By Napoleon G. Rama
(Speech before the Publishers Association of the Philippines held on June 24, 2006 in the Makati Sports Club, Makati City.)
It’s good of you to invite me for the third time in your yearly conventions. What’s not so nice about the present invitation is the requirement that I speak on the topic of not of my buy but your choice. This is the Charter Change.
For one thing, every Pedro, Pablo and Juan has already had his say about this topic. This is one of the reasons why there’s now a lot of confusion about Cha-Cha. You need a little more knowledge even beyond just being a lawyer to be credible, let alone be an expert in constitutional law. In our present case, whether there’s a need to change the Constitution, if so, what changes to be made, and how to amend or revise the Constitution?
To tackle the first questions, perhaps, we have to ask ourselves: Are we really satisfied with the present systems?
If we honestly believe that the present system is quite satisfactory, something we can live with, then we can stop the debate here. But the large fact is that a great number of people are not happy under the present political system. For one, the system has produced one of the world’s largest populations of unhappy poor people.
The standard argument of those who are against charter change, including the brightest among them, is that there’s nothing wrong with the system. It’s the people or leaders running the system. This solution is not changing the Constitution. We must change the men running it, they argue.
This is on surface, a compelling argument. But it’s more a romantic argument, so detached from the reality on the ground.
In the first place, it’s the present system that provides the mechanics of electing or producing the men in the government. I contend that the present presidential system of election is tailored-made to produce less than qualified presidential, vice presidential and senatorial officials, the highest in the land.
The reason for this is that the positions call for nationwide election, meaning all the 43 million voters in the country in all the barrios, 1.500 towns, 117 cities and 79 provinces all over the country are called upon to vote for them. These candidates have to travel all over the country to stand for election.
A nationwide election is a very expensive election where you have to deal and wheel with every governor, congressman, mayor and barrio captain all over the country.
Thus those running for these top positions of the country are vulnerable to the opportunings of a great number of people and become beholden to the big business interests, who normally have the money to help fund a nationwide election. No surprise, most of our elected presidents and senators become indebted to the business interests, the big money guys, the jueteng lords, even before they get to sit in public office.
The bigtime graft and corruption cases, the records will show, are the result of an election system, that compels the candidates to campaign nationwide, spend beyond their means and beg from the vested interest for campaign funds.
Apart from all this, the present system places a premium on popularity, disregarding candidates’ qualifications.
We don’t have to go far to see the evidence of evil attending the nationwide elections. Thanks to these very expensive elections, you can see now a Senate which is a joke compared to the Senates in other countries. More and more movie and tv actors and comedians have declared their intentions to run for the Senate, the presidency or vice presidency, to make a total farce of our democracy and make life miserable for those now sincerely convinced that there’s nothing wrong with our system, except for the men running it.
We forget too soon. It’s this system that permitted President Estrada to win the presidential elections with about the greatest majority in our history. It’s hard to imagine any country voting into the presidency a person with his qualifications or disqualifications. The presidential system precisely ignores qualifications and rewards those who have had the widest exposure in the movies and television, the most powerful media. Or have the biggest campaign funds. Thus, even Fernando Poe, Jr. who had never run or held public office, whose qualifications to head the country as president were not clear, almost made it in the last presidential elections, principally on the basis of his popularity as a movie actor. Come to think of it: Even the leaders of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo admit that the winning gimmick of the President during that election against movie actor Poe, Jr. was to appear as a Nora Aunor look-alike in her election posters. Under the present presidential system of election, the future belongs to the more popular movie actors, tv personalities, even the comedians.
What enlarges the defect of the nationwide election under our present system is the well-known fact that the people are not well-educated. In fact, the present Constitution is burdened by another defect: the provision that allows the illiterates to vote. The ignorant and the illiterates know little of the election issues or the national interest involved. Their heroes and heroines are those they see all the time in the movies or on tv.
So, it’s good to recall here that even Thomas Jefferson, who founded the American system of government by and for the people, later qualified his definition of that government. He said it should be a government for and by the people “with certain degree of instruction.” In other words, a government for, by and for the people will not work if the people themselves were ignorant.
I recall that in the 1986 Constitutional Commission that crafted the present Constitution I fought the provision allowing the illiterates to vote. I was opposed even by my friends in that Commission some of them have told me now that I was right and deplore the results of the decisions of the illiterates during elections. That’s another defect in the Constitution that needs correction. /MPmailto:madyaas_pen@yahoo.com
(Speech before the Publishers Association of the Philippines held on June 24, 2006 in the Makati Sports Club, Makati City.)
