Parliamentary system not necessary

Our country is really much better off under a presidential rather than a parliamentary form of government. But the proposal to shift to parliamentary system is gaining more and more adherents mainly because of how the present administration wields the Executive power.

Actually there is nothing inherently wrong with endowing tremendous powers to Executive Department headed by the President considering the heavy burdens it carries in promoting the common good, the public interest and general welfare. Unfortunately instead of using these powers to discharge those burdens, the present administration abuse and misuse these powers to hide wrong doings and corruption for its interest and self preservation.

The abuse or misuse of power is usually done through the various executive departments, bureaus, offices and agencies under its supervision and control. This is quite evident in the disparity on dealing with anti and pro administration people. Staunch administration critics, witnesses and whistle-blowers who have surfaced to denounce wrongdoings in the government are harassed, intimidated, charged and sometimes even “kidnapped” or mysteriously killed. On the other hand cronies involved in anomalies remain uncharged and witnesses who keep mum or who talk against its critics and oppositionists are fully protected and well taken cared of.

When Lozada chose to return to spill the beans despite being sent away because he knows too much about the involvement of people close to the administration on the NBN-ZTE over pricing, he was forcibly whisked away from the airport tube, taken for a ride by some unidentified police operatives and was unheard of for several hours until he was given back to the anxious arms of his family because of media pressure.

But when Mancao decided to return and tell what he supposedly knows on the involvement of well known opposition figures in the Dacer-Corbito kidnap-murder, a sizable number of NBI agents were sent all the way to LA to provide him security and all the amenities of a returning VIP apparently using taxpayers’ money.

Lately, another whistle blower in the Balikatan Fund mess, Lt. Senior Grade Nancy Gadian has been receiving threats to her life forcing her to seek the issuance of a protection order which was granted by the Supreme Court through the writ of amparo.

Before Gadian was Retired General Gudani who was court martialed for defying his superiors’ orders to refrain from testifying before the Senate regarding the 2004 election fraud in Mindanao subject of the Garci tape. For telling what happened in the last elections which he personally came to know even if his testimony was allegedly covered by executive privilege, Gudani obviously does not enjoy now the same quiet and comfortable retirement like Garci who chose to keep mum and/or deny the existence of any fraud.

Another witness who has been well rewarded with a plum government position for keeping his mouth shut is Romulo Neri. He earned his reward for refusing to divulge the President’s reactions and instructions on his revelation about the alleged bribes in the ZTE-NBN contract on the ground of “executive privilege” that was sustained by the Supreme Court in highly controversial ruling.

Then there is former Agriculture Undersec-retary Joc-Joc Bolante who was twice found by the Senate to be indictable for plunder as the architect of the Fertilizer Fund Scam that raised funds to finance the 2004 presidential election campaign. Up to now despite the finding of probable cause to charge him in court, the Ombudsman who was a former Malacañang legal counsel has sat on the case. Prior to this, a convicted plunderer was even pardoned.

Even the other separate and co-equal branches of the government more specifically the Lower House of Congress has obviously become Malacanang’s rubber stamp as shown by the recent action of said body adopting resolution 1109 that constitutes itself into a Con-Ass. While Malacanang has denied any hand in this unpopular, ill-advised, constitutionally questionable and insolent move, the resolution was sponsored and pushed by all of its allies in the Lower House who undeniably act or do not act at Malacañang’s bidding.

All these abuse and misuse or non-use of executive powers are not enough reasons to shift to the parliamentary form of government. On the contrary, under the parliamentary system where the legislative and the executive departments are actually merged under a sole leader called the Prime Minister or Speaker of the Parliament, a graver abuse and misuse of power may ensue if the same kind of leadership takes over.

The solution therefore lies not in shifting to another form of government but in choosing a principled President who has experience, integrity and moral backbone to use the powers of the Executive for the common good and not for his/her self interest and aggrandizement. And going over the list of declared presidentiables, no one seems to possess all these qualities although a few could be considered as the “lesser evil”.