Its purported head (or spokesman) is the political has-been Walden Bello; its members are from a political has-been group. Didn’t any editor wonder why for a “new opposition coalition” nobody else could be quoted but Bello? This is because the thrust of Lagman’s harangues against Sison and the Communist Party was that they weren’t espousing socialism, but a better kind of capitalism called “national democracy”. The only new coalition that emerged is between Bello and the tiny Partido Lakas ng Masa. However, without a fiery leader out in the open with a charisma like Lagman, the Lakas ng Masa party more and more has become a spent political force.

Source: Manila Times October 31, 2017 16:12 UTC