‘We want it, waiting is not an option’

The spectacular support for Rodrigo Duterte was demonstrated on May 7, 2016. A single word united the crowd of more than a million who came – change. By change they mean meaningful change to reconstruct Filipino politics, government and way of life. Each one had his or her own way of articulating it. But it was a moment of triumph for the people to be truly sovereign. They could if they wanted to.There are aerial pictures of the crowd raising the flag over their heads for everyone to see that moment preserved for posterity.

But how do we move forward? There have been several statements coming from the Palace as well as Congress but all these, in my opinion, fall short to fulfill the vision that May 7 and Duterte promised.

Real change as Duterte has said often enough would mean a new constitution, not just amendments. The new constitution would be all inclusive and bind all Filipinos here and abroad into a new nation with a parliamentary federal system.

Several statements have come both from the Palace and Congress. In my humble opinion by using the tools of the present system to bring change is foolhardy. We will fail. A Duterte-Puno combination offers the best chance to begin the work. We need to move as fast as we can. If we wait, we will surely lose by default. That is what those against reform want. They want to return to pre-Duterte government of DAP and PDAF of the Liberal party headed by former President Noynoy Aquino.

Delay is the biggest enemy to fulfill May 7’s moment of triumph. That enthusiasm will soon fade away, if we do not move fast enough. Questions like will it be by people’s initiative, by constituent assembly or by constitutional convention etc, etc. are delaying tactics. We have seen it happen so often we should have learned our lesson by now. We are being lured into a trap made by the status quo. There is a way to avoid that trap.

In my humble opinion the magic formula would be a combined leadership of Rodrigo Duterte as the strongman and former Chief Justice Reynato Puno as the constitutionalist. I have posted it in social media and it has been received enthusiastically. It will be acceptable to different sectors of society.  

Puno will form the committee of constitutionalists while Duterte will use his power and strength as Chief Executive to secure the committee and enable it to do its work. Otherwise forget about May 7’s crowd and BayanKo’s crowdsourcing. We cannot rely on a Congress developed in a presidential system that is the source of our problems. But we can if we have Duterte acting as leader-strongman and Puno as an accepted moderate to form and lead a committee. The combination when put together might just be the key for a new beginning that has eluded us for years. I remember in one of our meetings when Sen. Ernesto Herrera was still alive. Puno whose legal career began with labor said we should include the right to work and social benefits in a Bill of Rights.

Come to think of it, we should only have a short constitution similar to a preamble and legalities contained in appendices for lawyers. It must be written in simple language understandable to all. The Mabini Decalogue of the Philippine Revolution had only 10  statements to embody of essential principles and moral concepts.

In his State of the Nation Address, Duterte said the Philippines is well advised to have a federal parliamentary form of government patterned after France.

Under this set-up, a bicameral Parliament elects a leader of the majority party or coalition called the prime minister, and they will be in charge of government policies. Duterte, however, still wants Filipinos to elect their own president.

In a speech Puno asks “What is new? Today, so many centuries after, the news is still lack of democratic representation of some sectors of our society but this time, in our Congress, the Executive and the Judiciary. I refer to the complaint of our Muslim brothers and sisters of their utter lack of representation in the Senate and the Supreme Court and underrepresentation in the Executive Department.”

The crowd, the sovereign people is the third component of this formula. We should retrace the steps that led to May 7.

Shirky writes in his book Here comes Everybody is about organizing without organizations. We use social media and it has proven to be effective.

“Social tools, such as blogging, software like WordPress and Twitter, file sharing platforms like Flickr, and online collaboration platforms like Wikipedia, support group conversation and group action in a way that could previously only be achieved through institutions.”

Shirky argues that “with the advent of online social tools, groups can form without previous restrictions of time and cost, in the same way the printing press increased individual expression, and the telephone increased communications between individuals.

The crowd, the sovereign people is the third component of this formula. We should retrace the steps that led to May 7. We will have three factors working side by side – the May 7 crowd, Duterte as strongman and Puno as constitutionalist.

I think Duterte understands the power of social media so he invited bloggers to the Palace and they said they were mystified. Here what one who was present said.

“But I met the President of the Philippines. I had dinner at the palace where he holds office. I was allowed six precious hours inside his office and private abode. And he himself gave a personal tour, because as what he said “I want you to see and enjoy this because this is yours. You paid for it.”

Just like that.”

The title of this column comes from a review of Here comes Everybody by Timothy Lee. That expresses the situation of constitutional change now. We are running out of time.