The need to depoliticize the Philippines and how!

There is no doubt that the Filipino people eat, sleep and drink politics. But it is the kind of politics we live by in this country that has made the majority of Filipinos live under the poverty level for so many decades. This can only be blamed on our political system that Filipinos adopted from the United States in 1935. While we adopted the US political system, which was once a two-party system, today, democracy in the Philippines has become demo-crazy! We have political parties that are utterly useless.

Today, political parties do not mean anything, unlike the two-party system in the US, where they have Republicans and Democrats, where political parties are of utmost importance. Please don’t forget…they voted a relative unknown in President Barack Obama. During the Martial Law years, all political parties belonged to the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL). Indeed it was a monolith for as long as the Marcoses were in power. When the Marcoses left in a huff to Hawaii… the KBL broke apart.

Like the proverbial Phoenix, they tried to resurrect the KBL under the so-called Rainbow Coalition of House Speaker Jose de Venecia. Then came Pres. Joseph “Erap” Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP). Then smoking Joe tried to revive his Rainbow Coalition to support then Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. In the end they all fell apart. Thanks to personality politics Philippine style… and this is why today, the intelligentsia and the poorest of the poor would ask you…who is your next presidential candidate?

Take a good look at the ruling Liberal Party (LP) today and you can see that their main Presidential bet is DILG Sec. Manuel “Mar” Roxas, who is so down in the surveys that the LP shamelessly wants to adopt Vice Pres. Jejomar Binay, despite the corruption charges hurled against him. But we already know that VP Binay is akin to the Titanic…sinking fast.

No doubt the biggest problem in Philippine politics is that we’re so much into personality politics that people from the intelligentsia would ask me who is my next candidate for President. The poor also ask the same questions. This is why only famous names like a crusading or even a corrupt Senator or famous actor or actresses figure prominently as senatorial or presidential candidates. With personality politics, political parties do not matter.

So how do we get rid of personality politics? This is what our friends in the National Transformation Council (NTC) wanted to find out, and last Friday evening, I gave them my full-blown political reform that would forever change the Philippine political landscape and reduce the cost of elections. This is the system that the NTC wants to remove and fix to change the nation and have new political leaders who would truly serve the people as true Servant Leaders, and remove the present crop of politicians that we have today who take liberty in pocketing the people’s tax money.

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 (MP). On this move alone… there will be huge savings for the nation as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would be disbanded because henceforth elections will only be local. Just to remind you…there is no Comelec in the US!

But the meat of this reform starts at the lowest form of governance — he Barangay elections. I will use Cebu City as our example, where we 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 MPs 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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