

Desaiframework, by its capability of integrating peculiar situations, opportunities and shifts of power practice

among actors and subjects allows us an appreciation of the complexities of Leftist participation in liberal

democracy. My preference for the latter, moreover, is helped by the fact that, oddly enough, Akbayans


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Fig. 1. Conceptual Framework integrating the Goldstone-Desai and Quimpo frameworks

direction and tactics exhibit organizing within the grassroots and various sectors while linked with civil society

and mainstream reformists. Yet, their current presence in the Aquino administration has, in one way or

another, reignited tensions and feelings of neglect among the sectors they were supposed to represent. A

seeming disconnect of directions and priorities is apparent.

Instead of being wholly characterized as an expected fragmentation, I suggest that it should be

viewed in the context of a Philippine Left whose ideological underpinnings and options for waging struggles

for social justice and change remain fluctuating and transforming. There is a seeming-acceptance of liberal

democracy as the only possible reality in Philippine politics to date. Coming from this direction, I intend to


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This motley assembly of various and varying peoples organizations could be explained with a return

to a historical background. We must recall that Akbayans emergence in 1998 is only one of the developments

within Philippine civil society and social movements, coming from the supposed spaces opened by the 1986

EDSA People Power Revolution, the 1987 Constitution and the institutionalization of the party-list system

in Congress. It is true that non-government organizations (NGOs) and peoples organizations (POs) were

already being formed and organizing their respective bases/constituencies since the 1960s and 1970s.

However, coming up with a cohesive and united front for political projects remained a challenge, as would be

illustrated in the various coalition-building attempts against the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and

afterwards (Constantino-David 1998, 33-36). It is interesting to note that the political organizations, social

movements, NGOs and POs share frameworks that are largely developmental and focusing on social justice

issues, with slants to the left of the Philippine political spectrum. This perhaps is also attributable to the

sociopolitical legacies of the activist movements of the 1970s, largely inspired by the organizing of allied

movements from the National Democratic Front which focused on the acknowledgment of the rights of

students and other marginalized sectors of society (Saracho 2012, 231). While acknowledging these, the

debates during Akbayans founding emphasized that the then-nascent partys imminent priority is to contest

political power via the elections and transform the concept of political power [via competency] in handling

political power within our own ranks (Akbayan National Congress 1998a, 7).

Of course, the partys efforts towards consolidating its forces, allies and resources have not been

entirely smooth-sailing. As an assessment of party-mass movement relations written in 2005 would show, the

party struggles with maintaining a social and political base at the grassroots level due to its inability to inspire

wholesale organizational support (with social movements largely assigning membership and party support on

an individual basis). Moreover, the study suggested that Akbayan needs to reframeparty-mass movement

relations into three-wayparty-mass movement-constituencyrelationships, if only to make the dynamics between

party units, its component mass movements and members/allies more harmonious (Abao 2005, 4-5).

The then-fledgling political party made waves when they began actively participating in the electoral

process. Their most visible and extensive achievements in the national level, obviously, would be their


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legislative work in the party-list system and advocacy for systemic reforms through legislative channels. Their

representatives have championed, among other things, various issues on sectoral issues such as national

sovereignty and territorial integrity, bills on womens rights, the defense of human rights and redress for

human rights violations, social justice and asset reform, promotion of good governance and reform of

political institutions, co-sponsored bills employment rights, foreign policy and international relations, bills

seeking to criminalize discrimination against the LGBT community, mandatory human rights courses for

military personnel, asking rightful compensation for human rights victims during the Martial Law period, a

National Land Use Act and initiating the debates for legislation on reproductive health care. (Akbayan

National Congress 2001b, 9-13; 2003b, 2-12). Most celebrated, however, was the passage of RA 9189 or the

Absentee Voting Law, extending the right to vote for national government positions among Overseas

Filipino Workers (Mercado 2006, 116-117). Eventually, their representatives will advocate public access to

information, regulation policies for basic and natural resources, enabling laws for government bureaucracies,

as well as building up and strengthening Akbayans relationships with sectoral organizations (especially allied

ones) and other activist movements both local and international (Akbayan National Congress 2003c).

