Liberal Party (Philippines)

Liberal Party Partido Liberal
Logo since 2021
Abbreviation	LP
President	Francis Pangilinan
Chairman	Leni Robredo
Secretary-General	Jose Christopher "Kit" Belmonte
Founder	Manuel Roxas Elpidio Quirino
Founded	January 19, 1946 (1946-01-19)
Split from	Nacionalista Party
Headquarters	Balay Expo Centro, Araneta City, Cubao, Quezon City, Metro Manila
Think tank	Center for Liberalism and Democracy
Youth wing	Liberal Youth (LY)
Ideology	Liberalism; social liberalism
Political position	Center to center-left
Regional affiliation	Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats
International affiliation	Liberal International
Colors	Yellow,   red,   blue   Buff (customary)
Slogan	Bago. Bukas. Liberal. (since 2020)
Seats in the Senate	3 / 24
Seats in the House of Representatives	12 / 304
Provincial governorships	2 / 81
Provincial vice governorships	5 / 81
Provincial board members	54 / 1,023
Website
liberal.ph
Politics of the Philippines Political parties Elections

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

Founded on January 19, 1946 by Senate President Manuel Roxas, Senate President Pro-Tempore Elpidio Quirino, and former 9th Senatorial District Senator José Avelino from the breakaway liberal wing of the old Nacionalista Party (NP), the Liberal Party remains 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 Revolution and the establishment of the Fifth Republic. It subsequently served as a senior member 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 instance the party had won the presidency since the end of the Marcos dictatorship, however, as it lost control of the office to Rodrigo Duterte of PDP–Laban in the 2016 presidential election and became the leading opposition party once again. Its vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo won in the same election, however, narrowly beating the second candidate 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 remains 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, have received the prestigious Prize for Freedom, one of the highest international awards for liberal and democratic politicians since 1985 given by Liberal International. The Liberal Party is a member of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) and Liberal International.

History

The Liberal Party logo from 1953 to 1965.

The Liberal Party logo from 1965 to 2010 and again from 2016 to 2021.

The Liberal Party logo during the term of President Noynoy Aquino from 2010 to 2016.

Founding

The Liberal Party was founded on January 19, 1946, by Manuel Roxas, the first President of the Third Philippine Republic. It was formed by Roxas from what was once the "Liberal Wing" of the Nacionalista Party. Two more Presidents of the Philippines elected into office came from the LP: Elpidio Quirino and Diosdado Macapagal. Two other presidents came from the ranks of the LP, as former members of the party who later joined the Nacionalistas: Ramon Magsaysay and Ferdinand Marcos.

Martial law era

During the days leading to his declaration of martial law, Marcos would find his old party as a potent roadblock to his quest for one-man rule. Led by Ninoy Aquino, Gerry Roxas and Jovito Salonga, the LP would hound President Marcos on issues like human rights and the curtailment of freedoms. Even after Marcos' declaration of martial law silenced the LP, the party continued to oppose the regime, and many of its leaders and members would be prosecuted and even killed during this time.

Post-EDSA

After democracy was restored after the People Power Revolution, the LP was instrumental in ending more than half a century of US military presence in the Philippines with its campaign in the 1991 senate to reject a new RP-US Bases Treaty. This ironically cost the party dearly, losing for it the elections of 1992. In 2000, it was in opposition to the Joseph Estrada administration, actively supporting the Resign-Impeach-Oust initiatives that led to People Power II.

On March 2, members of the LP installed Manila Mayor Lito Atienza as the party president, which triggered an LP leadership struggle and party schism. The Supreme Court later proclaimed Drilon the true president of the party, leaving the Atienza wing expelled.

The Benigno Aquino III administration

The Liberal Party regained influence when it nominated as its next presidential candidate then-Senator Benigno Aquino III, the son of former President Corazon Aquino, for the 2010 Philippine presidential election after the latter's death that subsequently showed a groundswell of support for his candidacy. Even though the party had earlier nominated Sen. Manuel "Mar" Roxas II to be its presidential candidate for the 2010 Philippine general election, Roxas gave way to Aquino and instead ran for vice president. The party was able to field new members breaking away from the then-ruling party Lakas–Kampi–CMD, becoming the largest minority party in Congress. Aquino would later win by plurality, and the LP would become the majority party in Congress.

2016–present

In the 2016 presidential elections, the Liberal Party nominated Mar Roxas, former Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary, and Leni Robredo, a representative from Naga City and widow of Jesse Robredo, the DILG secretary who preceded Roxas, as the party's presidential and vice presidential candidates. Robredo won, while Roxas lost. Most of the party's members either switched allegiance to PDP–Laban, joined a supermajority alliance but retained their LP membership (with some defecting later), joined the "recognized minority", or created an opposition bloc called "Magnificent 7".

