A busy weekend

Today is a very important and crucial day for Filipino nation building. It tells of how far we, the proponents for constitutional change, have gone with the crowdsourcing of BayanKo and the election of former Davao mayor Digong as President of the Philippines.

It is a day of celebration as well as a momentous leap for a strong and independent Philippines with a “caring and sharing community.” (It is a phrase I borrow from FVR.)

One of the themes being pushed by the groups is for a people’s clamor to give Duterte the tools he needs for constitutional change.

Using the old structure will not do it because it is Congress which is mandated by the 1987 Constitution to be in charge of constitutional change. This is an impossibility. I am afraid Congress (elected by funds from drug lords and Smartmatic PCOS) will use all kinds of reasons to stop it. Why should they change when they are benefited by the status quo. We have to gather the crowd as we did on May 7, 2016 for Duterte’s miting de avance but this time to give the President revolutionary powers for change we want.

My sister, Laura Black brought a group of former classmates to see me and answer why the President needs revolutionary powers? Does that mean something violent? I explained that on the contrary “giving the President the revolutionary power he needs” is the peaceful way to change government successfully. Here, by “revolutionary” means thinking out of the box when the present structure (the box) is keeping you locked in from change.

Jose Alejandrino one of the active proponents of revolutionary powers explains:

“Firstly, it is the people who must decide if they want to give Duterte extraordinary powers. The grant of revolutionary powers is a matter of trust. I trust Duterte will use such powers wisely for the good of the people and the nation. His present powers to deal with enormous problems which no president had before him are limited by the Cory Constitution. He can’t even appoint OICs to replace thousands of barangay chiefs listed in the illegal drug trade, as Koko Pimentel warned him not to do.

Secondly, the rev powers are limited in time and end when a new Constitution is ratified by the people. We are talking of three years, up to 2020 based on the president’s own timetable for ratifying a new Constitution. He is 72 years old. Nobody at that age will aspire to stay in office longer than he needs to. In fact, Duterte has said repeatedly he does not expect to finish his six-year term.

Thirdly, a dictator because he has rev powers? When Cory had similar powers, did anyone accuse her of being a dictator?

Fourthly, governing by consensus. How do you obtain a consensus when people couldn’t even agree where to bury Marcos? How do you obtain a consensus when Catholic bishops say we should treat drug lords with love and prayer and the LP says Duterte should stop EJKs over which he has no control due to settlements of accounts between criminals involved in the drug trade? How do you obtain a consensus when the Opposition of yellow ribbons is bent on discrediting and destroying Duterte and his followers naturally react to defend their duly-elected president? How do you obtain a consensus when the marginalized many want change and the privileged few want to maintain the status quo?

It is accurate that March was chosen as the month for honoring women. (March comes from Latin Martius, the first month of the earliest Roman calendar. It was named after Mars, the Roman god of war, who was also regarded as a guardian of agriculture and an ancestor of the Roman people through his sons Romulus and Remus – Wikipedia). It was a wise choice. So much has been written about women and why they should be given more chances to develop skills and talents reserved for men.

A Scandinavian diplomat once told me that in a UN study on rates of return for any investment the highest was when it was made on women. Whatever you give in any country, she returns it more than a hundred-fold.

That became the basis for a UN policy to allocate a bigger amount to women in helping countries to grow even in the most primitive societies.

The other story comes from the first years when solar panels were being introduced in isolated barangays. The petroleum company head (a woman) told me they were at wits end trying to make solar energy succeed. It meant more time for work and more time for study for the children. But the solar panel structures were vandalized, lost pieces of steel to continue working. The wise woman executive noticed that men used the vicinity of the solar for their “happy hours.” She made the women in charge of guarding the solar panels. It was a job they did with great enthusiasm and aplomb. They prepared a schedule took turns in guarding the solar panel system shooing away men when they came anywhere near them. It worked.

Closer to my heart is my grandson’s high school graduation from Southridge – Rafael. He is mostly quiet especially when his two chattering sisters are around. He would watch quietly in his little corner. When I ask him what he wanted to be after school?

Quiet and reserved he took some time before he answered my question. He said he would study economics with a heart. That was different. But he has been accepted into Ateneo and I hope his wish will be fulfilled.

He was quiet because he wanted to think for himself what he would like to know more about.  He was debating the pros and cons of an important decision.

Congratulations, Rafael “Rafa” Pedrosa. I hope you will continue to be the quiet introspective child I had known you to be. I share these words from a Huffington Post blog by Gail Gross.

“Graduates: as you prepare to launch into the real world beyond college, or into the new world of independence after high school, I wanted to take a moment to congratulate each and every one of you. No matter what your circumstances in life – “Where you live, the family you were born into, what happened to you as a young child that was beyond your control – NOW is the time to step forward into your own true self and begin the chapter of life that is truly yours for the making.”

And another from Henry David Thoreau, here is my wish for you too on a milestone of your life. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”