Graft will be worse in a parliamentary system
Graft will be worse in a parliamentary system
Updated 01:04am (Mla time) Sept 22, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 22, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
CONGRESSMEN are getting desperate because time is running out on a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution before next year's national elections. Now they are proposing that a transition president with a three-year term, instead of the full term of six years, be elected next year whose primary duty would be to shift to a parliamentary system.
But the term of the president cannot be shortened unless the Constitution is amended first. And any amendment cannot take effect unless the people first ratify it in a plebiscite. Which means we will have two polls in a space of eight months: the plebiscite and the national elections. Each of them will cost the taxpayers billions of pesos, an amount we cannot afford and is not in the 2004 budget submitted by the executive department. Congress cannot increase the budget submitted by the executive.
Furthermore, for this desperate plan to work, a constituent assembly must be in place next month and the plebiscite held next February, only three months before the May elections. There is very little time to prepare for all these.
A survey has shown that the people don't want Charter change, but leave it to the representatives of the people to push what they want instead of what the people want. They don't even know whether the people want a parliamentary system, but that is already the main agenda of a “Cha-cha” [Charter change].
The Senate does not want a “Consa” [constituent assembly] to amend the Constitution but a “Con-con” [constitutional convention]. As proposed by the Senate, delegates to the Con-Con will be elected at the same time as the other officials in the 2007 polls. The Consa, however, will be composed of, horrors, the present members of Congress.
As Senate President Franklin Drilon said, "It takes two to Cha-cha." But only the House is dancing to the tune. So the congressmen are getting desperate.
The most desperate of all is House Speaker Jose de Venecia, the conductor of the orchestra that is the House of Representatives playing the Cha-cha song. For this is his last hurrah, his last chance to be chief executive. This is also the last hurrah of former president Fidel V. Ramos, who is also for a parliamentary form of government.
Ramos and De Venecia have four things in common: 1. They are both from the province of Pangasinan. 2. They both want to be chief executive. 3. They both cannot be elected president -- Ramos because the Constitution bars him from running for president again, and De Venecia because the people already rejected him when he ran for president and is likely to be rejected again if he runs a second time. 4. They both want to become chief executive via the back door, by shifting to a parliamentary system, winning seats in parliament, and then running for prime minister.
De Venecia is a known wheeler-dealer famous for hammering coalitions from among different political parties. He is confident he can do it again with the politicians who would be elected to parliament. And that is not hard to do with the present members of Congress, most of whom would likely be elected to parliament. All he has to do is to be generous to the members of parliament (MPs) and they will vote for him to be the prime minister.
Besides that, the PM has to keep the MPs happy, otherwise they could declare a loss of confidence in him and vote to reorganize the government.
Where will the PM get all the money to buy the votes? Where else but from the people. While the MPs get fat, the people will be squeezed dry. You think life is bad now? Wait until we have a parliamentary government.
For in a parliamentary government, there is no system of checks and balances. There will be no Senate to check the MPs, who will be the counterparts of the present congressmen. There will be no executive department to balance the legislature. Parliament will be both the legislature and the executive department. The secretaries or ministers of the executive department will come from among the MPs. And the prime minister, the counterpart of the present president, will also be an MP, elected to his top post by his colleagues. The people will have no part in choosing the person who will rule them.
The government will become an old boys' club even more, controlled by the political party or coalition in power. The party can do almost anything it wants. It will be like a dictatorship with not just one dictator but many. Or like a banana republic with a ruling junta. Imagine having several Marcoses with less brains running the country. That's what we will be in a parliamentary system.
Theoretically, there will be opposition parties who are supposed to fiscalize the administration party. But in the Philippines, political parties don't stand for anything. Parties center around personalities, not ideologies or platforms of government. And opposition politicians tend to fly to the party in power to share in the spoils of victory. So in a Philippine parliament, opposition politicians and parties will join and coalesce with the winning party. Political butterflies will be as plentiful as locusts. Hence, there will be no more opposition parties to check the abuses of the administration party. That is like giving the combination of the safe to a bunch of thieves.
Life may be hard now, but it will be worse in a parliamentary system, especially with the quality, or lack of it, of the present generation of politicians.
