2023-06-29 21:03:04
Almost a month after being installed in the Santiago Congress, the main leaders of the parties are already beginning to take shape among the opposition advisors. On the right, on the benches of Chile Vamos, there is a counselor who is already making himself known. This is Arturo Phillips (Ind.-UDI), who at just 27 years old won a seat in La Araucanía and became the UDI delegate to the Constitutional Council
Opposition sources define him as a tough right-wing advisor, since he has been characterized by having coincidences with the representatives of the Republican caucus. He has been seen on several occasions holding dialogues with the counselor Sebastián Figueroa (Republican), although those familiar with these conversations comment that he is out of cordiality from the positions of delegate and substitute delegate of the bench.
Phillips, they say in the sector, is considered one of the strong cards of unionism. Weeks after starting his work, his style has already been noticed. In Chile Vamos there are some who resent his closeness to Republicans, however in private other councilors comment that there have been no frictions or disagreements and that Phillips has become a builder of bridges for dialogue.
In addition, the same sources comment that the fact that in the previous constitutional process he was a legislative adviser to the bench shared between the UDI and the Republicans is a factor that has contributed to generating networks between both sectors of the right.
In this sense, his bet is to dialogue with Republicans, mainly, on security issues and to guarantee freedom of choice in the regulation of social rights. Support for the police and a special chapter in the Constitution for the Armed Forces also appear as other priority issues.
Along with that, it is expected to articulate with the largest bench of the Council in defense of the right to life of the unborn. The affinity in these matters will allow him to maintain fluid dialogues with Republicans in order to dispute key issues for the right. Conversations that, in addition, he already held in the framework of the negotiations for the formation of the commissions of the drafting body.
That was his first test and the result, they comment in the UDI, was positive. The party was left with the presidency of the Political System commission and a good integration in the rest of the commissions. In that negotiation, Phillips had some differences with the Republican adviser Antonio Barchiesi, but despite that, the final negotiation left him satisfied.
In the party, the counselor is seen as one of the main leaders, despite the fact that -for now- he has not signed up for the community. “Arturo is a tremendous contribution, not only for the Constitutional Council, but also for the UDI. He has leadership, conviction and a bright future in politics. He is clear about what it means to work as a team, he is young, but he has all the experience of working with us at the Convention as an adviser and coordinator. In addition, he has experienced firsthand the terrorism that the residents of the Araucanía Region live every day ”, affirms the ex-conventional and pro-secretary of the UDI, Constanza Hube.
The delegate of the UDI bench is facing his first political experience. Earlier, in his student days, he had an unsuccessful foray into university politics. At that time he was never part of the Gremial Movement or Solidarity, the two right-wing political groups that coexist within the Catholic University (UC).
It was the year 2018 when the -at that time- law student witnessed his second defeat when running as external vice president for the UC Law Student Center (CADe). Five years later, he began his third political campaign. Now it was no longer a college-level experiment, it was real. Despite the jokes of his friends, he did it and the third time was the charm.
Phillips was born in Santiago, but his ties to the Araucanía Region lie in the fact that his parents, María Susana Dorr and Arturo Phillips Pereira, are two farmers who live in the Victoria area. In addition, he is the great-nephew of Patricio Phillips, a former senator from the National Party. During the dictatorship, his great-uncle was one of the signatories of the National Agreement for the Transition to Full Democracy in 1985.
His school education was carried out at the German School of Santiago, graduating in 2014. In 2015 he began to study Law at the Catholic University of Chile and graduated in 2020 to later be sworn in as a lawyer on May 20 of last year.
Prior to making the decision to become a lawyer, Phillips studied four years at the UC Institute of Music. There, between 2009 and 2012, he was part of the elementary cycle of piano and musical language.
Until before the Council, public law was not an area of his special interest. In fact, at the university his subject has been criminal law and, in that specialty, she has worked as a teaching assistant to Professor Magdalena Ossandón.
In May of this year, he managed to become the second elected constitutional counselor with the highest vote in La Araucanía, collecting 66,376 votes in total, positioning himself after Republican Héctor Urban, who received 74,667 votes and unseating RN from the top positions in the constituency.
His choice was a surprise. In general, the UDI had not done well competing for a senatorial office in that region, an area that in recent times has been controlled mainly by the RN. Despite the fact that he had a difficult path, during the first weeks of the campaign, it was slipped from the sector that Phillips was a powerful card from Chile Vamos. This, mainly for having been a legislative adviser during the process of the extinct Convention.
Through an invitation made by the ex-conventional Eduardo Cretton (UDI), Phillips reached that position. He met Cretton in Victoria. When Phillips passed her graduation exam, Cretton asked her to be his campaign manager. No one had faith in Cretton at the time, but he managed to get elected. After the success, his friend proposed to be his adviser on the party bench in the drafting body.
On that occasion, she met and got closer to ex-conventionists such as Constanza Hube, Marcela Cubillos and Katerine Montealegre, Rocío Cantuarias and Martín Arrau.
Three months after completing his work as an adviser to the Convention, an event occurred that marked a before and after. Carmen Phillips, her paternal aunt and former regional councilor for La Araucanía, was the victim of an arson attack on her house, where she lost everything. This fact became a topic during his campaign to reach the Constitutional Council, which he promoted under the slogan “truth right.”
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