Tango instead of Cha-cha for now

This is definitely the wrong time to insist on Charter change with all these controversies surrounding Malacañang and people seeing through this as another attempt to extend the term of government officials — in particular GMA. Even the most ardent support from administration allies in Congress will not isolate the Palace from a potentially explosive situation. All 23 Senators have voiced their strong opposition to any attempt to change the Constitution especially without the concurrence of three fourths of the Senate voting separately on the issue because it would be unconstitutional, heeding the advice of many who are against Charter change at this time.

There’s no question we need to change the Charter because it is flawed and full of loopholes, and must be improved to make current provisions more attuned to the changing times. While the 1987 Charter is one of the longest in the world, it is ironically ambiguous on many things, even on the manner of changing it, perhaps because it was crafted with so much haste and paranoia surrounding it. The Constitution has a lot of over protectionist provisions that have done little in opening up our economy and giving the country a fighting chance in a highly-competitive global market.

In fairness to GMA, she has always been for Charter change. In fact, during my conversation with her in Malacañang last month, she admitted that amending economic provisions in the Charter could bring about “more stability because our country has really sacrificed economic progress for political disruption for decades.” But this is the wrong administration to push for it, having only one and a half years left.

Like many Filipinos, I am convinced that doing the Cha cha now is ill-timed and would only fuel more disruption in the political arena. It will only go the way of FVR when he tried to push for constitutional amendments during the last year of his term. Somehow we never learn from the mistakes of others.

People don’t realize the gravity of the economic impact of this global financial mess. It is time for us to concentrate on finding innovative ways to combat the economic downturn expected to hit many countries next year — the Philippines included. A World Bank official had already warned that we will begin to feel the effects of the global financial meltdown in 2009 with projections that GDP growth will only be way below what is expected. The World Bank concedes that Asian countries have fared better at the onset of the crisis, but they also warned that no one will be spared from the “full fury of the global economic storm.”

When the OFWs and the poorer sector feel its harsh impact, the situation could become explosive. With overseas workers getting retrenched, we face a gloomy prospect since our number one export — the OFWs — have been for years a very big factor in shoring up our economy and keeping it afloat especially during times of crisis. As the number of Filipinos living below the poverty line keeps growing — now at 23 million — there’s no telling what will happen when they could no longer endure the painful bite of hunger.

So instead of dancing the Cha-Cha now, perhaps we should do the tango — moving in rhythm and dancing in a smooth, coordinated manner as we move together forward, going to one direction. After all, if as everyone claims, we all want this country to survive these trying times and move our economy towards the right direction, we should not act like adversaries but move in synchronicity like partners — the way good tango dancers do.

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Surveys have painted the Philippines as one of the most corrupt countries in the world but the fact of the matter is, corruption in America is pretty bad, too. It’s human nature, which is why a great nation like the US that has been pontificating about corruption now finds itself in an embarrassing situation with corruption happening right in its own backyard. Worse, it’s happening in the backyard closest to their president-elect.

Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, an unrepentant, foul-mouthed man with “big ambitions and a bigger mouth” was caught blatantly using his position to sell the senate seat of Barack Obama to the highest bidder. But bribe givers should also be condemned as much as bribe takers because they fuel corruption, raising appetites of the corrupt to higher levels. Transparency International recently came out with its Bribe Payers Index, revealing that companies from India, Russia, China and Mexico are most likely to pay bribes to secure foreign contracts. As a columnist said, being included in TI’s Corruption Index is not a badge of honor, but being in the Bribe Payers Index is worse because it reeks of high-level hypocrisy.

Take for instance Eliot Spitzer with his double standard, going after criminals and prostitution rings when he was New York Attorney General, only to be exposed as a two-bit prostitute lover, forced to resign in disgrace as New York Governor. Of course, the wealthy like Hank Greenberg who were hounded by Spitzer eventually found ways to get back at their tormentor and cause his downfall.

Not that misery loves company, but no country, no matter how developed, is immune to corruption. The only difference perhaps is that the methods are more sophisticated. Corruption can pervade every sector, from politics to business to media including the Church. Everybody wants to get rid of corruption but this is something we cannot completely eradicate. The best we can do is bring it down to a minimum and prevent it from seeping into the entire moral fiber of a country — which unfortunately is already happening to us today.

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