INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

Kapatiran admits chances dim but idealism still alive

Inquirer

Christian V. Esguerra

MANILA, Philippines -- The writing is on the wall -- all three senatorial candidates of Ang Kapatiran face defeat.

Scoring not more than 3.6 percent in major pre-election surveys, even the most optimistic in the party has come to realize that Martin Bautista, Adrian Sison and Jesus Zosimo Paredes don’t stand a chance in the May 14 elections.

“Medyo malabo na nga (The situation is uncertain),” Bautista admitted to the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Saturday. “We’re close to election day but the voters still don’t know us.”

He based his conclusion primarily on his experience in campaign sorties and Kapatiran’s performance in both the Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia surveys that covered the first half of April.

In the SWS tally, Bautista received only 3.6 percent of the votes; Sison, 2.2 percent, and Paredes, 1.4 percent. The Pulse Asia survey was just as discouraging: Bautista, 3 percent; Sison, 2 percent; Paredes, 1 percent.

Unlike other candidates at the bottom of the surveys -- who are still in denial -- the three candidates know where they stand and the battle they are engaged in.

In this sense, Bautista’s admission of looming electoral defeat shouldn’t be construed as surrender.

To begin with, Bautista -- a successful physician in the United States who moved back to the Philippines last year -- said the struggle was never focused solely on winning in the May elections.

“This is a long and protracted struggle to put the country back on track,” Bautista said.

When Kapatiran was established by a group of lay Catholics in 2004, the intention was clearly to initiate a new perspective in Philippine politics -- one that would be centered on faith and morals. Hopefully, it would reach critical mass.

From this concept of God-centered politics, the group hoped that the political system would heal itself, that politicians would turn into statesmen, and leaders would become genuine servants.

“We’ve succeeded in the sense that we’ve created an awareness that there are still people who have not lost hope in our nation,” Bautista said.

Bautista, Sison and Paredes have met many of them on the campaign trail -- the calloused hand working in the public market, a couple raising a decent family despite overwhelming poverty, an ordinary employee doing honest and dedicated work.

“We have to start somewhere,” Bautista said. He began by plunging into Philippine politics, armed only with a deep sense of idealism.

“While on the campaign trail, I came to realize that corruption cuts across the whole spectrum of Philippine society,” he said. “But I’m not backing out. On the contrary, our idealism has become stronger.”

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