Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III (Photo by JOSEPH VIDAL / Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)
Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III has acknowledged that the “lack of consistency in policy” and “weakened” institutions were among the reasons why the country is facing many problems today.
Pimentel made the remark when he visited the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Party School in Beijing over the weekend. The school, he said, trains top government officials and CPC members in matters of governance and public administration.
During the visit, the Senate leader expressed hopes of looking to the school as an example of how to train party members on issues of governance and party ideology.
“Politics in other countries are based on ideology and policy, as put forward by political parties. In our country, our politics is still personality-based,” he said.
“There is no consistency in policy and institutions are weakened, leading to many of the problems that we now face. We must strengthen the party system in the Philippines,” the senator added.
Pimentel was in Beijing during to represent both the Philippines and the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayan (PDP Laban) in the World Dialogue of Political Parties organized by the CPC. The forum was the first and largest gathering of political parties around the world, with representatives of political parties from 120 countries present.
The Senate leader, who is also president of PDP-Laban, promised that “the change to better Philippine politics” will start with their own party, being chaired now by President Rodrigo Duterte.
“A strong party system begins with the individual members of the party. I will report to the Party leaders on my observations in this trip so we can determine how to produce more quality members and instill party discipline among our members. The change to better Philippine politics will begin with PDP-Laban,” he said.
Pimentel said their party advocates Theism, Humanism, Enlightened Nationalism, Democratic Socialism, Participatory and Consultative Democracy, and Federalism.
During his trip, the senator also met with Chinese President and CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping on Friday, where he relayed Duterte’s message, congratulating the former for the successful hosting of the dialogue, thanking him for his support of the Philippines’ ASEAN chairmanship, and congratulating him for the successful and historic staging of the CPC 19th National Party Congress.
Other dignitaries who met with Pimentel included Zhang Dejiang, the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and a member of the CPC’s policymaking Politburo Standing Committee; Wang Huning, First Secretary of the CPC’s Central Secretariat and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee; and Song Tao, the head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee. /je