We need to Cha-cha toward a federal system!

I don’t know what’s up with my good friend, Sen. Mar Roxas, who apparently insists that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) give more attention to the economy first before going into Charter changes. Perhaps the problem we’re facing about Charter changes is linked to politics… that you are perceived to be pro-GMA if you want the Constitution changed or amended. On the contrary, if you want amendments to the Constitution to help this country get a better government… that means you are pro-Philippines and there’s nothing wrong with that. This has nothing to do with being pro-anyone! In truth, we Filipinos have run out of excuses!

We need to change the Cory-designed Constitution because it is precisely the very reason why we had another coup last Feb. 24. Many Filipinos are already sick and tired of all this, but for as long as the Cory Constitution allows for more EDSA revolts, we shall never see the end of these. We must change the Charter… not to perpetuate Mrs. Arroyo in Malacañang, but to fix whatever is wrong with this country!

As we said last time, Speaker Jose de Venecia and former President Fidel V. Ramos have been selling a parliamentary form of government because they believe that this is a better system to remove the gridlock that’s happening today between the Legislative and Executive branches of government. But these gentlemen are virtually insulting our intelligence as if we in the Visayas and Mindanao cannot see what a parliamentary system would do… that they would be creating a Super Imperial Manila because a parliamentary system is a fusion of both the Legislative and Executive branches of government!

If JDV and FVR are selling the idea that our present political problems would be solved under a parliamentary system, they are terribly mistaken! Again, we bring you to the woes of our next-door neighbor, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is facing a fate similar to President Arroyo’s, except that this shouldn’t be happening in a parliamentary system… but it is! Explain this to us, JDV or FVR.

A better example to use is the incident that happened toward the end of last year in Germany when there was an impasse after the elections in the Bundestag where the German Parliament couldn’t decide who was their next Chancellor… Gerhard Schroeder or Angela Merkel. Well, after three embarrassing weeks, Germany finally put in their first woman Chancellor in Angela Merkel. But did we see the Germans marching in the streets in protest? While the Bundestag was virtually divided in two, it was business as usual in Germany. Why? Because Germany is a federalized nation!

When we have strong federal states, the Parliament can go to any extreme in politics, but it won’t affect the states or "landers" as they are called in Germany. This is why we have been batting for a federal system of government, which by the way is functioning perfectly in Malaysia. Unfortunately, Thailand is not a federal nation.

But to those who oppose our shift to turn the Philippines into a federal nation because we are not yet ready for it… I dare you look at the history of Germany… where a weak Weimar Republic (complete with a party-list system, which the Nazis were able to use to grab political power) was taken over by the Hitler dictatorship. In the aftermath of World War II, which they started, Germany was totally in ruins, its cities decimated, its capital, Berlin, occupied by the Allied Forces. So when they established a new German government, they adopted a federal system. So let us ask ourselves… was Germany ready to embrace a federal system? Surely somebody must have said that Germany wasn’t ready yet!

Again, let me emphasize that our present system of government is practically shot… unable to give a government that the people deserve. Blame this, of course, on a crop of undeserving voters who sell their votes to undeserving politicians. But all that is water under the bridge. For all her faults, it is only President Arroyo who is selling the idea of changing the government and I believe it is a great opportunity for us to do so even if we dislike President Arroyo. Our greatest enemy is not President GMA… it is we Filipinos who cannot accept truth or the reality that we have a lousy political system.

Just take a good look at the remnant of the old political order, the Liberal Party of the Philippines… today they have the Drilon and Atienza wings because these politicians who belong to the same party cannot even bring themselves to unite for the sake of their party! So what does the Liberal Party do… ask the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to rule on who should be the party’s rightful leader and that the Comelec rule in favor of Senate President Franklin Drilon?

But do you think they have resolved this problem? First of all, these very people have openly denounced the Comelec for its dishonesty, its lack of integrity, now they find it convenient to turn to the Comelec to make a ruling as to who should be the party leader. This, my friends, is exactly what’s wrong with this country today! We’ve got people running our government who have no integrity in their political parties.

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Here’s an e-mailed letter in response to our articles:

"Dear Mr. Bobit, Good day to you! I try to read your Philippine STAR column whenever I can to keep abreast with the pulse of Cebu. I was eagerly anticipating your reaction to the hullabaloo in Fort Bonifacio last Sunday since I have a feeling what reached Cebu was an over-dramatized version of what was really going on here in Manila.

"My friends in Cebu were calling me in a panic asking if there was to be a coup and a hostile takeover of the government already. I tried to assure them and their families that it was actually nothing more than a scuffle among the very macho-istic Philippine Marines who didn’t just want a fight, but a fight live on TV! Add to that a bunch of publicity-hungry political has-beens and a whole lot of ‘usiseros’ and media people who, in my opinion, were very abusive of the Marines by putting anti-GMA statements into their mouths. Thank you for publishing the link to the Time Asia magazine story. I enjoyed reading through it very much. From one of your articles, you quoted: ‘There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.’ This was from George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), ‘Man and Superman’ (1903), Act 4. I’m looking forward to my visit to Cebu this year. It’s the only time I’ll get to really rest and have good food! More power to PhilSTAR and may God continue to bless you and your loved ones. Thank you for your time. Ida Marie C. Avila, Export Marketing Executive, Universal Robina Corporation"

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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 talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.