Old wounds, new battleground? Anakbayan, Akbayan and Left parliamentary politics

Their names may sound alike, but they are mortal enemies who can't stand to be in the same room together. Last week, their feud reached a very public climax when members of Akbayan and Anakbayan engaged in a shouting and shoving match at a press conference that nearly came to blows. Akbayan accused the youth group of “hooliganism,” while Anakbayan called the party-list group a “puppet” of the Aquino administration.   The stage was set for this episode when Anakbayan wrote a letter to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) earlier this month asking it to disqualify incumbent party-list Akbayan from the 2013 elections. The youth organization argued that Akbayan is no longer marginalized since some of its former officials — among them presidential political adviser Ronald Llamas, a former Akbayan president, and Commission on Human Rights chief Etta Rosales, also a former Akbayan president — are already occupying key executive posts.   De La Salle University political science professor Antonio Contreras said the bitter rift between these two groups can be traced to the split of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in 1992.   “Hindi naman natin maitatanggi na magkaiba talaga ang pinanggalingan ng dalawang grupong ito. Galing pa ito sa personal na away noon ng mga reaffirmists and rejectionists na ideological talaga. Mas reaffirmists ang Anakbayan, at galing naman sa rejectionists itong Akbayan,” Contreras said in a phone interview.   He was referring to the division among the Left that happened more than a decade ago when Armando Liwanag (believed to be CPP founder Jose Maria Sison’s nom de guerre) issued a document called “Reaffirm our Basic Principles and Rectify Errors.”   The document was an attempt to return the party to its founding principles of characterizing Philippine society as “semi-colonial and semi-feudal” and the waging of a protracted people’s war in the countryside to topple the government.   Those who supported the document were called “reaffirmists” while those who refused to do so were called the “rejectionists.” Some former officials of Akbayan were affiliated with the “rejectionists.” National Anti-Poverty Commission chief Joel Rocamora, a former president of the party-list, for example, used to be based in the Netherlands with the Left’s top officials, including Sison.   Contreras said old wounds from this split have yet to heal, and a new battle is being waged on parliamentary grounds. “Malalim, mahaba at emosyonal talaga itong away na ito at hindi talaga basta maghihilom,” he said. He added that this split is “emotional” because it has claimed lives and charges of murder. Felimon “Ka Popoy” Lagman, a labor leader who was formerly affiliated with the CPP, for instance, was killed in 2001, allegedly by his former associates in the party.   Left parliamentary politics   Political scientist Ramon Casiple of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform (IPER) agreed that the current feud between Anakbayan and Akbayan has ideological roots.   He said Anakbayan’s request to disqualify Akbayan may be an attempt from the progressive bloc to “have the monopoly of Left parliamentary politics.”   “Itong mga grupong ito, ayaw nila ng karibal. Ayaw nila ng karibal sa ideolohiya, ngayon ayaw nila ng karibal sa eleksyon. Gusto ng reaffirmists, sila lang ang kaliwa,” he said in a  phone interview.   Casiple added that believers in the armed struggle have realized that the parliamentary arena is also a “viable option.”   “This campaign against Akbayan is a way for these groups to prepare their options, because obviously, Akbayan has succeeded in the parliamentary arena. Nakita nila na advantageous ang parliamentary struggle, and they do not want a rival,” he said.   ‘No ideological color’   Anakbayan national chairperson Vencer Crisostomo, however, refuted Casiple’s claims, saying that his group’s petition against Akbayan has “no ideological color.”   “This issue has long been settled. Itong debateng ito, hindi na ito tungkol sa reaffirmists o rejectionists. Tungkol na ito sa tama o mali. Tungkol na ito sa pambabastos sa party-list system,” Crisostomo said in a separate phone interview.   He added that he personally does not even consider Akbayan as a part of the Left anymore, since past officials of the party-list are already “well-entrenched” in government.   “Hindi na nila matatawag na left o progressive ang sarili nila. Ginagamit na sila ng Palasyo and they have already control of government resources,” Crisostomo said.   For his part, lawyer Ibarra Gutierrez III, the group’s spokesperson, agreed that the CPP split has nothing to do with the call for his group’s disqualification.   “That [The CPP split] was already a long time ago. ‘Yung vast majority ng members namin, wala nang alam at wala nang pakialam diyan,” said Gutierrez, who is also Akbayan’s second nominee and Malacañang’s undersecretary for political affairs.   Gutierrez urged the groups questioning Akbayan’s qualifications — which include Kilusang Mayo Uno and League of Filipino Students — to look at the track record of the party-list.   “We continue to push for our party platforms and we continue to represent the marginalized sectors. If other groups do not want to call us Left, we won’t insist on it,” he said.  — KBK, GMA News