MANILA, Philippines – There is a clamor for public servants who are not from the same old dynasties — and labor leaders Leody de Guzman and Luke Espiritu believe they can fill that need.
On Sunday, February 16, De Guzman and Espiritu officially started their campaign with a proclamation rally held at Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City, a place that commemorates the martyrs during the Marcos dictatorship.
Low wages, contractualization, demolition in urban poor communities, land grabbing, and corruption in government are all rooted in the prevalence of political dynasties, said De Guzman on Sunday.
“Sila at ang trapong pulitika ang puno’t dulo ng problemang kinakaharap ng sambayanang Pilipino,” De Guzman said. (Them and their traditional politics are the beginning and end of all the problems that Filipino masses are facing.)
Both De Guzman and Espiritu have backgrounds in grassroots organizing. Since 2018, Espiritu has been the president of labor group Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, succeeding De Guzman. They are running under the socialist party Partido Lakas ng Masa.
The proclamation rally was held almost a week after those of the administration-backed Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas and former president Rodrigo Duterte’s Senate bets.
But the Senate race seems defined already, even earlier than these campaign kickoffs. The campaign season comes at the heels of the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte — a development that could not impress more the collapse of the 2022 Uniteam tandem. (READ: Marcos frames 2025 polls as ‘crossroads’: ‘Bagong Pilipinas’ or pro-China, bloody past?)
Espiritu rejected this view, saying Philippine politics can go beyond the warring camps of two formidable political dynasties.
“I don’t concede that our politics will simply fall into that dichotomy of kadiliman (darkness) and kasamaan (evil),” Espiritu said in a Rappler interview on Sunday.
“Has everyone seen ‘yung mga pwersa na sukang-suka na sa dalawa? Mayroon ‘yun, signipikanteng number na sukang-suka na sa Marcos, sukang-suka na sa Duterte. And we cater to that market.”
(Has everyone seen the forces that are fed up with the two camps? They exist, a significant number [of people] are fed up with the Marcoses, the Dutertes. And we cater to that market.)
Before the proclamation rally on Sunday night, De Guzman visited residents at Barangay Central in Diliman, Quezon City. He bumped fists with them, careful not to do the fist symbol that has come to be associated with Duterte.
“Senador naman po,” De Guzman, a presidential candidate in 2022, would tell the residents. (I’m running for senator this time.)
Meanwhile, Espiritu had been doing the rounds in various universities a week prior to their proclamation rally.
A question of winnability
This is not the first time that De Guzman and Espiritu are running for public office. De Guzman ran for senator in 2019, then for president in the 2022 elections where Ferdinand Marcos Jr. won a landslide victory.
Espiritu ran for senator in 2022. He garnered 3.4 million votes.
In the latest Pulse Asia survey, De Guzman ranked 29th, while Espiritu placed 42nd. Up in the Magic 12 are Marcos’ Senate bets, alongside two of Duterte’s chosen candidates, and two independents.
De Guzman and Espiritu’s anti-dynasty platform only puts into sharp focus the reality that the electoral game is not a level playing field.
“Tanggalin natin ang advantage ng pera, tanggalin natin ang advantage ng makinarya, all things being equal, sa tingin ‘nyo hindi kami mananalo ni Ka Leody?” said Espiritu in an ambush interview before the rally started.
“Kapag kukumparahin ‘nyo na lang ang laman ng aming binibitbit sa kanila, sila empty, bankrupt, walang sinasabi,” he added.
(Strip them of their financial advantage, of their machinery — all things being equal — do you think Ka Leody and I won’t win? If you compare our platform with theirs — theirs is empty, bankrupt, insubstantial.)
Weak labor base
De Guzman and Espiritu are banking on the support from their organized bases comprised of urban poor communities, environmental and women’s organizations, and labor groups. The prospects for their candidacy, however, are hobbled by a weak organized labor force.
Although their campaign appeals to the Philippines’ labor force of 50 million, the reality is that organized labor in the country is weak.
According to Bureau of Labor Relations data, the reported membership in “registered labor organizations and workers’ unions” was only 5.2 million as of March 2023, or only around 10% of the country’s labor force. The Philippine labor movement is also deeply divided, especially between left-leaning organizations and labor groups with ties to the establishment.
Sonny Africa, executive director of IBON Foundation, however, downplayed this division, as he highlighted the role election campaigns play in educating the public.
“The bigger problem is the structural advantage trapos (traditional politicians) have from deep financial backing by business elites, their networks of dynasties and of patronage, and their skills at election rigging and fraud,” Africa told Rappler in a message.
The advantages of these traditional politicians are “overwhelming,” said Africa. However, this does not make the opposition forces’ Senate bids invalid, he added.
“Electoral campaigns can be vital platforms for public education and movement-building towards shifting the political landscape and gaining more tangible electoral victories in the future.” – Rappler.com