Through cha-cha we can change this nation

For our special presentation on Straight from the Sky, we bring you the second episode of our Gallery from the Sky where we bring to your television screens, Cebuano artists as a way of showing you Cebuano culture today. Art and paintings are the soul of Cebuano culture and many such paintings are shown in the many art galleries here in Cebu. But having them on television gives our artists a wider audience. However, art lovers often only see the painting, but do not get to meet the artist, which is why my good friend, Celso Pepito, whom I consider as one of Cebu’s master painters agreed to co-host this show with me.

Tonight we will feature the art of Jobril Villaver, Maxel Migallos, Benji Goyha and Jose “Kimsoy” Yap Jr. with Celso Pepito introducing them to us. At the start of the show, Kimsoy Yap and Maxcel Migallos did their own sketching of me while we were doing the show and presented their pencil sketches, which I will certainly treasure. It was the first time I had this on our tv show. Watch this very interesting show of Art and Culture at 8:00pm on SkyCable’s channel 15.

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We have written volumes of pages on the topic on how the Philippines can get back in track and regain the prestige we used to have. After World War II, despite having been ravaged by war, we were considered second to Japan as far as our economy was concerned. But by now, all Filipinos know that our Asian neighbors have left us behind.

China is now the second or third largest economy in the world, even Singapore, which was once only a backwater port and a part of the Malaysian Federation has beaten us long time ago. If you travel to Malaysia, you’ll wonder why they have progressed so much and then ask yourself, why we are being left behind? In truth, way back in 1986, we joined the EDSA Revolution to oust the conjugal Marcos Dictatorship because the country has stagnated under their regime. We replaced it with a democratic system. But alas, we did not only stagnate further because of corruption, bureaucracy and personality politics, we got worse than the time of Marcos!

With elections just over the horizon, we must take stock of ourselves and go beyond the personalities seeking the Office of the Presidency. That man or woman should have the vision to correct whatever is wrong with the Philippines and have the political will to grab the problem by its horns and fix them so that we can break free from all this bureaucracy, political patronage and corruption.

If and when we choose a new president during the 2010 elections, even if through an automated counting system, we shall see a real honest and clean elections, it is no guarantee that things would change in this country. Much like when Tita Cory took over the reins of power from the Marcos Dictatorship. After the euphoria of EDSA disappeared, we became worse than before! This is because Tita Cory gave us a Constitution that cemented the control of Imperial Manila with its centralized form of government, which is no longer working for the country!

Call me stubborn but the only real change we can do to make this nation better is through Constitutional Change a.k.a. Charter Change. Alas, cha-cha has been hijacked by unscrupulous politicians who in their desire to stay in power, wanted to use or should I say misuse it to further their devious plans to extend the terms of those already elected into office. I’m not a bit surprise that the latest Social Weather Station (SWS) surveys revealed that some 70% of Filipinos oppose cha-cha especially if it is to extend the term limits of present officials.

Once more we make this appeal to the members of Congress to vote for the election of the delegates of a Constitutional Convention (con-con) together with the candidates for the 2010 elections. If and when this will happen, the new President can no longer be suspected of engineering any changes in the charter and the delegates can then look at the wrongs of the present constitution and perhaps give true autonomy to the local governments by installing a Federal System of Government.

Allow me to paraphrase a portion of the speech of US Pres. Barack Obama when he visited Ghana in Africa. He said, “Development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient, which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long… Repression takes many forms, and too many nations are plagued by problems that condemn their people to poverty. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers.” By now, the Filipino people ought to show their indignation that almost all the members of Congress have become millionaires. This alone is motivation for cha-cha!

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