As early as February 2017, the leaders of the Liberal Party chose to focus on rebuilding the party by inviting sectoral representation of non-politicians in its membership numbers. Since then the party had been inducting new members who were non-politicians, some of whom applied online through the party's website, Liberal.ph. Before the scheduled 2019 general elections, the LP formed Otso Diretso, an electoral coalition of eight candidates for the senate race; led by the party, the coalition field also comprised members of the Magdalo Party-List, Akbayan Citizens Action Party, and Aksyon Demokratiko. None of the eight senatorial candidates under Otso Diretso won a seat, however; it was the first time in the history of the current bicameral composition of the Philippine Congress under the 1987 Constitution that the opposition failed to win a seat in one of the chambers, and the second time that a Liberal Party-led coalition suffered a great loss since 1955.

For the 2022 Philippine presidential election, the Liberal Party nominated Leni Robredo and Francis Pangilinan for the presidential and vice presidential posts, respectively.

Ideology

The party's ideology during its early years was noted by some political observers to be similar to or indistinguishable from the Nacionalista Party's, until the dictatorial term of Ferdinand Marcos, wherein it became more liberal.

The LP was often simply referred to as "centrist" or "liberal" in the media, but the party has officially put forward "social liberal". However, the LP has historically been evaluated as a "conservative" party, so there was controversy over whether it was a "social liberal" party during the time of Benigno Aquino III's presidency and beyond. According to its values charter, the self-described values of the party are "freedom, justice and solidarity (bayanihan)."

During Leni Robredo's chairmanship of the party after her election as Vice President in the 2016 general election, however, and Francis Pangilinan's taking the party's presidency, the LP's ideology shifted more clearly to center-left, backed by Robredo's Office of the Vice President-based Angat Buhay program for the poor and her prior record as a proponent of open government and participatory democracy as well as by Pangilinan's agrarianist interests. During Robredo's and Pangilinan's run for the presidency and vice presidency in the 2022 general election, the pair came up with the "Gobyernong Tapat, Angat Buhay Lahat" (Honest Government, Everyone's Progress) slogan, running a campaign promising Robredo's advocacies for an open government, participatory democracy, a job guarantee policy, and inclusive capitalism, as well as Pangilinan's policies favoring Filipino farmers and fisherfolk.

Political positions

Being a founding member of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) and a full member of Liberal International, the Liberal Party is a champion of the individual's freedom and rights and dignity, as well as of equal justice. 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.

According to CALD, more recently, in the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines' LP adhered to this party legacy by being the only major political party to stand its ground against an increasingly authoritarian populist regime, with its leaders and remaining members sticking to the causes of human rights, of challenging the return of capital punishment or the lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility, and of calling for an end to extrajudicial killings in the Philippine war on drugs.

Since 2017, the party has been harnessing a massive volunteering base, to ostensibly build on "the promise of becoming a true people’s party". It has opened party membership to a general, liberal democratic public and to key sectors of society; organized and mobilized citizens in the grassroots for local economic development and social progress; and declared policies geared toward inclusiveness and people empowerment.

Economic policy

• Improve social safety nets.
• Impose 1% wealth tax on individuals with net value assets exceeding ₱1 billion.
• Create tax exemptions for selected products.
• Maximize the budget windfall of local governments for antipoverty projects.
• Increase minimum wages.
• Declare and address an "education crisis", increase the education budget to 6% of GDP, streamline teachers' function, and establish special education (SPED) centers in all public schools.
• Develop an inter-sectoral approach and convergence of roles for the attainment of a functioning universal health care, provide due fixed allowances and statutory benefits to barangay health workers, and fix the corruption in PhilHealth.
• Prioritize infrastructure for spurring rural development, transportation, water resource management, and climate resilience, funded through public-private partnerships rather than loans.
• Upgrade science and technology research and development funding and promote data-driven agriculture.
• Invest in subsidies to promote renewable energy and implement better waste disposal to mitigate sea pollution.
• Prioritize a job guarantee program and expand coverage of the SSS and Pag-Ibig.
• Promote financial literacy.
• Offer voucher programs for access to private colleges and universities.
• Enact a law calling for equal participation of women in the economy and in decision-making positions, both in public and private organizations.

