Real scandal

The real scandal of the ongoing constitutional reform debate is that it has been with us for too long. It is my opinion that today’s challenge is a continuation of a struggle for self-determination which began in 1898. This is not to finger-point at anyone but a soul searching that needs to be done by Filipinos. Why did it happen? Why did other countries, with less history and less resources, able to restructure their political institutions with less fuss and difficulty when they fail? Here we are stymied by reaction against parliamentary government despite overwhelmingly clear evidence that the presidential system has not worked for us? Government after government, no matter who is in power, an assortment of groups and individuals, block any political shift using all kinds of excuses. That is the clue that can lead us to the truth.

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The point of departure for today’s advocacy may be about amendments to the 1987 Constitution but the desire of Filipinos for parliamentary federal government has been with us since we broke free from Spanish colonialists. It was frustrated by the coming of the Americans who insisted we adopt a presidential unitary government before giving us formal independence in 1946. We kept the light burning and it would take many more years before Filipinos would once again venture to revive that desire. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1971 were poised to transform it into reality when Marcos declared martial law with his own ideas about parliamentary government.

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An irrational debate. Most of us in the Coalition for Constitutional Change Now have tried to engage our opponents in a debate. But we found out in time that this was not possible. The debate has no ground rules nor is it about reasonable arguments in a genuine search for what is in the best interest of the country. Opponents of constitutional change do not really want to listen to discussions on the substantive issues on constitutional change. Their concern is not even about parliamentary federal government. Or its comparison to the presidential government. What they are about is to crush any attempt to espouse something new, anything Filipinos were not used to. I do not think they are merely against changing the country’s political structure, they are against change. That is why it is essentially an irrational debate.

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Instead of debate we are led into a fuzzy field of personal attacks, lies, name-calling etc. Even the names given to constitutional reform are calculated to trivialize the effort — cha-cha, con-ass. Take the charge that the Angara-led committee for constitutional amendments has delayed proceedings making amendments ‘dead in the water.’ This came from senators who were fully aware it is their own machinations that were behind the delay. What they want to do is to kill any vote that would bring the committee report into a plenary (debate in the floor of the Senate).

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Not surprisingly, personal reasons motivate the senators. It is said some were not happy with R.O.I. (return on investment for being elected senator in the first place) and others are looking to the 2004 elections as presidential or vice-presidential candidates. Under an unreformed 1987 Constitution, they can bank on their TV celebrity or money from dubious sectors. The tragedy is that this cynicism is supported by sections of a generally ignorant public. Or worse, a public that is easy to manipulate precisely because of a lack of political awareness or commitment. It is time now to challenge every excuse, every subterfuge, every euphemism in the guise of principle that is being used to roll back growing support to change a system of government that has not served the country well.

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Slaying the father.Perhaps the best way to explain this strange resistance to change is to resort to myth. The late statesman Raul Manglapus used the myth of "slaying the father" to explain relations between US and the Philippnes. He said we would have to slay the father to chart our own destiny. Being a myth, "slaying the father" is not to be taken literally. The father is the past. We will have to break from the past, if necessary, violently, to be able to chart our own destiny. It is wisdom through the ages and found in most traditional rites of passage in differing cultures, that individuals must die to the past to be reborn to the future. I would put resistance to constitutional reform in this category. We need to break from the past before we can move forward.

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Deep in our subconscious is the powerful hold of the past. But unless we sever ourselves from the past there will be no future. Our past is not just about our colonizers, whether Spaniards or Americans, but ourselves and how we confront our problems as well. We are too timid for the kind of aspirations a nation must have to get on in the world. I could of course name names, refer to particular groups and individuals as enemies of constitutional reform but that would not explain why it has a hold on the wider public. It is important not to be misled by the obvious even if they say "we are for reform but only if it is a convention." Both the 1935 and 1971 Constitutions were cobbled by delegates elected for a convention and it did not, indeed it could not fulfill the vision of our forefathers who founded the Malolos Republic. Today we have an exceptional opportunity to fulfill that vision but this can be done only if we opt for constituent assembly tackling specific provisions that will enable us to shift to parliamentary federal. . It is the least costly and painful way. But its enemies want ‘constitutional convention’. "Constitutional Convention" is just an excuse for not getting it done.

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I should perhaps refer at this point to Professor Arnold K. Toynbee who wrote a six-volume story "of the laws of the rise and disintegration of civilizations – schism in the soul, schism in the body social - will not be resolved by any scheme of return to the good old days or by programs guaranteed to render an ideal projected future or even by the most realistic, hardheaded work to weld together again the deteriorating elements." He said, "only birth can conquer death – the birth , not of the old things again, but of something new." This is true whether it is within our soul or within a social body as a country is. If we are to experience long survival, there must be a continuous recurrence of birth to nullify the unremitting recurrences of death…."

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Letters: Among the many letters I have received on constitutional reform is one from a Yolanda Franco, who said she was 84 years old and former secretary to Salvador Araneta who was a delegate to the 1935 and 1971 Constitutional Conventions, sole survivor of the incorporators of NEPA and PHILCONSA and a member of the cabinet under two presidents, Elpidio Quirino and Ramon Magsaysay. She sent me a copy of Araneta’s Bayanikasan Constitution for a Federal Republic of the Philippines with the subhead "to be used in 10 to 20 years. That was in 1971. "This Bayanikasan Constitution, once approved by the living forces of the country, will start the revolution to a good society. It has to receive approval and support from the elite, the ilustrados and the principales the class to which Jose Rical’s parents belonged.

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They are called upon to change their own values – as the price which they have to pay to forestall the revolution from below, the bloody revolution, the revolution of the have-nots which will take place if the haves insist on their shortsighted view of defending inch by inch their present traditional privileges of a bygone era." Araneta, himself a member of the elite, wrote.

