Lakas CMD

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Lakas CMD (completely Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats ; Filipino Lakas Demokratikong Kristiyano at Muslim ; Lakas means "power") is a political party in the Philippines . Their ideological orientation is described as Christian Democratic , but there is also a minority of Muslim members. In the political spectrum, it is located in the center- right . At the global level, it is a member of the Centrist Democrat International (CDI). With Fidel Ramos (1992–98) and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (2001–10), she provided two state presidents. Since 2010, their importance has decreased significantly. The party colors are gold, blue and green.

history

President Fidel Ramos (1998)

The party was founded in December 1991. The former chief of staff of the Philippine armed forces and then defense minister Fidel Ramos left the party Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP; "Struggle of the Democratic Filipinos") because they had not nominated him as a presidential candidate and founded his own party , Partido Lakas ng Tao (“Party of People's Power”). Shortly thereafter, this united with the National Union of Christian Democrats (NUCD) by Raúl Sevilla Manglapus and adopted the short name Lakas-NUCD . In 1992, Ramos was elected President. On the occasion of the 1995 parliamentary elections, Lakas-NUCD formed a coalition with the LDP, which was known as the Lakas-Laban coalition and received a majority in both chambers of parliament.

Before the 1998 presidential election, Lakas-NUCD merged with the smaller United Muslim Democrats of the Philippines (UMDP) of Sanchez Ali, after which it first appeared as Lakas-NUCD-UMDP. Your presidential candidate, Jose de Venecia junior, lost to Joseph Estrada in this election , but the politician Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, nominated by Lakas, was elected Vice President with a clear majority. Arroyo was actually a member of the then still independent small party Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (KAMPI; "partner of the free Filipinos"), which was also a split from the LDP.

Lakas-CMD and KAMPI joined the protests against the allegedly corrupt President Estrada in January 2001 (so-called second EDSA revolution) and demanded his removal from office. After Estrada's dismissal, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo became the new president. In the parliamentary elections in May 2001, Lakas-NUCD joined the People Power Coalition (PPC), to which the opponents of Estrada had come together (in addition to Lakas these were PDP-Laban, Liberale and Aksyon Demokratiko). In the run-up to the 2004 presidential election, the party renamed itself Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD). Macapagal Arroyo was re-elected with 40% of the vote. Her non-party “running mate” Noli de Castro became vice president. In the parliamentary elections in 2007, the government camp suffered a major setback: only two candidates from TEAM Unity from Lakas-CMD, KAMPI, LDP and other politicians close to the government were elected to the Senate.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

At Arroyo's insistence, KAMPI merged with Lakas-CMD on June 18, 2008, and the unified party adopted the name Lakas Kampi CMD . However, the party had lost a lot of its popularity, also because of Macapagal Arroyo's unpopularity. Her presidential candidate Gilberto Teodoro , who converted from the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) to Lakas-Kampi just a year before the 2010 election , only came fourth. The party won 37% of the seats in the House of Representatives in the simultaneous parliamentary elections and was in the governing coalition of the liberal President Benigno Aquino III. represented, but most of the party members left the Lakas Kampi, which split into three groups: One switched to the Liberal Party, a second (mainly former Kampi members) formed the National Unity Party (NUP), which was accepted into the government, and the remaining Lakas MPs left the coalition and went to the opposition bloc in the House of Representatives. Thereupon the party dropped the part of its name Kampi again and called itself back to Lakas CMD on May 11, 2012 .

In the 2013 elections, the party continued to decline in importance, after which it only had 14 seats in the House of Representatives, two senators (they were not eligible because their term of office ran until 2016) and no provincial governor. As of 2016, Lakas CMD has only four members in the House of Representatives and not a single Senator.

Party leadership

The party's president is the former MP Martin Romualdez , the national chairperson is the former Senator Bong Revilla , and the general secretary is the Vice Mayor of Butuan , Jose Aquino II . The ex-presidents Fidel Ramos and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo are honorary chairmen of the Lakas CMD.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Louis Perron: Election Campaigns in the Philippines. In: Dennis W. Johnson: Routledge Handbook of Political Management. Routledge, New York / Abingdon (Oxon) 2009, pp. 360-369, at p. 361.
  2. ↑ Leopoldo J. Dejillas: Christian Democracy and Social Market Economy. An Alternative Program of Philippine Government. Logos Publications, Manila 1993.
  3. ^ Oxford Business Group (ed.): The Report. The Philippines 2012. p. 24.
  4. ^ A b c Julio C. Teehankee: The Philippines. In: Takashi Inoguchi, Jean Blondel: Political Parties and Democracy. Contemporary Western Europe and Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, New York / Basingstoke (Hampshire) 2012, pp. 187–205, at p. 195.
  5. ↑ Lakas drops GMA's Kampi from coalition. In: The Manila Times (Online), May 12, 2012 ( May 14, 2012 memento ).
  6. ↑ Carmela Fonbuena: Lakas-CMD - Relevant for how long? In: Rappler (Online), September 13, 2012.