Why we should invest in political reform

While the proposed creation of a Visayas Republic made a stir and hit the big news nationwide, it also got some flak from two people — our beloved eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and Cebu 3rd District Rep. Antonio Yapha. If you recall, a few months back, three members of the House of Representatives including Rep. Yapha proposed to break up Cebu province into four separate provinces, namely, Cebu del Norte, Cebu del Sur, Cebu Occidental and the present Cebu province. This move was strongly opposed by Cebuanos, including Cardinal Vidal.

Now Rep. Yapha and unfortunately, the Cebu Prelate, are saying that the Visayas Republic is no different from the proposal to break up Cebu dubbed "Sugbu-ak". Unfortunately, this is far from the truth! We must compare apples with apples, not apples with oranges and I dare say that the Visayas Republic is not the same as the proposal to break Cebu province into smaller provinces. Let me explain the differences.

The Sugbu-ak proposal is based on political greed borne out of a problem common to the members of the House of Representatives, specifically Cebu’s 2nd District Rep. Simeon Kintanar, 3rd District Rep. Antonio Yapha and 4th District’s Rep. Clavel Asas Martinez whose terms are expiring in two years. Since there’s a Constitutional ban prohibiting them from seeking a third term, the proposal to break up Cebu into a Del Norte, Occidental and a del Sur was born.

The proposal to break up Cebu and its dire effects were obviously not carefully studied by its proponents because the underlying reason is really to create more provinces for their own family’s political control regardless of whether it is harmful to Cebuanos and all the other provinces of the country.

On the other hand, the Visayas Republic was never proposed by anyone, until the stories from Metro Manila that a coup or a military junta would replace the present government was imminent, thus throwing away our democracy and our Constitutional processes.

Mind you, this move was only a knee jerk reaction to the call by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte that if a military junta removed our democracy, he would call for a Mindanao Independent Republic. The difference here is that the political leaders in the Visayas have merely studied this possibility just in case the military does succeed in overthrowing the government. As the Boy Scouts saying goes: "Be Prepared" What’s wrong with being prepared?

Should we chastise the political leaders of the Visayas for being prepared? I think not! They are not asking for secession, rather they are sending the message to those who seek to grab political power that if they throw away our Constitution, then there is nothing holding back the people of the Visayas from charting their own course.

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Because of the proposal to shift our presidential or centralized form of government into a federal and parliamentary form, I can see that too many people are too comfortable with the status quo, one of which is Sen. Serge Osmeña III. Thus, allow me to print an article by Mr. Ruben Almendras, an apostle of Good Corporate Governance and a Business columnist of The Freeman on his idea of "Investing in Political Reform." I wholeheartedly concur with his comments.

"I believe that 99 percent of our present politicians will not hesitate to do what PGMA had done to ensure their victory; and this is the major reason why there is no moral outrage coming from the people, particularly the middle class. The structure of our political system and the consequent actions of politicians have made the present situation inevitable. In fact, it had been happening in the last 10 elections or the last 40 years. The Marcos years were the most blatant, except that now somebody got caught on tape.

The presidential-bicameral form of our government tends to centralize the power of the executive branch and gridlock or stalemate the legislative agenda. It also distances the executive and legislative offices from the citizens not just geographically but also in terms of accountability. This is a situation that encourages graft and corruption as the lack of transparency makes the citizens mostly unaware of the happenings in the power centers until something blows up in the media.

Then as the positions in the legislature and the executive department become very financially lucrative, there ensues a no-holds-barred fight to be in power, and to stay in power. It then creates the dynastic and hereditary succession in the political offices, using the ill gotten riches of their positions to buy or steal the elections. Given the nature of politicians, what has to be done is to reconfigure the organizational structure of government and politics, to make politicians behave properly if they want to stay in power, or at least make it difficult for them to survive in the new political environment if they insist on self-serving and amoral actions.

It is time for the President and Congress to call for a Constitutional Convention and for the elected delegates to work towards moving to a parliamentary and federal form of government — a unicameral parliament and the country divided into states with governors and state legislatures. The parliamentary form will eliminate the popular vote for the presidency and preclude the current popularity contest, which elects the popular incompetent to the highest office. The federated states will flatten the organizational structure, bring the government closer to the people, force them to be more transparent and accountable. Corruption would be more visible and subject the politicians to defeat and prosecution. So we would not even need the term limit provision to avoid political dynasties.

We have to do this political restructuring and reforms within the next five years if we still want to be in step with the Asian and the global economies. These reforms are necessary conditions precedent for our continuing economic growth and stability that will reduce our poverty level. We are at the eleventh hour and our politicians better heed the signs if they want to survive.

Ruben D. Almendras"

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 p.m.