Here and There
Final push for cha-cha?
By Gerry Garcia
WE believe Speaker Joe de V was right when he said the first Philippine legislature was established in 1907 as the Philippine Assembly and that this year ’07, we’ll be marking its 100th anniversary. Our present bicameral congress cum president, patterned after that of Mother America’s, was a continuation from the National Assembly formed on July 30 in 1907 to which Filipinos, in accordance with the Cooper act signed by then US President Theodore Roosevelt, elected 80 delegates.
Organization of the Assembly was one of the steps taken by the US administration in making the people of the Philippines able to assume a larger role in the management of their own affairs.
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Today after 100 years, Speaker JdV says the House of Representatives should keep the spirit of reform of the US-inspired Philippine Assembly by undertaking reforms to sustain the country’s economic and political gains. Which explains why on this centennial day he’s making a (last?) pass for a shift to the parliamentary system — the only way, he says, we can constitutionally remedy our endemic political infirmities, like the periodic gridlocks hampering legislation because of petty rivalries gripping departments of government.
Advocates of this shift to unicameral parliament cite practical reasons, especially for those who couldn’t make head or tail of technical gobbledygook, like the cases of Singapore, Malaysia, and the rest of the members of ASEAN which are all governed by parliaments. And only one ASEAN member — the Philippines — remains an embarrassing tail ender, because of its presidential bicameral system of government.
Opposition to the shift, of course, can easily conjure guesses of what’s probably behind this suggested change in governing style. As if it was a subtle plot for some reigning incumbents to stay longer in power. Or it could be a wish from the Chief Advocate, himself, to catapult himself to the post of parliament boss (Prime Minister)! So what? Say the many who have always been 100% behind the shift. It’s more to be expected than condemned.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/here-and-there/)
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