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Philippines Progovernment Parties
In 1978 the imprisoned former senators Benigno Aquino and
Lorenzo Tañada organized a political party named Lakas ng Bayan
(Strength of the Nation; also known by its abbreviated form,
LABAN, meaning fight). LABAN won 40 percent of the Manila vote in
parliamentary elections that year but was not given a single seat
in Marcos's New Society Movement-dominated parliament. After
Aquino went into exile in the United States, his wife's brother,
former Congressman Jose Cojuangco, managed LABAN. Cojuangco
forged an alliance with the Pilipino Democratic Party (PDP), a
regional party with strength in the Visayas and Mindanao, that
had been organized by Aquilino Pimentel, the mayor of Cagayan de
Oro City. The unified party was thereafter known as PDP-LABAN,
and it--along with UNIDO conducted Corazon Aquino's presidential
campaign against Marcos.
In its early years, PDP-LABAN espoused a strongly nationalist
position on economic matters and United States base rights,
aspiring to "democratize power and socialize wealth." Later,
after Aquino became president, its rhetorical socialism
evaporated. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, PDP-LABAN had the
distinct advantage of patronage. Aquino named Pimentel her first
minister of local government, then summarily dismissed every
governor and mayor in the Philippines. Pimentel replaced them
with officers in charge known personally to him, thereby creating
an instant pyramid of allies throughout the country. Some, but
not all, of these officers in charge won election on their own in
the January 1988 local elections.
PDP-LABAN was not immune from the problems that generally
plagued Philippine political parties. What mainly kept the party
together was the need to keep Aquino in power for her full sixyear term. In June 1988 the party was reorganized as the Struggle
of Filipino Democrats (Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino). Speaker
of the House Ramon Mitra was its first president, but he resigned
the presidency of the party in 1989 in favor of Neptali Gonzales.
In 1990 Aquino announced the formation of a movement called
Kabisig (Arm-in-Arm), conceived as a nongovernmental organization
to revive the spirit of People's Power and get around an
obstinate bureaucracy and a conservative Congress. By 1991 its
resemblance to a nascent political party worried the more
traditional leadership, particularly Mitra. Part of Aquino's
governing style was to maintain a stance of being "above
politics." Although she endorsed political candidates, she
refused to form a political party of her own, relying instead on
her personal probity, spirituality, and simple living to maintain
popular support.
Data as of June 1991
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