What is notable about Akbayans political work is their willingness to participate on different issues

that could be conceivably placed under the heading of advocating for social welfare, asset reform,

strengthening democratic institutions and the advancement of the states institutional interests, even if these

are not entirely defined by traditional leftist frameworks. Viewing it consistent with their promises of

transforming politics, Akbayan has been comfortable with cooperating with congressmen from other

political parties, be it from traditional elite political parties or so-called progressive parties, in creating and

passing legislation, as they do up to this day. It was at this point that Akbayan would begin venturing into the

possibilities of waging a national campaign, allying with another traditional political party: the Liberal Party.

Having been among the engineers of elite liberal democracy as it exists today, the Liberal Party is not

entirely expected to bring about transformative politics in the Philippines. In fact, it has similarly suffered

from cyclical massive defections and subsequent returns by political clans and interest groups during and after

elections, as determined by the victor of the presidential seat (Kasuya 2009: 34). Nevertheless, it has


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consistently strived in reinventing itself as a reformist political party that genuinely addresses the need for

political, social, electoral and economic reforms (Rodriguez 2009, 140). There is, therefore, significance in

the very idea of this alliance between Akbayan and the Liberal Party. There is a sense of complementarity in

the identity, directions and actions of the Liberal Party and Akbayan. Significantly, they both subscribe to

what has been argued as a liberal tendency in political participation:reformist, constructive, consultative, and

interested in incremental but enduring change the evolution of the status quo into somethingthat at the

very least is marginally better than that which came before (Quezon 2006, 25). As much as Akbayan

continues to present a faade of independence from these traditions, their actions and direction show how

they grapple with these ideological struggles even today. Looking at Akbayans alliance with the Aquino

administration (and how they have maneuvered themselves into potential spaces of governance), it might be

actually argued, in a sense, that the so-called mish-mash discourses of Akbayan are only recently being

justified, identified and labeled as a consistent social democratic and democratic socialist program,

insofar as it serves the current purposes of the party to reach a larger and national audience.

The possibilities being open and inviting during the tail-end of the administration of Gloria

Macapagal-Arroyo, Akbayan took up the question of whether the party will be willing to take the opportunity

of joining a national electoral campaign during their 4th Regular National Congress. Currently-serving

Akbayan party-list representative Walden Bello related that questions on the possibilities of allying with

acceptable traditional parties has been floating as early as 2007-2008 (Bello 2012). The political report

presented during this Congress has assessed that while the party has benefited from their participation in the

party-list system, the democratic opening provided by the party list elections had considerably narrowed

(Akbayan National Congress 2009a, 3). During the same Congress, Akbayan passed a resolution proclaiming

that former Representative Risa Hontiveros-Baraquels track record and advocacies recommend her very well

to the general public as a senatorial candidate of Akbayan and being part of the LP senatorial slate (Ibid.

2009b). More important, however, was the debate on supporting a Presidential candidate. Recalling the

talking points of the Congress during that debate, Bello mentioned how those supportive of the candidacy of

Manuel Mar Roxas II (who was then a senator and President of the LP) were quite convinced of the


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possibilities that his reformist campaign will be a boon to Akbayans electoral prospects. In turn, however,

he recalled the more cautious elements in that Congress (led, among others, by Ricardo Reyes, a former

official of the CPP and now serving as member of Akbayans Executive Committee, as well as president of

the Freedom from Debt Coalition or FDC) arguing that the party be more circumspect in pushing forward

this engagement (Bello 2012). The concerns generated and debated upon in the exchanges were recalled by

another incumbent representative, Arlene Kaka Bag-ao (formerly a community lawyer affiliated with the

Alternative Law Groups (ALG) and known as a campaigner for the issues of the rural sector, including

farmers, fisher folk and indigenous peoples. She recalled how the general opinion of the Congress at that time

believed that [Akbayan] should not remain as NGOs or sectoral groups engaging in governance: we should

be part of a ruling coalition. If the issues we carry are important to [our potential allies], we think the

alliance is plausible even if our political agendas and roots are dissimilar[Translation mine.](Bag-ao 2012).

