Time to educate our people on federalism

Just when we thought that the political crisis plaguing the Arroyo presidency was behind us, all of a sudden Chapter 4 of the destroy-PGMA move began when an alleged whistle blower named Michaelangelo Zuce went to the press to accuse the President herself of using Comelec officials to cheat in the 2004 elections. Aren’t we already finished with the "Empire Strike’s Back"? Well, it seems that we’re on the "Revenge of the Jedi" mode. Kidding aside, we’re simply sick and tired of all those people who suddenly find themselves with bouts of conscience. Meanwhile, we reserve our comments about this fellow pending another investigation into the veracity of his claim... whether all this is for the whole truth or for the big money?

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A lot of friends who are batting for Charter changes texted me early Wednesday morning, pointing to me the headline of The Philippine STAR which blared "SWS poll: 70% of Pinoys see no need for Cha-cha." I will not argue with that simply because if you did another survey of how many Pinoys are ignorant about the way our government works, you’ll find out that it would be close to that figure. Perhaps, another survey would also reveal that 70 percent of Pinoys are near or below the poverty level... or that only 30 percent are educated. So am I surprised to hear that 70 percent of Pinoys don’t want to change the Charter? No sir... to the 70 percent Cha-cha is a kind of Latin dance!

If any, we should all be worried that the majority of Filipinos in whose hands lies the future of this nation don’t have any damn idea of what’s going on... and to think that politics is the favorite pastime of Pinoys! But ask them who’s the new paramour of Kris Aquino and I’m sure that they can give you the correct answer!

This is exactly the kind of people who our homegrown Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) ideologues hope to get to their side because whether you believe it or not, that same number of Filipinos couldn’t care any less if the Philippine government becomes communist! These people have lost all hope for a better life so it wouldn’t matter to them if we were a communist nation or a democratic one!

This is why we’re having so many problems these days because the poor and the ignorant are susceptible to believing in the false promises of our political leaders who use the name of the "masa" in vain! Just ask the senators belonging to the Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) what laws have they passed in order to help alleviate the plight of the poor. So far, nothing!

When you see such a huge ratio of our people who are totally ignorant of our political way of life, it should be an opportune time for a new set of leaders to emerge and lead our people to the right path to a better-run nation. We have some parallelisms to the plight of the Israelites who were held as slaves by the Egyptians for many centuries... until Moses came onto the scene and as God’s servant, led the Israelites from the bondage of slavery to freedom. But because the Israelites still worshipped other gods and didn’t keep their part of the bargain, they languished in the desert for 40 years. If the decision were given to the majority of the Israelites, and not to Moses or Aaron, they would have opted to return to Egypt as slaves!

In the Philippines, when we removed the Marcos Dictatorship, we created a new Constitution that kept the old defective order in place, a Constitution that failed to fully recognize and appreciate our cultural diversity, a Constitution that allowed one ethnic group to be superior over the other groups... and surely by now you know which I was referring to. One of the flaws of our present system is the steady deterioration of our educational system despite it’s having the largest slice of the budget. Our educational system has only produced poorly educated Filipinos, that’s why I wasn’t at least bit surprised to read the report about that latest SWS survey.

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Articles on whether a federal/parliamentary system is better than our present presidential, unitary form of government are beginning to come out... or whether a federal system would eradicate corruption? The answer to that is no... a federal or parliamentary system will not eradicate corruption, but certainly it would save the government a lot of wasted money... money, for instance, to spend for presidential elections.

In order to educate our people on the pros and cons of a federal system, the Embassy of Canada, together with the University of San Carlos (USC), is organizing a public forum on the structure, processes and dynamics of the parliamentary and federal forms of government, using the Canadian system as a model. The forum, entitled "Prospects for Federalism: The Canadian Context," will be held on Friday next week (Aug. 12), 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the USC main campus.

Speakers from Canada include Dr. J. Peter Meekison and Dr. Rupak Chattopadhyay, both experts from the Forum of Federations who will discuss separately such significant topics as the Canadian parliamentary and federal history, the institutions of government such as the House of Commons, the electoral system, the legislative process, the division of powers, equalization between provinces, and resolution of conflicts between provincial and federal powers. They will also discuss ethical issues such as accountability and the commitments of representation.

Canadian Ambassador Peter Sutherland is in Cebu this week to celebrate "Canada Days in Cebu." Last Wednesday, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), in partnership with the UNICEF, launched the 6th Country Program for Children, wherein Canada committed P300 million to ensure that Filipino children grow healthy and well and are protected by the local government units.

Yesterday, the Conference on Protecting and Caring for Our Children, organized by the Department of Health’s Women and Children Protection Center, was held at the Grand Hotel. Thanks to countries like Canada which provide financial assistance to a country whose parents have no doubt neglected their children. Sutherland is one of the most visible foreign ambassadors, coming back and forth to Cebu, a mute testament to his country’s commitment to the development and welfare of the Filipino people. Here’s to Canada Days in Cebu! Thank God for Canada!

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For e-mail 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 talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.