A mess of political parties
Today has this op-ed on the mess of the political parties in the Philippines. The op-ed specifically points to the split in the LDP caused by the serious dispute between the Angara-led bloc and that of the party secretary-general, Agapito "Butz" Aquino. The op-ed points out that "When people can not be trusted to stay loyal to their party, it would be the height of stupidity to believe they can be trusted to carry out grand visions of government."

The recent lists of candidates showing a dearth of political talents (thus the need to recruit celebrities with no political background at all aside from their pretty faces) point to another pernicious problem with our political parties: they never develop political stars inside their parties, but simply coopt people from outside.

Our political parties, devoid of any youth component, fails in one important function of a political party in a democracy, that of apprenticing young people for future public office. We are faced therefore with candidates like Bong Revilla who has a perverse way of assessing his political bankability.