148 Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy Figure 3.b. Civil Social Map Networks Though inexhaustive, as these maps were drawn up during the brainstorming of the advisory group of the Philippine Civil Society Index project team sometime in September 2009, there are a couple of observations that we make: 1. Among the social forces in Figure 3.a, each group varies in terms of the amount of power that they possess, some more permanent than others. For example, the map illustrates correctly the control of the once dominant party, LAKAS/KAMPI over the House of Representatives. Very much unlike the dissipation of the power of this political party, some groups have and will continue to wield power. As a case in point, families and groups (located in business or the landed elite) who possess significant economic resources and assets have maintained, if not expanded, their resource or power bases. Some of these forces are also inextricably linked under one rubric, for example the government institutions are all operative under a Constitution. It would be more instructive, however, if keen observers of the dynamics within and among these social forces could improve the map so that the size of the circles would categorically show just how much power each force possesses relative to other forces. These more powerful groups, in turn, could be considered as “veto players.”