Letter to the editor - On the proposed amendment to the Constitution

If we must amend the Constitution, our leaders should seriously consider the adoption of unicameral parliamentary system so that we would no longer elect national officials (President, Vice-President and Senators) at large. As everybody knows, candidates for these offices need to spend millions of pesos for their country-wide campaign.

To raise that monstrous amount, those people will need the support of vested interests, even foreigners, who will naturally expect a quid pro quo. Or if the candidates is a multimillionair, he will no doubt look forward to a hefty return of his investment.

In other words, graft and corruption cannot be avoided under the present system.

In a unicameral parliamentary system, congressional districts only need to elect representatives who will chose a Prime Minister as the Chief Executive Officer with members of Parliament as Cabinet Ministers. A two-party system will result with a ruling government party and the opposition minority party sitting in the same chamber.

Since the executive and legislative powers are merged in parliament, faster action can be expected on urgent national concerns.

The proposal for a federal system of government requires more serious study because as a noted columnist observed, “there could be a lot of disagreement about which provinces will belong to which state”, and leaders will bicker on the degree of autonomy that should be granted each “federal state”.

In Cebu alone, there is no agreement how to carve an additional district out of the present 6th district of Congresswoman Nerissa Soon-Ruiz.

Incumbent Senators will of course oppose any charge to a Unicameral Parliamentary System. But Congress may indeed “do it alone” and proceed to act as a constitutuent assembly without the participation of the Senate and let the Supreme Court decide the issue on whether the House of Representatives and the Senate acting as a Constituent assembly should vote jointly or separately on that issue. Unless majority vote is reckoned from the total composition of both houses, there is no way to change our bicameral form of legislature.

If we cannot adopt a parliamentary form of government, the better alternative would be to elect Senators by District or Region so that there would be proper representation of the diffirent regions in our country.