WHAT should a citizenry do if political parties fail them? It begs the question because our pretentious “political parties” have been in default time and again. Whether one speaks of a local party like Padayon Pilipino or its preferred national embodiment, the United Nationalist Alliance, they consist only of the organizers and self-proclaimed “leaders.” In Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental, it’s the Emanos and their minions that constitute the party. Adept in the use of government largesse and the power to confer contracts and other patronage, they are highly skilled in manipulating the poor, the naïve, and the corruptible—their core constituency. In Manila, what passes for the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) are the Binays and their subsidized minions. In the provinces they have managed to ensnare Binay-like syndicates like the Emanos here and the Benjie Pelaez-types in Misamis Oriental. •• But these so-called parties don’t even bother to perform their role as the recruiting and quality control mechanism for political leadership, whether for the community or for the nation. Instead of serving as our society’s instrument for advocating or propagating ideas and platforms of governance, they afflict our system with dealers of bad government and dynastic rule—dealers, not leaders! It is through parties that civilized people can weigh the merits of alternative choices on how government is to be conducted and who should be in charge: which are essential in the dynamics of democracy. But instead of recruit and train aspirants in democratic governance, they become harbingers and suppliers of unworthy candidates, cornering public office. •• Traditional political leaders (trapos) are bad for our society. They have a wrong idea of what a party is. The treat a political party is a personal vehicle for political ambitions, a personal machine for getting elected. So the “party” they organize is really an oligarchic group built around their person—held together by nothing more than loyalty to the trapo, not to ideas, principles, or platforms (assuming they have any). The case of UNA is a glaring example; it is a contrived group of vested interests loyal to VP Jejomar Binay. Its genuineness or integrity is betrayed by its composition. It is not broad-based. It does not recruit members aside from the ambitious trapos who constitute the group. It has dubious principles, policies, or platform. It’s even unclear what it means by “nationalist” (try having them define it!). Why would a gang of trapos fancy itself as an “alliance?” The only thing that unites them is a common desire to elevate Jejomar Binay and his family to the pinnacles of power and wealth—so they can partake of the spoils of victory, Makati-style, which not much different from the Mafia. •• As for the other “parties” note the absence of party caucuses or nominating conventions. They don’t even bother to organize chapters anymore. Their so-called “leaders” represent only themselves, exchanging places at will, keeping their dynasties fat through unending series of power-grabs. Even the Liberal Party is nothing more than a personal instrument for PNoy’s proclamation of who shall carry its banner and run for election. As for the once-proud party of Raul Manglapus and the Christian Democrats (National Union of Christian and Muslim Democrats, later compressed as Lakas-CMD) nothing seems left but the label and the feeble leaders who claim the mantle without benefit of selection by the party faithful. Well, what can one expect? There’s no such thing as “party faithful” anymore! Thus, anything goes! What a poor excuse of a political system we have! —30— (An author of books on governance, Manny is national chairman/convenor of Gising Barangay Movement Inc. valdehuesa@gmail.com)