When the Congress eventually came to the consensus of supporting Mar Roxas, the resolution they

passed in August 16, 2009 proclaimed that AKBAYAN Citizens Action Party believes that Presidential

candidate Mar Roxas supports our partys platform of political and economic reform that would create a

climate of modernity and political pluralism which would be conducive to AKBAYANs expansion and

growth (Akbayan National Congress 2009c). This support would be affected by the subsequent

transformation of the Roxas campaign towards the candidacy of Benigno Noynoy Aquino III, following

the death of his mother, former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino last August 1, 2009.

Overall, the electoral campaign was viewed as a relative success, with Akbayans achievements in the

2010 elections somewhat satisfactory according to the partys leadership (Bello 2012). Aquino would be

declared President after a final tally of 15,208,678 votes (SWS 2010); Akbayan, in turn, was able to garner

9,106,112 votes for Hontiveros-Baraquels senatorial candidacy, placing her on 13th place, which was

insufficient to get her into the 12 allotted senatorial seats (COMELEC 2010a). The party also got 1,061,947

votes for party-list seats in the House of Representatives, allowing Bello and Bag-ao to participate in

Congress (COMELEC 2010b). Their contribution to the LPs victory became their stepping stone in

becoming government functionaries.


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Name Former Position inAkbayan

Current GovernmentPost

Office

1. Ronald Llamas Party President Presidential Adviser Office of PoliticalAffairs (OPA)

2. Loretta AnnRosales

Chair Emeritus Chairperson Commission on

Human Rights (CHR)3. Joel Rocamora Party President Secretary/Lead Convenor National Anti-Poverty

Commission (NAPC)

4. Mario Aguja 2nd Party-ListRepresentative

Member, Board ofTrustees

Government ServiceInsurance System(GSIS)

5. Daniel Edralin National Vice-Chairperson

Member and Chairpersonfor Committee on OFWs

Social Security System(SSS)

6. Percival Cendaa National Chairperson Commissioner-at-Large National YouthCommission (NYC)

Sources:Presidential Communications Operations Office (http://www.pcoo.gov.ph/dir-op.htm);

Commission on Human Rights (http://www.chr.gov.ph/MAIN%20PAGES/about%20us/about_us.htm);National Anti-Poverty Commission (http://maps.napc.gov.ph/napcportal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=660)Government Service Insurance System (http://www.gsis.gov.ph/trustees.php)Social Security System (https://www.sss.gov.ph/sss/index2.jsp?secid=397 &cat=5&pg=null)National Youth Commission (http://www.nyc.gov.ph/about-national-youth-commission/national-youth-commission-officials/atty-percival-cendana)

Fig. 2. Key Akbayan Leaders in the Aquino Administration

The partys presence in government, of course, is not merely confined to the aforementioned leaders

above. Most of their staff and personnel have been long-standing Akbayan cadres, who are now introducing

their experiences and modes of engagement into their respective offices. Their presence, none the less, is

being maximized by Akbayan in order to present itself as not only fiscalizers or legislators, but more

importantly public servants who could be expected to actualize and execute the partys various political

positions and public policy propositions over the years. Inasmuch as Akbayan, as avowed by its leaders,

remain adamant in effecting these policies and claiming them as victories of their political party, it remains a

contention on whether these so-called gains are substantial to the partys future and to their aspiration of

presenting an image of relative autonomy from the Aquino-LP alliance. Nonetheless, it is interesting to note

that any current developments these offices are advancing are not entirely attributed to Akbayan, but still

largely to the Aquino administrations entirety (with the Akbayan label remaining a minor functionary).


