Senate anti-turncoatism bill touches raw nerves

Are you willing to spend your hard-earned money to finance political parties?

Senators have approved at the committee level a bill putting up a “state subsidy fund” to “augment” the campaign kitty of accredited political parties to the tune of P350 million sourced from the national treasury every year.

The measure principally authored by Senators Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and Edgardo Angara also punishes “political turncoatism,” a proposal that did not sit well with “independent” Senator Sergio Osmeña III.

“Kalokohan yun (It’s foolish),” he told reporters in reaction to the committee report on the proposed “Act Strengthening the Political Party System.”

“Why are we preventing something that’s not a crime? You will penalize somebody for going from Liberal to Nacionalista? Why? I don’t understand that,” he said. “Everybody will turn independent after that.”

Besides Angara, Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Franklin Drilon are sponsors of the bill, which hurdled deliberations at the committees on finance and constitutional amendments.

Though she did not change political parties, Santiago had been criticized in the past for transferring allegiance from one sitting president to another, not unlike the case of Drilon. Drilon was a rabid supporter of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, but is now among her most vocal critics, he being an ally of President Benigno Aquino.

Originally posted at 08:23 pm | Wednesday, June 13,  2012