Cha-cha no longer a bad idea

There are probably sinister motives behind the revived move to amend the Constitution, but there will always be such motives from our politicians anyway. I had been against tinkering with the Constitution, but after almost 40 years and given the sad state of our nation today, perhaps the time has come to reconsider a constitution that was written in a hurry by appointed commissioners from the entrenched economic elite.

The other reason why I am ready to consider Cha-cha now is my openness to try a different form of government. I am ready to try parliamentary. Not that the form of government will instantly make things better for us. But our presidential system has utterly failed, why insist on it? Einstein has supposedly described “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” It is also stupid.

I know that unless our people and our leaders get a sense of common good, the form of government won’t matter. But that isn’t happening soon. So, in desperation since I am now old, I want to see if a parliamentary system is better. I don’t have my hopes up high. Not with the way we vote and the way our politicians consider public service as private business. But I am done with the current system and eager to try a new one. Baka sakali.

My colleague, economist Toti Chikiamco, wrote that “we need to change our Constitution. We need to change it because it has failed.”

“The failure is self-evident: 35 years after the 1987 Constitution, nearly 80 percent of the people consider themselves poor or near-poor. Since its promulgation, our economy has fallen farther behind its neighboring peers. We have become more import-dependent than ever, most especially for food. Our manufacturing sector has shrunk. Low productivity services power our economy. About a tenth of our population have sought greener pastures as OFWs abroad, ripping apart families.

“More sadly, education has deteriorated. Filipino schoolchildren are as much as 10 years behind their regional peers in educational attainment. This will doom the next generation to fewer opportunities and dismal options.

“It’s not only in the economic field that failure is self-evident. We have failed to set up a rule of law. Dynastic politics, not accountable political parties, dominate the political system. Our institutions, most especially our bureaucracy, are weak, inefficient, and corrupt.”

Changing the constitution will not bring us to a nirvana. On the contrary, we have to fight the forces from hell in the process of changing it. The politicians behind Cha-cha  today have their ulterior motives.

Perhaps they see the resurrection of the Duterte political dynasty if nothing is done now. The President will become a lame duck in the remaining three years of his term if Sara’s endorsed candidates do well in the midterm election. Actually, Sara Duterte may still end up as prime minister under a parliamentary system, but doing nothing now hands her the keys to Malacañang on a silver platter.

The current presidential system has perpetuated political dynasties on the national level. Three of our latest presidents have previous presidents as parents. Make it four if Sara succeeds President Marcos.

With the vast powers of the presidency, our political party system, which had never been that real, has been totally obliterated. Politicians in both Houses gravitate to whatever political party the new president anoints.

I am in favor of a unicameral parliamentary system. I am also in favor of cutting the number of members of parliament in the interest of saving resources to be used for more productive purposes. The Senate ought to be abolished because it has lost its purpose after we started to elect comedians and shallow personalities created by the media. It is also a dynastic nest. Today, there is a mother and son, brother and sister, and brother and half-brother elected to the Senate.

The purpose of the Senate is to have a nationally elected body of statesmen with the experience and reputation for good governance. The senators are supposed to have a national perspective to counteract the parochial interests of congressmen.

The Senate I covered as a journalist had the likes of Arturo Tolentino, Jovito Salonga, Raul Roco, Raul Manglapus, Orlando Mercado, Vicente Paterno, Edgardo Angara, Teofisto Guingona, Santanina Rasul, Nene Pimentel, Neptali Gonzales, Wigberto Tanada, Leticia Shahani, Alberto Romulo, Rene Saguisag and Juan Ponce Enrile among others. We were once capable of electing statesmen, so maybe it is not the system at fault. Maybe our mass/social media culture has trivialized the voting exercise and our people’s senatorial choices. Since I don’t think our voters will see the light of day soon, given a learning poverty of 91 percent, abolishing the Senate will save money and aggravation for all of us.

A parliamentary system may hopefully revive a party system. The current system of party for convenience gives us legislators loyal only to their personal self-interest. We also need to constitutionally define sectoral representation to cover only the genuinely poor. And because the national political dynasties are so dominant, highly capable politicians do not get a fair chance of being elected in an expensive national electoral campaign.

I know my friend Joey Salceda is a notorious political butterfly because he is forced to survive. But he is one highly capable politician who should be doing more than being one congressman out of 316. In a parliamentary system, he should be able to work his way up in the party’s leadership and be a capable prime minister one day. Now, he can’t even win a national senate seat unless he becomes a host of a highly rated noontime show enjoying the reflected glory of Vice Ganda.

A parliamentary system may hopefully make our political leaders more accountable. While parliamentary members have terms of office, they can be removed easily and a new election called by a simple vote of no confidence. That is better than having to plot a coup to remove a president. Coups make us more unstable than frequent parliamentary elections.

The best reason for Cha-cha is to introduce economic reforms. That will be a topic for a whole new column.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X or Twitter @boochanco