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Akbayans alliance with the Aquino/LP campaign and their current capacity as part of a government coalition

is supposed to contribute and strengthen this image and direction. This direction Akbayan takes in the

current Aquino administration is presented to be consistent with the struggle for good governance and social

welfare, even if they are working closely with well-established traditional political actors. Existing discourses

inside the movement itself, however, show that this front is not as unified or consistent as it claims, and is

only beginning to acknowledge this reality right now.

Limits to Akbayans Agency and Opportunities Demobilizing Threats

Akbayans currently-amicable relationship with the Aquino administration has attracted its own share

of supporters and detractors. While the party does find its newfound image as a potent governing element as

a positive development, it would be inaccurate to say that the entire network of Akbayan (as well as its

audience) believes the same way. Akbayans transition from mass movement organizing into governance

spaces has caused the stimulation of tensions and frictions from its allies in civil society and mass movements.

The departure of PAKISAMA from being a mass movement ally of Akbayan, as well as the Alliance of

Progressive Labor (APL)s continuously-critical take on the Aquino administration, points to contradictions

in the partys organizational corporeality and its avowed principles. On a wider note, Akbayans persisting

struggles with a reticent National Democratic Front shows that the party has not entirely reconciled its so-

called leftist identity with its governance directions and projects. The persistent subculture ofnegative

identificationwithin the party (herewith defined as publicly presenting Akbayan as not the NDsand building

political capital from such identification) actually limits its capacity towards properly enunciating its own

independent, stable and long-standing political program. Their position in the Aquino administration, rather

than actually opening spaces for dialogue between such competing leftist parties, has actually exacerbated it.

Akbayans relationship with the labor and agrarian reform movements suggest that the partys focus

in winning national political posts is actually beginning to pose problems to their long-standing mass bases.

The unpronounced-yet-visible shift of Akbayans electoral strategy from localized struggles towards a

concerted campaign for a senatorial position (the candidacy of Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel) has been a source


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of concern from their allied organizations. While these mass movements continuously consolidate on their

own, their view of the partys alliance with the Aquino administration suggests visible ambiguities.

APL: Akbayans Radical Wing

The Alliance of Progressive Labor was formally organized in November 1996 during its National

Founding Congress, seeing itself as a national labor center that draw[s] into its fold various forms of

labor organizations and not just trade unions, thus emphasizing its pluralistic origins and yet moving towards

a union structure consolidated along industry and geographical lines. (Alliance of Progressive Labor 2006a,

1). The movement is one of the founding members of Akbayan as discussed earlier, even if their internal

policy says that their membership in Akbayan is on an individual basis. Josua Mata, Secretary General of APL,

related that they enforce such a policy in order to assure that there is autonomy between the party and the

movements, while there is coordination between them (Ibid. 2012).

Considering this arrangement between APL and Akbayan, it is thus remarkable for the former (and a

point of pride for them) that despite backing and supporting the latter, they have been able to maintain their

organizational autonomy and are capable of maintaining their own stances. As Mata would declare, we have

always said and we have always believed that the party should be accountable to the mass movements; but the

mass movements are not accountable to the party. It is accountable to mass membership, and because we are

not accountable to the party, [APL] says what the mass movement would say (Ibid. 2012).

With this level of autonomy, APL could formally say that, despite Akbayan being a coalition partner

of the Aquino administration, they have never supported (and will not likely support, so far) the coalition

government led by the Liberal Party, even since coalition talks began with Mar Roxas and the Akbayan

leadership. APLs members figured in the debates of Akbayans 3rd National Congress where the issue of

taking part in the LPs national campaign (allowing Hontiveros-Baraquel to become an LP senator and

supporting Mar Roxas) became central. An APL member who requested anonymity recounted the

proceedings, noting that while Akbayan leaders say that Mar Roxas is an inconsistent neoliberal that could

be reasoned with to push for a more reform-oriented platform, they were unconvinced because Roxas was a


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PAKISAMA: Friendly, but Not Really.