It’s good of you to invite me for the third time in your yearly conventions. What’s not so nice about the present invitation is the requirement that I speak on the topic of not of my buy but your choice. This is the Charter Change.
For one thing, every Pedro, Pablo and Juan has already had his say about this topic. This is one of the reasons why there’s now a lot of confusion about Cha-Cha. You need a little more knowledge even beyond just being a lawyer to be credible, let alone be an expert in constitutional law. In our present case, whether there’s a need to change the Constitution, if so, what changes to be made, and how to amend or revise the Constitution?
To tackle the first questions, perhaps, we have to ask ourselves: Are we really satisfied with the present systems?
If we honestly believe that the present system is quite satisfactory, something we can live with, then we can stop the debate here. But the large fact is that a great number of people are not happy under the present political system. For one, the system has produced one of the world’s largest populations of unhappy poor people.
The standard argument of those who are against charter change, including the brightest among them, is that there’s nothing wrong with the system. It’s the people or leaders running the system. This solution is not changing the Constitution. We must change the men running it, they argue.
This is on surface, a compelling argument. But it’s more a romantic argument, so detached from the reality on the ground.
In the first place, it’s the present system that provides the mechanics of electing or producing the men in the government. I contend that the present presidential system of election is tailored-made to produce less than qualified presidential, vice presidential and senatorial officials, the highest in the land.
The reason for this is that the positions call for nationwide election, meaning all the 43 million voters in the country in all the barrios, 1.500 towns, 117 cities and 79 provinces all over the country are called upon to vote for them. These candidates have to travel all over the country to stand for election.
A nationwide election is a very expensive election where you have to deal and wheel with every governor, congressman, mayor and barrio captain all over the country.
Thus those running for these top positions of the country are vulnerable to the opportunings of a great number of people and become beholden to the big business interests, who normally have the money to help fund a nationwide election. No surprise, most of our elected presidents and senators become indebted to the business interests, the big money guys, the jueteng lords, even before they get to sit in public office.
The bigtime graft and corruption cases, the records will show, are the result of an election system, that compels the candidates to campaign nationwide, spend beyond their means and beg from the vested interest for campaign funds.
Apart from all this, the present system places a premium on popularity, disregarding candidates’ qualifications.
We don’t have to go far to see the evidence of evil attending the nationwide elections. Thanks to these very expensive elections, you can see now a Senate which is a joke compared to the Senates in other countries. More and more movie and tv actors and comedians have declared their intentions to run for the Senate, the presidency or vice presidency, to make a total farce of our democracy and make life miserable for those now sincerely convinced that there’s nothing wrong with our system, except for the men running it.
We forget too soon. It’s this system that permitted President Estrada to win the presidential elections with about the greatest majority in our history. It’s hard to imagine any country voting into the presidency a person with his qualifications or disqualifications. The presidential system precisely ignores qualifications and rewards those who have had the widest exposure in the movies and television, the most powerful media. Or have the biggest campaign funds. Thus, even Fernando Poe, Jr. who had never run or held public office, whose qualifications to head the country as president were not clear, almost made it in the last presidential elections, principally on the basis of his popularity as a movie actor. Come to think of it: Even the leaders of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo admit that the winning gimmick of the President during that election against movie actor Poe, Jr. was to appear as a Nora Aunor look-alike in her election posters. Under the present presidential system of election, the future belongs to the more popular movie actors, tv personalities, even the comedians.
What enlarges the defect of the nationwide election under our present system is the well-known fact that the people are not well-educated. In fact, the present Constitution is burdened by another defect: the provision that allows the illiterates to vote. The ignorant and the illiterates know little of the election issues or the national interest involved. Their heroes and heroines are those they see all the time in the movies or on tv.
So, it’s good to recall here that even Thomas Jefferson, who founded the American system of government by and for the people, later qualified his definition of that government. He said it should be a government for and by the people “with certain degree of instruction.” In other words, a government for, by and for the people will not work if the people themselves were ignorant.
I recall that in the 1986 Constitutional Commission that crafted the present Constitution I fought the provision allowing the illiterates to vote. I was opposed even by my friends in that Commission some of them have told me now that I was right and deplore the results of the decisions of the illiterates during elections. That’s another defect in the Constitution that needs correction. /MPmailto:madyaas_pen@yahoo.com
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