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A CENTRIST ENTHUSIASM ON NATION BUILDING |Roderico Y. Dumaug, Jr. | February 13, 2011Davao City Page 1 of 9 pages
A CENTRIST DEMOCRATIC ENTHUSIASM ON NATION BUILDING
By: Roderico Y. Dumaug, Jr., National Interim President
Centrist Democratic Movement Federation of the Philippines
February 13, 2011, Gran Men Seng, Davao City
Welcome Address
On the occasion of the visit of the
Vice Minister for Education of Germany, Mr. Günter Winands
on “The work of parliamentary parties, government policies on political parties, opportunities of
thematic influence of political parties on local, regional and national levels”
Distinguished men and women of CDM, Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the outset, let me begin by expressing a warm welcome to all of you, to my
fellow Regional Chairperson, our host this afternoon together with our dear friends
from CDM Southern Mindanao, to my ka-lambigit, our amazing members from CDM-
Northern Mindanao, Sir Lito Monico Lorenzana, and Dr. Peter Koeppinger and to our
distinguished guest, Dr. Gunter Winands.
It is my greatest pleasure to welcome you all in gathering like this, which is the
meeting of the great sons and daughters of Mindanao. Your presence today adds up
to my great enthusiasm to all our endeavors in CDM. I am very proud to say that
because of your active participation, our uphill battle for membership expansion and
in strengthening our very young movement so that this will be known all over the
country and be relevant to the current national political issues, is somewhat like an
easy task for your National Council Officers, having you on our side.
All of you here being the new centrist reformists and the youthful successors of
the likes of, let us say, the late Vice-President of the Philippines Maning Pelaez, the
late Rey Teves, of the still very active former Senator Nene Pimentel, Ruben Canoy,

our very own youthful Lito Lorenzana and of the other great men and women of
Southern Mindanao and Northern Mindanao who in the past and even today are
vibrant, youthful, courageous and enthusiastic in making Mindanao as the birthplace
and the home of the idea and the struggle for decentralization, federalism,
autonomy and centrist democracy in the Philippines.
I always hear great stories about what happened in the past that connect this
two great cities of Mindanao, of Davao City and Cagayan de Oro City, or in our
present set-up of Southern Mindanao and Northern Mindanao especially in the
process of institutionalizing the political party system in our country.
But sometimes their story will end up in their failure to formally institutionalize the
party system in our country and still the fight continues for we remain to be a nation
without a true political party system.
But what I like about their struggle in the past is the fact that they started it here
in Mindanao. Although the Preceding Generation failed in their desire to transform
this nation when they were young in age but to us the Successor Generation, they
are our model in changing the face of this nation in the manner on what we are
doing right now. With the strong belief that if they started it, we must continue the
noble cause.
We must be enthusiastic in all our endeavors here in CDM.
We have already invested our time, talent and resources to our movement and
we should demand for a return of our investment. I am saying this because most of us
including those our dear friends from the other regions are ordinary citizens, from the
academe, the business sectors, from the NGO, a few of us from the public sector or

let us say most of us are ordinary Filipino citizens doing extraordinary tasks for our
country. Heroes are ordinary citizens doing the extraordinary, walking an extra mile or
putting up an additional premium ahead of the others in preparation for a great
future of our country.
Our expected gains from what we are doing is the social transformation of our
nation and the immediate task of CDM today is the institutionalization of political
parties and for us to have influence or control of political power to advance our
centrist agenda which we believe is the best for our country.
We must be very proud of what we are doing in our movement for we are the
first political movement in the political history of this country where we are going
towards the institutionalization of political parties and the professionalization of party
internal democracy.
Our gathering today is very timely. Our nation have already suffered much from
the domination of political personalities controlling our political system projecting
individual vested interests by controlling the domain of our economic and political
system contributing to a social imbalance in our society, instead of the rule of law
and the dynamism of our political institutions like political parties. This is one of the
deficits of Philippine democracy.
Whether or not my illustration today is relevant to my opening statements but
for purposes of opening up our minds to see the few disturbing things happening to
our country today, let us try to reflect on the death of former Chief of Staff of the
Philippine Armed Forces, former Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and let us examine
ourselves being the current frontrunner of a true centrist ideologies and values all over

the country. First, the mega-corruption in the AFP particularly among the high-ranking
Generals which are affecting the morale of our fighting soldiers and is destroying the
image of a very important institution in our country is exposed in the public now.
Second, the personality based exercise of legislative power of our Congress in the
guise of ‘in aid of legislation’ is now in aid of trial by publicity and today we are
actually seeing the sad state of due process and civility in investigating anything
including graft and corruption contrary to the true spirit of the rule of law. There is that
clash of credibility between the investigators and the investigated, all perceived to
be corrupt and plunderers, now open to the public. Third, the statement of our
President in one of his public statements, regarding the corruption in the military, and
he said that he has knowledge of the corruption in the AFP and the question now is
what’s next and what is he going to do right now? Given that he has this near-
monarchic powers being the most powerful person in the country, everyone is waiting
for his political will he campaigned in the last elections to confront this issue under his
banner of ‘ang daan matuwid”. Fourth, the failure of our law enforcement agencies,
the prosecutorial agencies and the courts to swiftly and professionally implement the
law to anyone especially those committed by government officials committing acts
detrimental to our country and institutions.
The dishonorable death of Angelo Reyes, in whatever manner you view it base
on your individual value and faith, really confirms the deficits of Philippine democracy
especially today.
Philippine Democracy as a singular political system and as feared by the few is
now becoming a mob rule in our political institutions and somewhat like there’s

