Why personalities trump parties in Philippine politics

TO WHICH political party does the president belong? In most countries, the question would have a straightforward answer, but not in the Philippines. Rodrigo Duterte won the job in 2016 as the candidate of PDP-Laban, which was founded by democrats campaigning against the despotic rule of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and 1980s. He had previously headed two regional outfits based in the city of Davao, where he used to be mayor. But his daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, the current mayor of Davao, recently founded a party called Hugpong ng Pagbabago (“Faction for Change” or HNP), which Mr Duterte’s supporters are joining in droves, even though the president himself remains head of PDP-Laban.

Mr Duterte is not the only politician to flit from party to party. Filipinos love a winner: most of PDP-Laban’s 114 members of the House of Representatives belonged to other parties when they were elected, but defected after Mr Duterte became president. Nor is he the only one to have created a party (or three). Three former presidents, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Arroyo, all had personal vehicles.

There are no restrictions on switching parties. “People don’t vote for me because of my party, they vote for me because of my character and my ability to deliver,” says Miro Quimbo, a congressman who has served only the Liberal party. Politicians flock to a new president’s party because that increases their chances of getting funding for projects in their districts included in the budget. Passage of next year’s budget was delayed recently after 55bn pesos ($1bn) of pork was found hidden within it.

Ideology and tribal loyalty—so vital in America, Britain and elsewhere—do not play much part in politics. Thus Mr Duterte, who heaps praise on Marcos, is leading a party that was founded to oppose him. In elections next year HNP plans to support the Senate campaign of Marcos’s daughter, Imee (pictured on the right, with Ms Duterte-Caprio).

Parties are weak partly for historical reasons. Soon after Marcos’s fall in 1986, Congress devolved greater powers to provincial and local authorities, as a reaction to the former dictator’s strongly centralised regime. That strengthened local power brokers and weakened national institutions of all sorts, including political parties.

The government provides no financial support for parties, and it is hard to build a mass membership when you do not stand for much, so candidates must either fund their own campaigns or seek backing from tycoons. Celebrities and members of political dynasties have a head start, both because they tend to be rich and well-connected and because they are already household names—something it is otherwise costly to become in a country of 104m. To survive beyond the term of a supportive president, parties must secure a wealthy backer. Manuel Villar, a billionaire businessman, is the president of the Nacionalista Party while Eduardo Cojuangco Jr, the chairman of the giant San Miguel beer-to-banking corporation, sits at the helm of the Nationalist People’s Coalition.

But even if money allows some parties to survive (the Nacionalistas have been around since 1907), the main organising principle of Philippine politics is family. “I think a large part of the reason why I won is because of my family name,” concedes Senator Bam Aquino, a member of the Liberal party whose aunt and cousin have both been president. A study published in 2014 found that fully 70% of representatives were dynasts.

Another study, published in 2016, found that beyond the island of Luzon, home to the capital, Manila, a greater prevalence of political dynasties is associated with greater poverty. Despite his background, Mr Aquino champions legislation to break the hold of families on elections. Recent reform at the lowest level of government, barangays, which are akin to wards, has barred the children of barangay captains from senior posts in local youth councils. Mr Aquino would like to apply similar restrictions higher up the political hierarchy. The constitution, after all, explicitly endorses laws to limit dynasticism.

Another proposal that would bolster parties is to bar politicians from switching between them within a year of an election. More radically, Mr Duterte, like many presidents before him, has talked about amending the constitution to adopt a parliamentary system of government, in which party discipline is needed to form a government. But incumbents are unlikely to change a system which works in their favour.

“I don’t foresee any major change in the political party system in the next elections,” says Mrs Arroyo, the former president, who is now speaker of the House. Nonetheless, she argues, “There can only be advantages in strengthening party politics in the Philippines.” She should know: in addition to founding her own outfit, she has also been a member of three other parties. The latest, naturally, is PDP-Laban, which she joined last year, when the president was still firmly in it.