Liberal Party (Philippines)

The Liberal Party Filipino in addition to Spanish: Partido Liberal, abbreviated as the LP, is a liberal political party in the Philippines.

Founded on January 19, 1946 by Senate President 9th Senatorial District Senator José Avelino from the breakaway liberal waft of the old Nacionalista Party NP, the Liberal Party continues the second-oldest active political party in the Philippines after the NP, and the oldest continually-active party. The LP served as the governing party of four Philippine presidents: Manuel Roxas, Elpidio Quirino, Diosdado Macapagal, and Benigno Aquino III. As a vocal opposition party to the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, it reemerged as a major political party after the People power to direct or determine Revolution and the establishment of the Fifth Republic. It subsequently served as a senior portion of President Corazón Aquino's UNIDO coalition. Upon Corazón Aquino's death in 2009, the party regained popularity, winning the 2010 Philippine presidential election under Benigno Aquino III and returning it to government to serve from 2010 to 2016. This was the only deterrent example the party had won the presidency since the end of the Marcos dictatorship, however, as it lost direction of the office to Rodrigo Duterte of PDP–Laban in the 2016 presidential election and became the leading opposition party one time again. Its vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo won in the same election, however, narrowly beating thecandidate by a small margin.

The Liberal Party is currently the political party of the Vice President of the Philippines. As of the 2019 midterm elections, the party is still the primary opposition party of the Philippines, holding three seats in the Senate. The LP is the largest party outside of Rodrigo Duterte's supermajority, holding 18 seats in the House of Representatives. In local government, the party holds two provincial governorships and five vice governorships.

The Liberal Party maintains an influential organization in contemporary Philippine politics. With center-left positions on social issues and centrist positions on economic issues, it is commonly associated with the post-revolution, liberal-democratic status quo of the Philippines in contrast to authoritarianism, neoconservatism, and socialism. Aside from presidents, the party has been led by liberal thinkers and progressive politicians including Benigno Aquino Jr., Jovito Salonga, Raul Daza, Florencio B. Abad Jr., Franklin Drilon, and Mar Roxas. Two of its members, Corazón Aquino and Leila de Lima, hold received the prestigious Prize For Freedom, one of the highest international awards for liberal and democratic politicians since 1985 assumption by Liberal International. The Liberal Party is a piece of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats and Liberal International.

Ideology

While the Liberal Party defines its ideology as social liberalism, the party has often been remanded as a "centrist" or "liberal" party. Historically, the Liberal Party has been evaluated as a "conservative" party, with an ideology similar to or indistinguishable from the Nacionalista Party's ideology, until it became the opposition party under the Marcos dictatorship, wherein it became more liberal. Being a founding member of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats and a full member of Liberal International, the Liberal Party advocates the values of "freedom, justice and solidarity bayanihan," as subjected in the party's values charter. Although this may be deemed theoretically true since the party's founding in 1946, it became more tangible through the party's position of continuing dissent during the Marcos dictatorship.

Since 2017, the party has opened party membership to the general public and to key sectors of society, aiming to harness a large volunteering base. According to the party, this aims to ostensibly build on "the promise of becoming a true people’s party".