hopelessness in transforming this nation. I am hoping that the current state of our
country will not change the belief of the Filipino people on the true value and
importance of Democracy.
In history, the Filipinos are known as an ardent supporter of Democracy
because of the American influence. Our country, being the first Democratic state in
Asia, is the sick man of Asia, and, although the only Christian country in Asia, is one of
the most corrupt nation in the world. Are we corrupt and poor because we are
Christians or we are Christians because we are corrupt and poor?
We should not blame Democracy for this. Once we believe that Democracy
failed us and will really get into that idea, anti-democratic values and ideologies will
take advantage and it will become an ultimate end of our nation building anchored
on democratic value.
We forgot to understand the political system of our country. What is the political
system or the form of government of our country? The common answer is that we are
Democratic. (Period)
We really failed to understand our political system and our form of government.
It is not only democratic. Our country is a Democratic and a Republican State.
Article 2, Section 1 of 1987 Philippine Constitution states that the Philippines is a
Democratic and a Republican State. Sovereignty resides in the people and all
government authority emanate from them.
We are not only Democratic, we are also Republican. Democratic as a singular
political system is an impossible system of government. That is why the authors of our
constitution since the time of the Malolos Congress and up to today’s constitution,

Democracy is married to Republicanism.
Republicanism means that we are a Representative form of government and a
government ruled by law.
We are not purely democratic here. Such is an impossible and a dangerous
system. If we are solely democratic then all the people will rule the government and
will administer all its institutions. It is costly, impossible and most of all it would be like a
mob rule or anarchy. There will be no rule of law but what will prevail will be the rule
of men.
We need to understand Republicanism as part of our political system that it is a
Representative form of government and the superiority on the value of the rule of
law.
Rule of law to limit the powers of the Government and to limit also the
enjoyment of the people’s freedom for the sake of nation building and for the
common good.
Republicanism means a representative form of government. Since all of us
cannot become the leaders and administer this government we have to choose and
elect our leaders to represent us, to represent our voices, our values, our culture, our
belief and everything in us as a people. Simultaneous with our election to them as our
true representative, we also delegated to them that authority to decide for our
behalf. And if we don’t agree with their decisions and they do not truly represent us,
then on the next election we will not elect them as our representative or following the
people power provisions in our constitution, we can remove them even before the
next election. As the constitution says, sovereignty resides in the people and all

government authority emanates from them.
I believe that in this particular aspect, the Filipino people failed to understand
and appreciate the true spirit of Republicanism. That it is a representative form of
government and that we are to choose and elect our true representatives in the
government.
Why did we vote for the popular dimwits, the stubborn, and the circus
entertainers in Congress or anywhere in the Philippines? Do they truly represent us and
our interests?
They are there because we only believe on the Democracy, hence the
popularity and beauty contest in the way we elect our leaders.
We failed to understand Republicanism. Through this system we must elect
someone who is best qualified to represent the people and will represent our nation’s
interest in the government.
Because we failed to understand republicanism, that is why our political party
system grossly failed in our country despite the fact that we are the oldest
democratic state in Asia.
Just because we failed to understand and highly believe on the beauty of
Republicanism that it is a Representative form of government and the superiority of
the Rule of Law, as a result according to General Jose Almonte in his article ‘We Are
Responsible For One Another,’ we have a factional politics, a nation ruled by men,
institutions run by political personalities, civil service despoiled by politics, weak
financial system, an irresponsible Congress, a monarchic and very powerful President,
oligarchy, political system working at cross purpose, policymaking captive to vested

interests, nationalism to justify a closed markets, patronage system and the poor
remain to be a staunch supporters of patronage, a nation not producing and
extreme social injustice in the urban poor sector and in the rural areas.’
I am challenging you that we have to walk our talk and we must get out from
the box and have a mindset that will truly understand Democracy and
Republicanism.
Being a member of CDM, be a centrist in thoughts and in deeds. We must be
true to ourselves as young people, and if you think that you’re no longer one in age
feel and think that you are one. We are all young people here because we are all
Children of the Future. What we are doing today is for the future, and we are all
dreaming for a great Philippines in the Future.
Given the paramount importance of the good intentions why we are all here, it
is my sincere wish that this gathering will truly help us in becoming known all over the
nation as the only political movement believing both on the oneness and indivisibility
of Democracy and Republicanism, and as the only political movement working for
the institutionalization of the political parties in the Philippines and the
professionalization of our revered and unique internal democracy. And that we are
Critical Minded people, not crazy, critical to everything we believe about Centrist
Values and these values are relevant in our country.
I hope that with our distinguished visitor present today, what we learn here will
arm us with the right ideas in building a true political party in the country and help us
in our current aims of the CDM. I know that this will be a good start and I am hoping
that it will be followed up with several orientations, trainings and seminar.

Be active and enthusiastic in participating to our discussions this afternoon.
To all of you, thank you for being here, welcome, and enjoy this conference.
Thank you very much.

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