This movement traces its beginnings from a series of consultations conducted by the Philippine

Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA) immediately after the

1986 People Power Revolution (Putzel 1998, 88). The Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka

(National Confederation of Small Farmers and Fishers Organizations or PAKISAMA)was comprised and

consolidated with organizations from around 70% of the provinces in the country and participated in by

more than 10,000 peasant leaders. The national consultation held in August 1986 came to a consensus that

a strong national alliance that will push for genuine agrarian and aquatic reform, rural development, and the

protection of peasants rights is necessary and should be represented in government (PAKISAMA 2011a).

Currently, PAKISAMA has also ventured into testing and launching agribusiness efforts, opening

opportunities for higher incomes and productivity among its member farmers as well. They also continue to

engage campaigns for policy reforms and similar legislative agendas in different capacities (Banzuela 2012).

PAKISAMAs consolidation in 1986 was also facilitated by the optimism generated with the

openings for political participation during the presidency of Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino. They emerged at a

time when another peasant federation, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas(KMP) was represented in the 1987

Constitutional Commission. Despite KMP being known as heavily influenced by the CPPs national

democratic orientation, PAKISAMA worked closely with them in its earlier years (Putzel 1998, 89).

Current National Coordinator for PAKISAMA, Raul Socrates Banzuela, related that when the party-

list law was approved in 1995, they were already participating in the consolidation of Akbayan, in the hope

that there will also be avenues for participation in a party that professes to be composed of democratic leftist

forces/movements. Akbayans subsequent victory and representation in Congress thus also became a

foothold for PAKISAMAs political efforts. Even if CPARs campaigning for a substantive agrarian reform

policy eventually gave birth to a watered down CARP (largely in part to the strong lobby of a landlord-

dominated post-Marcos Congress led by Rep. Hortencia Stark of Negros), PAKISAMA nonetheless saw this

as an opportunity to distribute 10.3 million hectares out of the 30 million hectares of arable land under the

governments jurisdiction (Kasuya 1995, 28; Banzuela 2012). Akbayan adopted CPARs (and by extension,


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PAKISAMAs) policy proposals, incorporating it in its own agrarian reform platform. This is hallmarked by

its "land to the tiller principle" where those who work to develop the land should own it, just compensation

to the former landowners while granting affordable amortization for the land title grantees, and collective

farming efforts to ensure maximum productivity among its farmers (Akbayan National Congress 2006a).

Banzuela would echo the interest of PAKISAMAs members, saying that a majority of them

subscribe to Akbayans platforms and its political programs. Their participation in Akbayan and its coalitional

efforts from 1998 to 2009 were similarly motivated. For their part, PAKISAMA would also expand

Akbayans linkages in the rural development sector on different levels (local, national and international levels).

The federation also expanded organizationally, placing their member strength as of 2009 at around 66,692

(Banzuela 2012). As their federation expands, it has been very active in pushing for agendas involving the

rights and concerns of farmers. Their most celebrated victory, also counted as a landmark policy development

by the rural sector movements, would be the campaign of the Sumilao farmers of Bukidnon to win back their

144 hectares of ancestral and productive farming lands wrested away by the San Miguel Corporation (Ibid.).

While Akbayan elements figured in the campaign in the presence of Kaka Bag-ao (then a lawyer and

organizer for the Akbayan-allied BALAOD Mindanaw), the campaign was largely successful due more to the

enterprising capacity of PAKISAMAs wider networks to broker the support of the Philippine Catholic

Church. As recounted, convincing Church leaders (like Bishops Antonio Ledesma, Bishop Pacana and

Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales) that such an issue was consistent with the Catholic Churchs desire to re-

emphasize its identity as a Church of the poor helped in bridging their interests to that of the rural

development sector. The presence, activity and willingness of the Society of Jesus through the Simbahang

Lingkod ng Bayan (SLB), long a friend of PAKISAMA, also helped assured that resources and access to

audiences were readily available(Niemel 2009).

