From the start BayanKo, the crowdsourcing movement for change, declared that the country’s problems could be summarized into a simple statement: so few own the resources of the country while the many struggle for left-over crumbs.
We need to change the system and the peaceful way we could do it was by changing the Constitution. Liberal Party presidential candidate Mar Roxas called it unashamedly a mere “piece of paper.”
The 1987 Constitution was made for the benefit of the oligarchy. It remains our goal to change in a peaceful and fastest way we can.
We had to get to the Filipino crowd and allow them to speak on what they can do and must do for a better life and society. As Iceland’s Torfuson, the leader of the Icelandic revolution said, we beat the one percent why can’t you? But we needed a leader.
As BayanKo adviser Jose Alejandrino wrote to this column:
“Of all the presidential candidates, the only one who espouses change is Rodrigo Duterte of Davao. The others have clearly shown they favor a continuity of the present rotten system.
We live in a democracy or so we think. But the political system we have is tilted towards rich oligarchs. His advice:
1. Vote for a president who favors constitutional change. Vote for a president who will put order back into the country.
2. Press for constitutional reform to a parliamentary federal form of government. A parliamentary system should allow the poor marginalized sectors of our society to participate in the decision-making process. An evolving federal system based on the Spanish model that will allow for greater devolution of powers to viable self-financing federal states to allow them greater say in their development. The new Constitution must only set out the criteria and procedures for becoming a federal state and not determine who are federal states.
3. Revise the Constitution to ensure greater checks and balances between institutions. The provisions must be mandatory and not left to the discretion of the legislature by operation of law. Remove nationalist provisions aimed at protecting local services and industries that are inefficient but charge high rates. Open the economy to foreign competition.
4. Entrust the revision of the Constitution to an independent panel of constitutional experts and jurists supplemented by public hearings. Keep politicians and vested interests out of the exercise. Then submit the revised Constitution for the approval of the people in a plebiscite and call for new elections. The whole process must be completed not later than 36 months after the election of a new president in May 2016. This means all officials elected in 2016 must step down but may, if they wish, run for parliament.
5. A new form of government will permit the entry of a new set of leaders based on meritocracy. A parliamentary system will allow more focus on issues than personalities. Miracles won’t happen overnight but as the system refines itself its beneficial effects will be felt.
Without change, the country won’t develop. Without development, the social and economic pressures will continue to mount until they burst to a violent upheaval nobody wants or can control. External pressures like bigger natural disasters can accelerate the process.”
According to Alejandrino surveys are being contrived that move us closer to fraudulent election using Smartmatic PCOS machines. It has become the only way out for Aquino and the Liberal Party candidates. The presidential battle will probably be between Duterte and Binay.
Extracts from his report to the entity that funded his independent surveys:
“Mar Roxas, the candidate of President Aquino, is also consistently at the tail end of surveys. He is viewed as a clone of President Aquino with no mind of his own.”
“Grace Poe has been disqualified by Comelec but has appealed the decision... Her main shortcoming is her lack of experience... She is suspected of being an American plant, worse still easily manipulated by her chief adviser...”
“Jejomar Binay has moved up in my surveys. He is now in second position behind Rodrigo Duterte. Given the poor showing of Mar Roxas, I believe the Aquino-Cojuangco family has shifted its support to him quietly... He is seen as a traditional politician who took advantage of public office and is unlikely to bring change.
“Rodrigo Duterte’s tough stance against corruption and criminality has won him brownie points, particularly among the lower classes who identify with him. He is now leading in my surveys, as much as 11 points ahead of Binay in the December 15 survey. It remains to be seen to whom the Poe supporters will shift their votes if she is permanently disqualified.”
“My guess at this stage is her votes will be divided between Duterte and Binay. But I don’t think Duterte can obtain more than 45 percent of the turnout votes in May 2016. It will probably be in the 40-42 percent bracket. Still it will be sufficient to make him win unless he is cheated at the polls.”
“The automated voting machines lack the security features required by law. Biometrics of voters is in limbo. The Comelec failure to address these problems tells me something is afoot. Given the turnout of voters I anticipate, it will only require manipulating some 3 to 3.5 million votes to make a candidate win. This corresponds roughly to the number of voters with no biometrics... If the May elections fail, I anticipate a different ballgame...”
Ernie del Rosario emailed to me.
“The other lurking and more frightening “dish” being brewed in the cauldron of the male and female “witches” at Comelec with imported cooks assisting (no, chief-cheffing) is what I call an “Electoral Trojan Horse” hidden in the No Bio, No Boto conundrum which I think we should focus on attacking also with urgency.
The recent Supreme Court TRO lifting on it gave the imprimatur and nihil obstat to it. Why and how? It may surreptitiously inject some shades of Orwellian “1984” come 2016 (google “1984” book of George Orwell). Not only will 2+ million or is it 3+ million be illegally (huwag na constitutionally for the debate focused at just this very high level only) be disenfranchised and our votes not be counted but we will have as bonuses a possible blatant violation of vote secrecy (already successfully implemented in Venezuela in the 2013 elections by Smartmatic and eventually an Orwellian society).
A “1984” come 2016 as George Orwell predicted in 1949 in his book “1984” (an outline of the emerging story is in the attached Mindmap I call “No Bio, no Boto: A Precursor to an Electoral Trojan Horse?”). This we must stop.