Sec. Gibo Teodoro: The Face of the NEW Lakas-Kampi CMD Party

Many say that platform is the most important credential that we should look at in our choice for the next President. However, much has the dynamic problems of society has evolved, our standards in choosing the next leader follows.

The dynamic structures of our multi-party system has exposed our weak institutions, and moreover, has encouraged politicians to take advantage of the system for political expediency and survival. This problem may have been borne out of the 1987 Constitution. Several parties, either serious ones with real platform, or ones that could simply break us in laughter given its constituency, have allowed the entry of political butterflies and those who simply need the machinery of each without necessarily adhering to party principles, platform and vision. It's now seen as a mechanism for political survival.


The Liberal party can make no excuses about it, for they may have inherited the mantra of "Politics is addition", without having to screen quality which influxed them from the administration party. The Nacionalista party itself cannot make silly pretensions about the raid of administration bets in its makeover. These changes do not reflect, in any shape or form, the lack of vision, mission and objective of the political party, but again popularity politics, and the politics of survival.


Sec. Teodoro, upon inheriting the leadership of Lakas-Kampi-CMD party, has made no qualms in his guarantee of firming up democratic institutions once elected as President. He ensured first, that in his party, there would be a reorganization to allow the entry of new and able leaders to spur new politics- with ideologies that can stir the country to heights unimagined. Gov. Migz Dominguez of Saranggani, Party President, and Ideological standout Francis Manglapuz, Secretary General, now become the new face of a party seeking its long lost vision of providing the people a young, vibrant leadership they can entrust and associate themselves with. And while many have departed the administration party, the entry of such new players may have posed new threats to the former's political survival. Politics is not just addition, but it is also about quality of membership, something that the NEW Lakas can pride itself with.


And with the recent expulsion of the Ampatuans from the party, Teodoro has made no joke about his promise to deliver a new Lakas to the electorate, that while winning maybe important, there is a thing called principle which must be upheld, something that NO candidate can ever brag of.


He who wants the presidency, at the end of the day, must be able to manage his party, must be able to provide a clear cut direction on where the party should go, must be able to organize the divide in ideologies and personal conflicts within his own institution and must reach a national consensus within his own home towards peace, solidarity and subsidiarity.


Our choice of next President can also be based on the ability of one to lead his party, through thick and thin, towards the second decade of the new millennium. With that in mind, thumbs up for Sec. Gibo Teodoro, the face of the NEW Lakas-Kampi-CMD Party.