THIS week's column introduces the antecedents behind last week's memo to the president-elect Ferdinand 'Bongbong Marcos Jr. (BBM). To recall, that memo centered on the political restructuring of the Philippine system of governance as seen through the prism of Centrist Democratic (CD) principles and concepts. Our basic premise is that unless systemic changes are applied to correct our dysfunctional concepts of governance, the Philippines will perpetually be condemned to stark poverty, corruption and social injustices. To reiterate, CD advocacies and guiding principles hinge on essential sets of doctrines which we refer to as the four pillars of our dogma, springing forth from our core value of human dignity, to wit: 1) We must strive to create a truly functioning democracy and adherence to the rule of law; 2) we must endeavor to establish a thriving social market economy (SOME), the reliance on free markets imbued with social responsibility; 3) we must work for the adoption and practice of subsidiarity in all structures of government and the principles of decentralization leading toward an eventual Parliamentary-Federal Republic of the Philippines; and 4) we must help build up strong and sustainable political parties.

BBM's strategic campaign thrust