I am Dr. Martin Bautista

By Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer
Last updated 03:05am (Mla time) 02/18/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- The tall man, grinning, offered handshakes to
shoppers. A total stranger, he was welcomed anyway at the Greenhills
"tiangge" in San Juan yesterday.

"I am Dr. Martin Bautista. I am running for senator under Ang Kapatiran
(The Brotherhood) party. I am not a traditional politician,"
he told curious strangers huddled around him.

"Bautista who? Ang Kapatiran what?" was the quietly polite reaction of the
shoppers. One went further and asked: "Do you have any chance of winning?"

Bautista, 44, knows only too well it's a tall order to go against a bunch
of senatorial hopefuls parading celebrity wives, prominent names and
bottomless campaign kitties.

But the gastro-enterologist would not have abandoned a lucrative medical
practice in the United States if he was not convinced of
victory, or at least a shot at it.

Bautista left for the US a year after he graduated from the University of
the Philippines in 1989. Throughout the 17 years that he spent as a
physician in New York and Oklahoma, he said he never applied for a green
card.

Last year, he came home for good, bringing with him his wife, a UP-trained
pulmonologist, and four young daughters.

Life is short

"Life is short, so better spend it by doing something good for your
country," he said in an interview at the Ang Kapatiran headquarters at
Greenmeadows in Pasig.

Ang Kapatiran (Alliance for the Common Good) is a political party put up
three years ago by Nandy Pacheco, the well-known advocate for a gunless
society. The party promotes God-centered politics and calls for the
abolition of the "pork barrel" and gambling, among other advocacies.

Aside from Bautista, the party is fielding three other candidates for
senator?Mario Ongkiko, Zosimo Paredes and Adrian Sison, who are all
lawyers.

Except for Ongkiko, who is acknowledged to be one of the country's top
lawyers, the others are unknowns in politics.

"All the pundits are saying that we won't win, but that's a defective
concept," said the 50-year-old Sison who specializes in family law and
taxation cases.

Abundance of idealism

"We're praying that the people will finally wake up and realize that there
are genuine alternatives to traditional politics and
politicians, " he said.

There's an abundance of idealism among the four candidates, including
Ongkiko who has been practicing law for the past 50 years. At 75, he
doesn't really need the prestige and clout that come with being a senator
to cement his place in the sun.

"I can earn enough to last me my lifetime. But I'm not thinking of myself.
I'm doing this for my children and my grandchildren, " he said.

So it is also with the 58-year-old Paredes who is best remembered for
publicly criticizing the transfer of an American soldier, the
convicted rapist Daniel Smith, to the custody of the US Embassy.

It cost Paredes his job as executive director of the presidential
commission monitoring the implementation of the Visiting Forces
Agreement.

Paredes clarified that he would not use the issue to land a Senate seat. He
said he had no intention of even mentioning the name of the Filipino woman
who accused the US Marine officer of raping her. "I won't mention anything
about it unless I'm asked. I didn't even know that many Filipinos
appreciated what I had done," he said.

Educating voters
Pacheco said the decision to field senatorial candidates in May was meant
in part to educate Filipino voters who have become inured to traditional
politics. "The people are truly fed up with what they see," he said. "If
[the Kapitiran candidates] win, it will be a clear sign that Filipino
voters are becoming mature," he said.

But what can three lawyers and a doctor do in the Senate? They all vow to
vigorously pursue the Kapatiran vision "to bring back
the teachings of God into the center of politics." This is the response of
Pacheco and his peers to the Second Vatican Council's idea
of an "empowered laity."

"The laity must lead in the renewing of politics," says one of the group's
leaders.

Pro-life party

The party is clearly "pro-life," is for "progressive disarmament" in the
national and international level, and regards as a priority
projects for the homeless, elderly, prisoners, disabled, veterans and the
youth.

Kapatiran is also unique in vowing to discipline members for any
wrongdoing.

Ongkiko said theirs was the only genuine political party, noting that both
the administration' s Team Unity and the Genuine Opposition were carrying
candidates who used to belong to the other side.

"There's no opposition or administration, it's just a fantasy. They don't
have a platform. All they want is to win," he said.

Paredes said the administration and opposition candidates would eventually
"cancel each other out," paving the way for Kapatiran
candidates to be noticed.

"It's like seeing a streak of white in a backdrop of black," he said.

The Kapatiran candidates are banking on the honest support of well-meaning
Filipinos to make up for their lack of political
machinery.

"We ask the people to run our campaign, to champion the cause of change,"
Ongkiko said.

No gimmicks

The party has launched a project called "Alay Panglinis Pulitika" to invite
campaign donations. It has also quietly enlisted the support of
a number of parish-based organizations, including the wide-ranging Basic
Ecclesial Communities (BECs).

Not being entitled to poll watchers, it will rely on groups like the Parish
Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting to ensure honest
elections in May and indirectly safeguard their votes.

The campaign strategy is quite different from the traditional political
gimmicks?the sunny smiles, colorful dress, catchy jingles
and celebrity endorsers?that this early are threatening to dull the taste
of Filipino voters just three days into the official campaign
period.

Ongkiko, Paredes, Sison and Bautista will basically rely on the best of
intentions and work to effectively communicate them to voters.

"We will talk sanely to the people," Paredes said.

The Holy Spirit

For Bautista, the presence of God will help in the communication job, much
like what the Holy Spirit did for St. Paul and the Apostles when they
spread the good news nearly 2,000 years ago.

Yesterday, Bautista was on a one-man campaign at the densely populated
Greenhills area. Offering nothing but flyers, a sincere greeting and a
clear legislative program, he was not shunned as just another nuisance
candidate.

It's a good start for someone who doesn't ride on the popularity of a
former president, does not sing or dance, and is not the husband of a movie
star, and is a movie star himself.