A National Transformation Council to bring back the rule of law

There are those who say that the PDAF and DAP scandals show that we cannot trust a parliamentary system. Wrong. This misunderstanding comes from a loose definition of Congress that is often interchanged with the word Parliament. In the Philippines the parliament aka congress was developed by the presidential system. What we have is a presidential system with an all powerful president who behaves or is empowered to behave like the governor general in the American colonial period.

I think that is one of the reasons why the presidential system we have now was forced on us by then American President William McKinley who decided it was better to deal with one person than with several persons. That would be the case with a parliamentary government with power vested in the representatives of the people rather than with a presidential system with the president, a single individual that can be made to administer according to the US foreign policy agenda. 

That is the reason why since 1946 the Americans have one way or another influenced our presidential elections. It is consistent with the post colonization strategy set by US President William McKinley on the eve of granting independence to the Philippines. The American president told President Quezon to tell Filipino constitutionalists debating whether we would have a parliamentary or a presidential system. His answer to President Quezon was no presidential system, no independence. There is another more indirect reason for this. The US was in competition with the British, their own former colonizer, who had a parliamentary system of government that became an exemplar for emerging nations. It was the old world against the new.

 On the other hand, our forebears were schooled in 300 years of Spanish dominance and the European political ferment that favored the parliamentary system. The Malolos Constitution was parliamentarian in essence and in keeping with what Filipinos imbibed as revolutionaries, as students in Europe.

A group of Filipino citizens have now opened a website, www.bayanko.org.ph to crowdsource  ideas and reasons for reforms through social media for a new Constitution more attuned to the history and the objectives of an independent country.

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Filipinos are keenly watching what is happening in Thailand with the view that there are lessons to learn if we were to call in the military to correct the disastrous circumstances brought on by the Aquino government’s failed state. If a comparison must be made we must point out there are differences between the situations in both countries.

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Yesterday, the military created National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) of Thailand issued a roadmap on how it plans to return the country back to democracy. It also called on the Red Shirts supporters of the government it dislodged to cooperate with the changes.

NCPO spokesman Colonel Winthai Suvari said “the NCPO will convene a video conference with government officials at central and provincial levels to issue the new policies.”

Suvari outlined the three stages, the first the country will be run under special law, the second would be a preparatory period “for a new charter, a reform council and a legislative council.”

And finally the country will move towards full democracy with an election.

“Every sector will participate in managing budgets in accordance with priorities, urgency and equality principles, especially projects that address public grievances” the military government said.

Also among the instruction was an instruction not to create debts beyond legal limits. The media as well as the social media would continue to be monitored. Winthai cited the case of media reports that the NCPO had not released all of United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) members who were arrested. This was denied by the military’s NCPO.

He also said that all Red Shirts and former MPs under the seven-day detention were treated well.

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The Philippines will also need the military to be involved in any transformation for the country that is contemplated by the Filipino citizenry.

Its position though will be different from the role it played in Thailand where there is  a legitimate opposition and a monarch.

 In the Philippines there is no opposition  because the incumbent government seeks to dismantle the check and balance democratic government. What we now have is government moving to a de facto dictatorship through questionable acts after seizing power in faked elections. It is riding roughshod against the Constitution and the rule of law to carry out its agenda.

The military has a function in our constitutional order at times like this. It can be called upon to protect the state when it is in danger of being destroyed by acts like the PCOS elections and the PDAF and DAP scams. Offenders are government officials as the accused, judges and executioners of themselves.

As of this writing the government has been dragging its feet on a proper trial for those who had taken part in the horrific corruption involving both the executive and the legislative branches.

The way it looks now, the only way we can have a proper trial against the accused is through a special court. The present government is unable to deal with the crimes because its officials are the accused. The special court will have to be created by sovereign citizens with the protection of the military as mandated by the Constitution. 

But constitutionally, and in no instance, should the military act alone or replace civil authority as it did in Thailand.

A National Transformation Council created by civilians that will oversee the transformation has become more and more urgent as the only constitutional solution.

The Philippine Constitution is clear that ”Civilian authority is supreme at all times.” So whatever reforms or corrections are contemplated to put the country in order will have to follow that constitutional injunction. It is time to create a National Transformation Council of civic-spirited and experienced citizens as a first step to bring back the country to democratic normalcy under the rule of law.