Updated 01:04am (Mla time) Sept 22, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 22, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
CONGRESSMEN are getting desperate because time is running out on a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution before next year's national elections. Now they are proposing that a transition president with a three-year term, instead of the full term of six years, be elected next year whose primary duty would be to shift to a parliamentary system.
But the term of the president cannot be shortened unless the Constitution is amended first. And any amendment cannot take effect unless the people first ratify it in a plebiscite. Which means we will have two polls in a space of eight months: the plebiscite and the national elections. Each of them will cost the taxpayers billions of pesos, an amount we cannot afford and is not in the 2004 budget submitted by the executive department. Congress cannot increase the budget submitted by the executive.
Furthermore, for this desperate plan to work, a constituent assembly must be in place next month and the plebiscite held next February, only three months before the May elections. There is very little time to prepare for all these.
A survey has shown that the people don't want Charter change, but leave it to the representatives of the people to push what they want instead of what the people want. They don't even know whether the people want a parliamentary system, but that is already the main agenda of a “Cha-cha” [Charter change].
The Senate does not want a “Consa” [constituent assembly] to amend the Constitution but a “Con-con” [constitutional convention]. As proposed by the Senate, delegates to the Con-Con will be elected at the same time as the other officials in the 2007 polls. The Consa, however, will be composed of, horrors, the present members of Congress.
As Senate President Franklin Drilon said, "It takes two to Cha-cha." But only the House is dancing to the tune. So the congressmen are getting desperate.
The most desperate of all is House Speaker Jose de Venecia, the conductor of the orchestra that is the House of Representatives playing the Cha-cha song. For this is his last hurrah, his last chance to be chief executive. This is also the last hurrah of former president Fidel V. Ramos, who is also for a parliamentary form of government.
Ramos and De Venecia have four things in common: 1. They are both from the province of Pangasinan. 2. They both want to be chief executive. 3. They both cannot be elected president -- Ramos because the Constitution bars him from running for president again, and De Venecia because the people already rejected him when he ran for president and is likely to be rejected again if he runs a second time. 4. They both want to become chief executive via the back door, by shifting to a parliamentary system, winning seats in parliament, and then running for prime minister.
De Venecia is a known wheeler-dealer famous for hammering coalitions from among different political parties. He is confident he can do it again with the politicians who would be elected to parliament. And that is not hard to do with the present members of Congress, most of whom would likely be elected to parliament. All he has to do is to be generous to the members of parliament (MPs) and they will vote for him to be the prime minister.
Besides that, the PM has to keep the MPs happy, otherwise they could declare a loss of confidence in him and vote to reorganize the government.
Where will the PM get all the money to buy the votes? Where else but from the people. While the MPs get fat, the people will be squeezed dry. You think life is bad now? Wait until we have a parliamentary government.
For in a parliamentary government, there is no system of checks and balances. There will be no Senate to check the MPs, who will be the counterparts of the present congressmen. There will be no executive department to balance the legislature. Parliament will be both the legislature and the executive department. The secretaries or ministers of the executive department will come from among the MPs. And the prime minister, the counterpart of the present president, will also be an MP, elected to his top post by his colleagues. The people will have no part in choosing the person who will rule them.
The government will become an old boys' club even more, controlled by the political party or coalition in power. The party can do almost anything it wants. It will be like a dictatorship with not just one dictator but many. Or like a banana republic with a ruling junta. Imagine having several Marcoses with less brains running the country. That's what we will be in a parliamentary system.
Theoretically, there will be opposition parties who are supposed to fiscalize the administration party. But in the Philippines, political parties don't stand for anything. Parties center around personalities, not ideologies or platforms of government. And opposition politicians tend to fly to the party in power to share in the spoils of victory. So in a Philippine parliament, opposition politicians and parties will join and coalesce with the winning party. Political butterflies will be as plentiful as locusts. Hence, there will be no more opposition parties to check the abuses of the administration party. That is like giving the combination of the safe to a bunch of thieves.
Life may be hard now, but it will be worse in a parliamentary system, especially with the quality, or lack of it, of the present generation of politicians.
posted by Dante at 4:25 PM
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