The success of the Sumilao case, as well as Bag-aos capacity to push forward a policy agenda in

formal spheres, was apparently the reason why she was chosen as the partys second representative in

Congress (Bag-ao 2012). PAKISAMA, for their part, praise Bag-aos record, viewing her legislative work

supporting the rural sectors highly satisfactory (Banzuela 2012). This long-standing partnership, however,


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became complicated as of Akbayans 4th Regular National Congress, the same event that their alliance with

the Liberal Party was inaugurated. While Akbayan confirmed the alliance with Roxas (as discussed in the

previous chapter), PAKISAMA was represented in the debate, expressing their reservations about this

alliance but saying all the same that supporting the LP is the most acceptable choice at advancing an agrarian

reform agenda, which would eventually fall to Aquino (Ibid.). The publicized promise of Aquino during the

formal launch of his campaign in February 9, 2010 to actually distribute Hacienda Luisita before June 2014

(Sisante 2010), apparently strengthened PAKISAMAs optimism. However, when they began lobbying

Aquino even during the campaign period to begin distributing Luisitas lands, going so far as to talk with

them about it in Aquinos campaign headquarters with their allied federations inside the hacienda, all they got

were vague concessions, which are yet to be acted upon up to this day (Banzuela 2012).

Despite this apparently-unifying campaign environment, the federation thought that these dynamics

remained insufficient to prevent their eventual decision to bolt out of Akbayan. Banzuela recounts the

deliberations they had at PAKISAMAs own Council Meeting in Aklan held sometime in September 2009:

We found out that for the past 8-10 years, not a single representative of Akbayan came from the basic sectors. All the

representatives were coming from the professional sector. We dont have any gripes with that, PAKISAMA sees that these people

are excellent However, you will see how completing Akbayans slate hasbeen a political process, with those leading the

nomination for representatives chosen for winnability. And you will find that theres no affirmative action from the partyto put

anybody from the basic sectors among the 1st3 nominees who will take up Akbayans seats(Ibid.).

He also mentioned how it has been a difficult decision for the leaders and membership of

PAKISAMA to leave Akbayan, considering that their views and opinions on political participation were not

incongruous. What sealed their decision to become independent, however, was their acknowledgment of the

fact that, for all intents and purposes, Akbayan was first and foremost a national political partythat targets

national electoral and governmental prominence. These set of priorities, Banzuela noted, seemed to

PAKISAMAs leadership somewhat limiting to their long-term project of building up political clout so that

the leaders of the rural sectors (farmers, fisher folk and indigenous communities) themselves could become

the representatives and speakers of their own interests. Remaining in Akbayan, they believe, would maintain


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the status quo of them being represented by professionals which, while admittedly efficient, runs counter to

their independent aspirations (Ibid.). Banzuela related that plans are underway to consolidate PAKISAMA for

the launching of their own party-list group in the future 2016 national elections, albeit firmly maintaining that

their respect for Akbayan remains the same. The federation thinks that their planned forays into electoral

contests, instead of being a source of concern for competition by Akbayan, should be viewed as their own

independent contribution to the marginalized sectors efforts to reclaim their own voice in public (Ibid.).

Contradictions for A Party inthe Corridors of Power

APLs leaders and PAKISAMAs Banzuela consistently identified how the composition, priorities

and ideological dispositions of the tight network of party leaders has affected and glossed over whatever

differences and tensions the partys component blocs might have had over the years. While the party leaders

suggest that this is a part of the partys consolidation and maturation as a political agency (Bag-ao 2012; Bello

2012), the movements think that this might be actually contributing to what they call bureaucratizationor the

partys professionalization and streamlining efforts beginning to have a life of its own, becoming less

accountable to the comprising mass movements (APL 2012). They both point to the increasing primacy of

former leaders from the BISIG bloc, led by Secretary Ronald Llamas, as the likely root of such recent

developments. The former BISIG president, having brokered Akbayans alliance with the LP, has been

officially hands-off from the party since his appointment to the Cabinet, and BISIG itself as a bloc is

indistinguishable from Akbayans officers since at least 2008. It is interesting to note how the organizational

composition of BISIG, which could be accurately considered as a rainbow coalition of different

perspectives and ideological moorings, could well serve as a generalization of Akbayans current character.