According to LP president Francis Pangilinan, the LP is continuing to seek solutions to the major problems of poverty, inequality, and social exclusion, expressing concern that because of the country's high unemployment rate, Filipino workers are forced to work in mostly precarious jobs (many overseas), with their labor rights to organize, to security of tenure (see endo contractualization), and to decent work suppressed. Pangilinan also sees the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of the Philippines as a disappointment that has resulted in many farmers either dispossessed of their land rights or earning as wage slaves. Pangilinan also points to the millions of Filipinos living in slums, many of whom have turned to waste picking and the peddling of illegal drugs as the only available means to survive. The government's tax collection norms and other current economic policies, says Pangilinan, are also being regarded by the party leadership as largely favoring high-net-worth individuals. The LP, he adds, hopes to address many other issues that would lead to a redistribution of income and wealth policy for the party.

Other LP goals include cleaner air and water and sustainable arable land as well as extensive programs against climate change.

But like previous governments' failure to secure jobs, food, shelter, more universal health care, public education access, and other social services, the priority concern for the party is the systemic corruption in government.

Social policy

• Legalize medical marijuana.
• Continue Leni Robredo's Office of the Vice President-based Angat Buhay program as a volunteer-run but LP-supported non-governmental organization project.
• Advance electoral reforms focused on a full disclosure policy against conflict of interest, banning both party turncoats and political families, and the establishment of principle-based political parties.
• Promote human rights and put an end to the country's “culture of violence”.
• Support same-sex civil union.
• Allow legal access to abortions for certain cases and advance women's reproductive health care.
• Pursue drug lords instead of small-time dealers in campaign against the illegal drug trade.
• Create local government one-stop migration centers for OFWs.
• Initiate full disclosure policy in all levels of government service.
• Craft a law for a divorce process accessible to the poor.
• Create frameworks and laws for a functioning participatory democracy.
• Promote moral ascendancy among government officials.

Legal issues

LP principles have stood against extrajudicial killings, any challenge to the rule of law, and curtailments of human rights strictures.

At the start of Rodrigo Duterte's presidency, for instance, Senator Leila de Lima (LP), former justice chief under President Noynoy Aquino, led an investigation into alleged extrajudicial deaths in the early months of Duterte’s war on drugs. Sen. Antonio Trillanes (an anti-Duterte NP senator who just lost in the 2016 vice presidential race and would later join the LP in 2021) filed a resolution to include the Davao Death Squad in de Lima's senate investigation.

In early 2017, an arrest warrant was issued against De Lima, which the party claimed was based on trumped-up charges, labelling the arrest "patently illegal". Through a statement filed in the Senate, the LP slammed the arrest and filing of criminal cases before the Regional Trial Court against one of its members, claiming it also denied de Lima the right to file a counter-affidavit. The party also asserted that De Lima "had been pre-judged before any of the charges were filed, because no less than the President vowed to destroy her in public and was sure De Lima would land in jail before any case was filed." The LP senators demanded that Duterte's secretary of justice, Vitaliano Aguirre II, as " alter ego of the President should inhibit in any and all cases filed against Senator De Lima."

While on the whole de Lima's investigation was seen by some pundits as adversarial towards the administration and thus was a strategic mistake, others in the party simply saw it as a call to a review of the party's principles and how members have adhered to them.

The LP has also slammed the Duterte government's disinformation and red herring tactics when it accused Liberal Party members and supporters, along with the Magdalo Group, of planning a coup against the Duterte government in 2019. The LP saw it as a state-sponsored threat of legal abuse and demanded the government show proof.

Current party officials

• President: Senator Francis Pangilinan
• Chairperson: Vice-President Maria Leonor G. Robredo (2016–present)
• Vice Chair: Senator Franklin Drilon (2017–present)
• Vice President for Internal Affairs: Former Representative Teddy Baguilat (Lone District of Ifugao) (2017–present)
• Vice President for External Affairs: Former Representative Lorenzo Tañada III (Quezon) (2017–present)
• Secretary-General: Representative Jose Christopher "Kit" Belmonte (Quezon City) (2016–present)
• Treasurer: Representative Josephine Ramirez-Sato (Occidental Mindoro) (2017–present)

Presidents

Term in Office	Name
January 19, 1946 – April 15, 1948	Manuel Roxas
January 19, 1946 – May 8, 1949	José Avelino
April 17, 1948 – December 30, 1950	Elpidio Quirino
December 30, 1950 – December 30, 1957	Eugenio Pérez
December 30, 1957 – December 30, 1965	Diosdado Macapagal
May 1964 – May 10, 1969	Cornelio T. Villareal
May 10, 1969 – April 19, 1982	Gerardo Roxas
April 20, 1982 – June 1, 1993	Jovito Salonga
June 2, 1993 – October 17, 1994	Wigberto Tañada
October 18, 1994 – September 19, 1999	Raul A. Daza
September 20, 1999 – August 9, 2004	Florencio Abad
August 10, 2004 - November 5, 2007	Franklin Drilon
November 6, 2007 – September 30, 2012	Mar Roxas
October 1, 2012 – August 7, 2016	Joseph Emilio Abaya
August 8, 2016 – present	Francis Pangilinan

