How to get rid of personality politics
Last Tuesday, we wrote in our Philippine Star column the kind of political reforms that I presented to the National Transformation Council in a meeting in the residence of his eminence, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. This were my thoughts on what the political landscape should be if our people would finally have the courage to start thinking out of the box as far as politics in the Philippines is concerned. Right now we are under what we call a personality politics, which has been with us since the EDSA Revolt.
We all experienced the euphoria that resulted from the EDSA revolt as it brought a new fresh hope to the nation that finally, we have gotten rid of the Marcos dictatorship that ruled us for 14 long years. The Marcoses and their cronies got rich and richer, while the Filipino people got poorer and poorer and soon, we experience the Filipino "Diaspora" where many of our people accepted menial jobs from abroad just to make ends meet.
So we were overjoyed that the Filipino people got rid of the Marcos dictatorship in a peaceful EDSA Revolt. Alas, as I always say, we got rid of Alibaba, but retained the 40 thieves. Now the 40 thieves whom we call senators have ruled our nation for 28 years and it was only last year that finally we caught their dirty hands inside the nation's treasury, literally stealing the people's money to enrich themselves using fake NGOs as explained by Janet Lim Napoles.
Remember those days when we couldn't answer a simple question as to why politicians line up to run for Congress or the Senate when it pays only P35,000 per month? Yet during the election campaign they spend millions in advertising and worse… monies to buy the votes of the poor Filipino. Well now the truth has really come out and what pains me is that the Filipino people are not angry enough to march to the streets in protest as to why only three senators have been incarcerated so far?
The situation today is very serious but the Aquino regime simply ignores the need for Justice as demanded by the Filipino people. Pres. Benigno Aquino III is so overconfident of himself that even if his Police Chief Alan Purisima has been tainted with corruption, he still keeps him in office to the great demoralization of the PNP officers and men.
His hold on Comelec Sixto Brillantes is so strong… they will spend billions of pesos for new Precinct Count Optical Scan machines, which they can manipulate to produce the desired results in the 2016 elections. As I've mentioned already many times before, Information Technology Prof. Alex Muga of the Ateneo University discovered their notorious plan called 60% Liberal Party 30% UNA Party and 10% also ran. They have committed a serious crime, which the Volunteers for Crime and Corruption had joined in the filing of criminal charges against Comelec officials.
Meanwhile how do we get rid of personality politics? Allow me to reprint what I wrote in The Star. "This plan is simple…but a huge game changer, as we will no longer have National Elections. Yes, in a Parliamentary System, if you want to be Prime Minister, you need to run as a Member of Parliament. On this move alone… there will be huge savings for the nation as the Commission on Elections would be disbanded because henceforth elections will only be local. Remember there is no Comelec in the USA!
But the meat of this reform starts at the lowest form of governance. The Barangay elections. I will use Cebu City as our example, were have 80 Barangays. So first off we fuse two barangays together and end up with 40 Barangay Captains to choose from. There will be no more Barangay Councilors…but only deputies for Administration, Health and Sanitation and Security. So we end up with 40 Barangay Captains who will double as our Councilors. They will be the local Legislators, then they will choose a set of Board of Directors who will run the City of Cebu, then hire the Mayor. Yes, there will be no one running for Mayor of any city in the country. The Mayor will be hired and fired by the Barangay Captains who will become Councilors.
The same thing can be done in the Province… where a Deputy Governor will also be hired. But the highest post will be that of Regional Governor. In short all Regions will elect a Governor who will double as Senators! Again what huge savings to the nation. But the Senators will not craft laws; they would do treaties and check on the laws the MP's would make.
Then a Titular President with a fixed term will be chosen from among the Governor/Senators who can dissolve Parliament. Real power lies in the Prime Minister. So this is what we get when we think out of the box. When I presented this to the NTC… it was so much welcomed and so the next step is to ask Ma'am Carmen "Chit" Pedrosa to include this to her crowdsourcing in Bayan Ko. This is why the NTC isn't looking forward to the 2016 elections as it seeks to first change our political system into a better one where Filipinos stand a chance to run the country like heaven by Filipinos! Come join us!"
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