The choice of issues and priorities Akbayan seeks to popularize from 2010 up to the present are

somewhat telling of these behavior and tendencies. These could be largely characterized as the usual concerns

of liberal democratic governments, which is not exactly the kind of policies and issues parties that claim to be

leftist are usually expected to espouse. While the leaders of both APL and PAKISAMA would concede that

Akbayans posturing as a democratic leftist partner of the administration through its actions has its benefits,


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they are beginning to have concerns on whether the party is still maintaining its integrity as a politico-social

movement that is answerable to the leftist mass movements comprising it.

APL Chairperson Daniel Edralin calls the partys problematicvagueness of positioningdikit-ism or

the partys pandering to people in influential positions in government. Mata would add that it is beginning to

disturb them that Akbayans cozy relationship with the Liberal Party is leading towards the party beginning to

regulate criticism of the administration, with BISIG-affiliated leaders allegedly expressing displeasure at APLs

highly-critical rhetoric against the administration (APL 2012). Such a conciliatory approach seeking to amass

popular and mobilization support for the administration has largely characterized the partys non-formal

networking in the Aquino administration. Once again, APL has expressed their misgivings of this practice,

relating how efforts by Akbayans leadership to mobilize civil society support for the Aquino administration

somewhat stimulated dissent from KAMAO (an independent urban poor mass movement allied with the

party), saying that it is intruding in its constituencies and areas (Ibid.).

Inasmuch as the party, in its legislative work and current governance activity claims to reflect the

concerns of their constituency, party cultures and structures would still appear to favor certain blocs inside

the party, in this case the leaders of BISIG. That its component social movements, APL and PAKISAMA,

continue to find their identities as social movements-cum-peoples organizations an important counterbalance

to Akbayans increasingly-transforming nature suggests that these organizations find something in the partys

directions that no longer corresponds to their initial agreements, and that their identities as social movements

with their own prerogatives and priorities should be asserted if not put paramount (illustrated in Fig. 4).

That there has been a preference for professionals to represent the party (as is reflected in Bello and

Bag-aos candidacies) instead of actually engaging and developing their sectoral members to become eloquent

and trained political agents themselves (which is the main concern of APL and PAKISAMA), only highlights

this further. It is appropriate to say that appraising leftist movements solely on rhetoric, acculturation to

liberal democracy and choice of engagements (as per the instrumentalist-integraldichotomy of Quimpos contested

democracyframework) remains insufficient, and should be further developed along more critical lines.


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Fig. 4.Integrated Framework illustration of APL and PAKISAMAs relationship with Akbayan.

Our usage of the integrated Goldstone-Desai and Quimpo social movement frameworksturned out to be

appropriate in highlighting the transitions the party is taking. Since Akbayans practice of contention in the

political space has been well-sustained by its linkages, it is unsurprising the party still wants to benefit from it

even if they are now in government. However, being inside state apparatuses that have its own institutional

logic (coincidentally, that in tension with Akbayans own view of governance) yet still wanting to retain that

position, their experiencing levels of tension and negotiation with affiliate and sympathetic social movements

is expected.With Akbayans identityamorphous enough to still relate with social movements yet seemingly-

benefit from access to governmental influence, it serves as a double-edged quality that has inspired the


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appreciation of formalistic, process-oriented civil society groups, yet also stimulated resentment from sectors

dissatisfied with the fact that Akbayan participates in the strengthening of this still-contentious status quo.

While working to facilitate dtentes between government offices and select civil society groups, it nonetheless

neglects other interests of other sectors of society whose relationship to governance remains problematic.

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the tension points of democratic left politics in akbayan's alliance with the aquino administration

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