More than ever the time has come

For some of us, changing the Constitution is a tall order, even impossible.  Some would say, difficult to do, and in any case that we are better off just leaving it alone. But for others and I am one of them, it is necessary to ditch the 1987 Constitution, once and for all, whatever it takes. It is the reason for most of our problems with government today. The PDAF or DAP is a good example of the frailties of our presidential system. It is the one man one vote for a national election that guarantees the defeat of meritorious candidates without money. It does not lend itself to intelligent voting.

Candidates with money or movie and celebrity popularity or belonging to family dynasties win. These are becoming a tighter and tighter clique. The PDAF and DAP are effects not the cause of our unfortunate politics. Graft is pervasive because elected officials have to recoup what they have spent for expensive election campaigns. But they spend anyway because they can get it once they are in office. Once they see it can be done then they want more and more — from thousands, to millions to billions. That is where we are now. In such a system getting meritorious candidates into office is like getting a camel through the hole of a needle.

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Constitutional reform has been attempted every now and then from administration to administation by its advocates since the Edsa peaceful revolution. But it has been blocked again and again. Frankly it is difficult to pinpoint the villains of this macabre drama to keep us in servitude of a bad Constitution. It is my personal opinion that the 1987 Constitution by design or by accident divides the country into two — the few and the many. And the difference between the two is getting wider. The few are the oligarchy and the many are the people at large, primarily the masses whose concerns remain unattended despite the much hyped CCT transfers.

We may be reaching the tail end of this resistance against constitutional reform because it is evident that we cannot continue with the present system that favors the few to the detriment of the many. It may have been possible before but natural disasters and hard times will open the eyes of the many. The few have had lucky breaks, many of them in fact because of the ignorance of the many.

But once the many have  their backs against the wall, we will face the fury of the poor. They have long been deprived of decent lives.

In the Philippines, there are millions of them at latest count  from the National Statistics Coordination Board. It recently release figures to show that almost a third of  Filipinos ie. 27.9 million live below the poverty line.  This has been unchanged through two presidential administrations. In the report NSCB says, “it is all the more disturbing  because globally, the poverty situation has actually improved since 2005.  

“According to the World Bank, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty — on less than $1.25 a day — fell in every developing region from 2005 to 2008. Moreover, the biggest recession since the Great Depression seems not to have thrown that trend off course. According to the Bank, “The progress is so drastic that the world has met the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals to cut extreme poverty in half five years before its 2015 deadline.” Except in the Philippines.

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The search for solutions must include an overhaul of our system because we have the resources and an intelligent and capable people. The flaw is in leadership. We have a leadership that is unable to meet the basic competence needed to pull the country up.

The poor, the many in the Philippines are patient. I often see them culling through trash strewn in the streets to find something of worth or something to eat that others have thrown away.

Sooner or later they will have nothing left to do but fight for their basic needs. Just because it is not happening now does not mean it will not happen later. We must recognize that will be inevitable if nothing is done at all. Indeed it must be done purposefully otherwise we face anarchy. If we are to reform the Constitution it has to be done now not through band-aid palliatives but through an overhaul of the system that has been shown to work for the few.

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It is not surprising that President Aquino has singled out the issue of constitutional reform during his visit to South Korea. Speaking to Korean businessmen/women  in Seoul, Aquino said he is not for lifting restrictions on the foreign ownership of businesses and lands. He said China flourishes even with that restriction.

Someone should have told him that China and the Philippines have their specificities. And it is not quite true that China has flourished even without allowing foreigners  to own the land.

I did a little bit of research and found otherwise. According to the blog on International Living “there are now no restrictions on the types of properties that foreigners are allowed to buy in China, and they can buy through an agent or directly from the developer or owner. “ It mentions one requirement: foreigners need to have worked or studies in China for more than one year to be able to buy property. 

There you are but again bad research is not the issue. The issue in fact is that we need investments to the Philippines not only to open up more industries to give jobs to Filipinos but because foreign investments will bring with it technology that will have far reaching effects on our economy.

President Aquino is entitled to his opinion on the effects of unfriendly constitutional provisions against foreign investments but this is only one reason. There are others. Indeed constitutional reform will have to tackle more that the “ownership of land by foreigners.” A more important issue is inconsistent policies. Investors who have been brave enough to do business in the Philippines too often get caught up in political infighting. They come in following a set of rules, make  projections but by the time they are ready to set up or start doing business the rules have been changed.

More than ever the time has come for constitutional reform and many sectors will come together to see it through regardless of what President Aquino says.