Wanted: Out of the box political reforms

The Lipa Declaration which called for a National Transformation Council (NTC) which was adopted on Aug. 27, 2014 by a group of civic society, the clergy of the Catholic Church and Evangelical churches and Muslim groups, called for the resignation of Pres. Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III and the entire Philippine government was created because of the failure of P-Noy and the Legislature to strengthen our democratic form of governance.

In short, Philippine democracy is in peril because of President Aquino’s call for Charter change not just to extend his term of office, but also to clip the powers of the Supreme Court. This was the subject of a New York Times editorial last Aug. 28, entitled “Political Mischief in the Philippines,” and I’m sure that a lot of well-meaning Filipinos have read that piece. Come now, it is no longer just us Filipinos bashing P-Noy, the Americans too have joined the fray and bashing his regime.

So back to the NTC… what’s the purpose of this group? Clearly, this is the only moral group in the country today that is committed to transform the nation into a Philippines that hopefully would be run like heaven by Filipinos. By transformation, it aims to rid this nation of the stranglehold grip of the political elite that has been in power in the last 28 years since the EDSA Revolt. If the Marcos Dictatorship lasted for 14 years as one-man rule, the political elite (I call them the 40 Thieves that stayed behind after we threw Ali-Baba out of the government) has ruled this nation for 28 years until they were caught red-handed misusing their pork barrels and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) for their own selfish purposes!

So what’s the alternative? Another election? Not if the Commission on Elections (Comelec) keeps on using that cheating machinery called the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) which has been proven to have cheated the local elections in the town of Compostela, Cebu during the 2010 elections and it worsened during the 2013 mid-term elections. So really there’s not much option left for the Filipino people. Meanwhile the Communist Party of the Philippines, the National Democratic Front and the New People’s Army (CPP/NDF/NPA) are busy making more trouble in the streets with a weakened Aquino regime because they can benefit the most from his weakness.

So if you ask…what can the NTC offer in terms of reforms? First and foremost is that proposal to break the Comelec stranglehold by one man… and make independent “Comelecs” in all the 14 regions of the country. This way the Comelec cannot be controlled by one man or one party. Then we throw out the PCOS machines because anyway elections are always local. In line with election protests the ballot boxes or precincts in question can be counted in front of the Municipal Hall before the eyes of the people so that the results would be instantaneous and the cost minimal.

But the real reforms start with depoliticizing Philippine politics and it starts right down at the barangay level. To save the Philippine government money and reduce the number of politicians, Barangay reforms shall start with the removal of all barangay councilors who are not really doing their job. Elections in the barangay level shall be reduced to barangay captain and three deputies for administration, health and sanitation, security and lupon. But here is the clincher.

Your barangay captain would now become your city or municipal councilor. This way we eliminate the need to pay for city, municipal councilors and board members. Of course this means reducing the present number of barangays in a town or city. After elections, all barangay captains will meet once a week in their respective cities or municipalities and provinces as councilors. Then they will elect from amongst themselves their Board of Directors to do the day to day affairs of the Legislative agenda.

Then the Board of Directors (this should be the new terminology for the City or Municipal or Provincial Council) will hire a city manager. Yes, this is being done in many progressive cities, where they no longer have any Mayor but a chief executive officer (CEO) who can be hired and fired by the Board of Directors. Yes, a new Philippines should be run like a business and in so doing, your Mayor or Governor will no longer be elected but hired.

Now this may only be a suggestion which I will present to the NTC leadership, but this is what we call an “Out of the Box” solution to our political problems. As I pointed out very strongly, the solution to our ills is to depoliticize the government. As for solutions to the ills of Metro Manila it’s been discussed already that it is high time to freeze new developments in Metro Manila until the problems of congestion in the ports and airports and roadways would be solve. Of course the oligarchs wouldn’t have it another way. But we need to bite the proverbial bullet and put in real reforms for the sake of the Filipino people.

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