Electoral performance

Presidential and vice presidential elections

Year	Presidential election			Vice presidential election
	Candidate	Vote share	Result	Candidate	Vote share	Result
1946	Manuel Roxas	53.94%	Manuel Roxas (Liberal)	Elpidio Quirino	52.36%	Elpidio Quirino (Liberal)
1949	Elpidio Quirino	50.93%	Elpidio Quirino (Liberal)	Fernando López	52.19%	Fernando López (Liberal)
	José Avelino	11.85%		Vicente J. Francisco	1.73%
1953	Elpidio Quirino	31.08%	Ramon Magsaysay (Nacionalista)	José Yulo	37.10%	Carlos P. Garcia (Nacionalista)
1957	José Yulo	27.62%	Carlos P. Garcia (Nacionalista)	Diosdado Macapagal	46.55%	Diosdado Macapagal (Liberal)
	Antonio Quirino	1.20%
1961	Diosdado Macapagal	55.05%	Diosdado Macapagal (Liberal)	Emmanuel Pelaez	37.57%	Emmanuel Pelaez (Liberal)
1965	Diosdado Macapagal	42.88%	Ferdinand Marcos (Nacionalista)	Gerardo Roxas	48.11%	Fernando López (Nacionalista)
1969	Sergio Osmeña Jr.	38.51%	Ferdinand Marcos (Nacionalista)	Genaro Magsaysay	37.24%	Fernando López (Nacionalista)
1981	None		Ferdinand Marcos (KBL)	Vice presidency abolished
1986	None		Disputed See article for details	Eva Estrada Kalaw	3.31%	Disputed See article for details
1992	Jovito Salonga	10.16%	Fidel Ramos (Lakas–NUCD)	None		Joseph Estrada (NPC)
1998	Alfredo Lim	8.71%	Joseph Estrada (PMP)	Sergio Osmeña III	9.20%	Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (Lakas–CMD)
2004	None		Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (Lakas–CMD)	None		Noli de Castro (Independent)
2010	Benigno Aquino III	42.08%	Benigno Aquino III (Liberal)	Mar Roxas	39.58%	Jejomar Binay (PDP–Laban)
2016	Mar Roxas	23.45%	Rodrigo Duterte (PDP–Laban)	Leni Robredo	35.11%	Leni Robredo (Liberal)
2022	Leni Robredo (Independent)	27.94%	Bongbong Marcos (PFP)	Kiko Pangilinan	17.82%	Sara Duterte(Lakas)

Legislative elections

Congress of the Philippines
Year	Seats won	Result	Year	Seats won	Result
1946	49 / 98	Liberal Party plurality	1946	8 / 16	Liberal Party win 8/16 seats
			1947	7 / 8	Liberal Party win 7/8 seats
1949	66 / 100	Liberal Party majority	1949	8 / 8	Liberal Party win 8/8 seats
			1951	0 / 9	Nacionalista Party win 9/9 seats
1953	59 / 102	Liberal Party majority	1953	0 / 8	Nacionalista Party win 5/8 seats
			1955	0 / 9	Nacionalista Party win 9/9 seats
1957	19 / 102	Nacionalista Party majority	1957	2 / 8	Nacionalista Party win 6/8 seats
			1959	2 / 8	Nacionalista Party win 5/8 seats
1961	29 / 104	Nacionalista Party majority	1961	4 / 8	Liberal Party win 4/8 seats
			1963	4 / 8	No clear winner
1965	61 / 104	Liberal Party majority	1965	2 / 8	Nacionalista Party win 5/8 seats
			1967	1 / 8	Nacionalista Party win 6/8 seats
1969	18 / 110	Nacionalista Party majority	1969	2 / 8	Nacionalista Party win 6/8 seats
			1971	5 / 8	Liberal Party win 5/8 seats
Interim Batasang Pambansa
Year	Seats won	Result	Senate abolished
1978	Not participating	KBL majority
Regular Batasang Pambansa
Year	Seats won	Result	Senate abolished
1984	Not participating	KBL majority
Congress of the Philippines
Year	Seats won	Result	Year	Seats won	Ticket	Result
1987	4 / 200	Lakas ng Bansa / PDP–Laban plurality	1987	9 / 24	LABAN	LABAN win 22/24 seats
1992	11 / 200	LDP plurality	1992	1 / 24	Koalisyong Pambansa	LDP win 16/24 seats
1995	5 / 204	Lakas / LDP majority	1995	Not participating		Lakas-Laban Coalition win 9/12 seats
1998	15 / 258	Lakas plurality	1998	0 / 12	Single party ticket	LAMMP win 7/12 seats
2001	19 / 256	Lakas plurality	2001	1 / 13	People Power Coalition	People Power Coalition win 8/13 seats
2004	29 / 261	Lakas plurality	2004	2 / 12	K4	K4 win 7/12 seats
2007	23 / 270	Lakas plurality	2007	2 / 12	Split ticket	Genuine Opposition win 8/12 seats
2010	47 / 286	Lakas plurality	2010	3 / 12	Single party ticket	Liberal Party win 4/12 seats
2013	109 / 292	Liberal Party plurality	2013	1 / 12	Team PNoy	Team PNoy win 9/12 seats
2016	115 / 297	Liberal Party plurality	2016	5 / 12	Koalisyon ng Daang Matuwid	Koalisyon ng Daang Matuwid win 7/12 seats
2019	18 / 304	PDP–Laban plurality	2019	0 / 12	Otso Diretso	Hugpong ng Pagbabago win 9/12 seats
2022	10 / 316	PDP–Laban plurality	2022	0 / 12	TRoPa	UniTeam win 6/12 seats

