The Makabayan bloc progressives, who failed to win a Senate seat in the last four elections, plan to turn the tide and score a win in the 2025 polls, during which they will field a 12-strong Senate slate.
So far, the bloc named only House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers party-list lawmaker France Castro in its Senate slate, and former Cabinet member and Gabriela party-list lawmaker Liza Maza was aware it did not get easier from here.
Maza, who ran for the Senate in 2010 and lost, said Makabayan would need to communicate to voters that their candidates were consistent with their principles, such as fighting for wage hikes, regularization of workers, P50,000 entry-level salary for teachers, comprehensive agrarian reform, opposition to extra-judicial killings, and Charter change, among a sea of fair-weather traditional politicians.
“Makabayan is an advocacy party. We want to articulate and explain to the people na kami ang magiging boses nila sa kung ano ba ang kailangan ng ating bayan. With those intentions, I feel that this run will yield positive results,” Maza said in a press conference when asked how the Makabayan plans to turn its election fortunes around.
“We know that it is going to be very difficult, given the character of our elections, which is very costly. We know that it is going to be an uphill battle. But in Makabayan, we are consistent. We don’t back down from our principles and platforms. We are consistently against anti-people policies and pro-people,” Maza added.
Ex-Bayan Muna lawmaker Neri Colmenares, who ran for the Senate in 2016, 2019, and 2022 but in all the contests, said the odds were stacked against Makabayan, to begin with, given state-backed efforts linking them to the rebels, if not terrorists, and the costly nature of elections which favor those who have a huge war chest.
“It is not really about campaign style. The reality is, the electoral system is corrupt. Magastos. Kaya may kahirapan talaga ang mga oposisyon. The other way, of course, is for us to run under the administration so we can have a better chance to win. But we won’t do that. That is what makes us different. We don’t pretend to be the opposition,” Colmenares said.
“Were the other candidates able to speak against the extrajudicial killings during the drug war? We in the Makabayan were vocal against that. Did they ever speak against the contractualization of workers like us? That [absence of consistency] will expose other candidates to nahungkag sila, that they are not really for the interest of the people and doon naman makakaani ng suporta ang Makabayan candidates,” Colmenares said.
He added that if the reforms they were pushing for were not worthy, Makabayan would not have remained represented in the House of Representatives since the party-list law was enacted in 1995.
“Despite the attacks against us, we survive. If those were done against any other political parties when people from your ranks are killed, imprisoned, or red-tagged as rebels or terrorists every step of the way, siguro, tumba na iyong political party na iyon,” Colmenares said.
(Any other party would have ceased to exist.)
“But we have showed everyone na hindi kami basta-basta matutumba kasi galing ang lakas namin sa mamamayang Pilipino. Iyan naman ang maipagmamalaki namin. Mahirap tumbahin, mahirap lusawin, mahirap walain ang isang partido o koalisyon na nagmumula ang suporta sa taumbayan,” he added.
(But we have shown that we are no pushovers because our strength comes from the people. That is something we take pride in. You can’t knock down, wash away, or erase a party or coalition that emanates from people’s support.) — DVM, GMA Integrated News
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