Editorial
On believing the advocates of Charter Change
One hundred and eight years since our independence was won in 1898, Philippines has not done much even to half deserve being called independent among nations in the Southeast Asia. Ironically we’ve done more to keep our republic lagging behind in the race for development in the region for many more decades.
It’s lamentable that today’s political leadership insists on pointing to the demonized presidential-bicameral system as the culprit, diverting the focus on the need for our politicians to reform themselves.
It’s just as well that the Arroyo administration’s attempt to pull the wool over our people’s eyes by foisting a sham People’s Initiative is now going nowhere notwithstanding the millions spent for its launching. The recent finding of the provincial office of the Commission on Elections that more than 40% of the signatures submitted for verification were in fact fictitious, only indicates the extent they would go to keep many traditional politicians secure in their posts,by hook or by crook.
And fortunately, the Arroyo Express train that was installed to ram the Constituent Assembly down the people’s throat has been effectively derailed by a Senate that refuses to be bamboozled into extinction in spite of endless cajoling using either the promise of guaranteed seats in the planned parliamentary system or an increased pork barrel as carrot.
Without a doubt, the present Constitution needs some amendments to jumpstart the nation’s race towards development. What it does not need, however, is a revision of the Constitution that would give today’s politicians and elite a perpetual stranglehold on the country’s resources.
Our people would certainly find it easier to believe the congressmen’s sincerity and “selfless interests” if they would in fact move for the abolition of both the House and Senate to establish a 79-member unitary parliament that will not guarantee them a parliamentary seat. But this is not the game-plan.
But then and only will the congressmen’s claim that a unitary parliament that would “put to a stop the endless gridlocks hampering constructive legislation and fast-track enactment of laws urgently needed for countryside development and uplift the conditions of our people” could be believed.
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