Notable members

Philippine presidents

• Manuel Roxas (5th President of the Philippines; one of the co-founders)
• Elpidio Quirino (6th President of the Philippines)
• Diosdado Macapagal (9th President of the Philippines)
• Ferdinand Marcos (10th President of the Philippines) – Marcos won in 1965 as the candidate of the Liberal Party's rival Nacionalista Party, the party to which Marcos defected after failing to get the LP nomination.
• Corazon C. Aquino (11th President of the Philippines) - with UNIDO and PDP-Laban.
• Joseph Estrada (13th President of the Philippines) – left the party in 1991 to prepare for his supposed presidential run. He became vice president in 1992.
• Benigno Aquino III (15th President of the Philippines)
• Rodrigo Duterte (16th President of the Philippines) – A former party chair in Davao City from 2009, Duterte left the party in 2015. He won the presidency in 2016 under the PDP-Laban ticket.

Others

• Gerardo Roxas Sr. (Senator; Liberal Party leader during the Marcos dictatorship)
• Macario Peralta Jr. (World War II Hero, Philippine Army General, Senator of the Philippines, Secretary of National Defense)
• Cesar Climaco (Mayor of Zamboanga City, vocal critic and opponent of Martial Law)
• Benigno Aquino Jr. (Senator of the Philippines)
• Eva Estrada-Kalaw (Senator of the Philippines)
• Eddie Ilarde (Senator of the Philippines)
• Ramon Mitra Jr. (16th Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives)
• Narciso Ramos (Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs; one of the co-founders)
• Ramon Bagatsing (longest-serving Mayor of Manila, Plaza Miranda bombing survivor)
• Emmanuel Pelaez (Vice-President of the Philippines, Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs; Philippine Ambassador to the United States of America, Senator of the Philippines)
• Rashid Lucman (former Representative of Lanao del Sur, Exposed the Jabidah massacre and other Marcos abuses in Congress)
• Jovito Salonga (former Senate President of the Philippines, survived the Plaza Miranda bombing)
• Manuel Roxas II (former Interior and Local Government Secretary and Transportation Secretary)
• Feliciano Belmonte Jr. (former Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives)
• Jesse Robredo (former Mayor of Naga City & former Interior and Local Government Secretary)
• Leni Robredo (14th Vice President of the Philippines, former Representative of Camarines Sur, Wife of former DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo & Party Chairman in Naga City)
• Herbert Bautista (former Mayor of Quezon City)
• Alfredo Lim (former Senator & Mayor of Manila)
• Rafael Nantes (former Governor of Quezon Province & Former Treasurer of the Liberal Party)
• Evelyn Fuentebella (Mayor of Sagñay, Camarines Sur)
• Cornelio Villareal (Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Former Representative of the 2nd District of Capiz)
• Jaime Fresnedi (Mayor of Muntinlupa)
• Sergio H. Loyola (Representative of the 3rd District of Manila)
• Romulo Peña Jr. (former Mayor and Representative of the 1st District of Makati)
• Mel Lopez (former Mayor of Manila and Plaza Miranda bombing survivor)

Coalition

• Aksyon Demokratiko
• Akbayan Citizens' Action Party – Party-list

External links

• Official website
• Liberal Party on Facebook
• Liberal Party on X