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Save Our Languages Through Federalism Movement. From Manuelino Faelnar: "Thank you for writing about the Save Our Languages Throuogh Federalism Movement (SOLFED).Allow me to give you more information about this Movement and some of the personalities involved. The Movement was founded by Valeriano "Bobit" Avila and Dr. Jose Dacudao. To give the Movement a legal personality to act and implement its projects, it was incorporated and registered last April 30, 2003, as SOLFED Foundation Inc. in the Securities and Exchange Commission –Iloilo branch.

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The President is Dr. Jose Dacudao, an Ilonggo who is by ancestry 3/4 Karay-a and 1/4 Hiligaynon, one of the original founding members of Defenders of the Indigenous languages of the Archipelago International Email Discussion Group whose website is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dila-philippines. Dr. Dacudao is also the lone Neurosurgeon for Butuan City and Region XIII CARAGA; a BS Biology magna cum laude graduate of the University of the Philippines-Diliman in 1986; top of University of the Philippines College of Medicine - Philippine General Hospital class 1991 in the Neurosciences; a high Board placer in the 1991 Medical Board with a rating of 88.5; the first Philippine National Kiddies (age bracket 12 years old and below) Chess Champion in 1975; and author of the 1988 book ‘Manila Colonialism’, which he s been planning to revise but haven’t had the time, and the 2000 book ‘Critique of Islamic Jihad’.

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Valeriano "Bobit" Avila, a Cebuano of Cebu City is Vice President. Bobit is arguably Cebu’s leading journalist, a Philippine Star national columnist, a Cebu Freeman columnist, and host of the Cebu ABS-CBN Sky weekly cable TV show ‘Straight from the Sky’; Cebu City’s Citom head and thus the top traffic law enforcer of Cebu; one of the leaders of Regional Development Council VII Central Visayas for the private sector; and author of the RDC VII Resolution already submitted to the Congress and Office of the President calling for a Constitutional Convention for a Charter change.

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The Honorable Wantan Palanca, an Ilonggo who is half Hiligaynon and half Karay-a and fluent in both Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a, of Victorias City Negros Occidental is one of the Trustees.Wantan is also President of the Philippine Councilors’ League Region VI Western Visayas, the number one Councilor in Victorias, and former Chairman of the Ateneo de Manila College Student Council.

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La Consolacion College Architecture student Timilou Guemo, a 21 year old Architecture student of La Consolacion College - Bacolod, is the Treasurer-Secretary. She hails from Bacolod City, is an Ilongga who is half Hiligaynon and half Tagalog. Timi is also presently the Auditor for United Architects of the Philippines Student Auxiliaries for the whole Visayas.

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SOLFED has established chapters in the following places: 1. Dumaguete City, capital of Negros Oriental [students in Central Visayas Polytechnic College (CVPC) and Silliman University (SU)].2. Kabankalan City Negros Occidental.3. Bacolod City capital of Negros Occidental.4. Victorias City Negros Occidental.5. Iloilo (students in University of the Philippines Miagao and West Visayas State University). Pillars of SOLFED in Iloilo are Attorney Causing, a native Hiligaynon speaker from Barotac Viejo Iloilo who is Chair and Professor of Political Science in West Visayas State University; and a leading advocate of Parliamentary Federalism in the Philippines and an expert on the Philippine Constitution, and Ms.Judith Palu-ay Buyco, a native Karay-a speaker who is half Hiligaynon, and former lady Councilor of Zaraga Iloilo.6. Cebu City.7. Butuan City Agusan del Norte Mindanao, the regional center of region XIII CARAGA.

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Members are mostly Sanggunian Kabataan in Butuan’s most populated baranggay, who are also doubling as SOLFED members and for Butuan is Father Amalla who is a member of the Episcopal Commitee for the Patrimony of the Church of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philipines and Mindanao coordinator for this organization; also a living folk legend in Butuan because of his efforts to preserve all things Butuanon including the distinct Butuanon Language; an archaeologist by choice whose interests range from the Butuan balanghays, which are the ancient boats that may have brought our Visayan ancestors from present-day Indonesia to our islands, to cultural artifacts that may support the hypothesis that the first Mass in the Philippines was held in Masao Island Butuan (still a sensitive and unresolved hypothesis that Bobit disagrees with); one of the Philippine’s leading cultural preservers being a member of the Executive Council of the Committee on Monuments and Sites of the National Committee for Culture and the Arts and the Mindanao coordinator for this organization; and an expert in the Butuanon language presently writing a Butuanon dictionary, regularly saying Mass and preaching in his native Butuanon, and host of the Butuanon TV program ‘Biyangon hong Pagtuo’ (‘Pillar of the Faith’)]. 8. Dipolog City Zamboanga del Norte Mindanao.

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Currently SOLFED members include Ilonggos (both native Hiligaynon and Karay-a speakers from Negros Occidental and Iloilo), Cebuanos (mostly Silliman students from Negros Oriental and Dipolog led by Sara an 18 year old Sillimanite, and of course Bobit Avila, one of Cebu’s leading citizens), and Butuanons. Most SOLFED members are in the Negros provinces by serendipity, because the original student group that Dr.Dacudao co-founded last year in Dumaguete with 21 year old Jingjing Baad of Sipalay City Negros Occidental (from which the SOLFED students came from) was an Ilonggo organization made mostly of students from the Hiligaynon-speaking city of Kabankalan Negros Occidental, led by 19 year old Cherry Ann Reyes, who were studying in CVPC Dumaguete Negros Oriental. They typify the cultural pluralism that SOLFED advocates as they are fluent in both Cebuano and Ilonggo.

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Briefly, SOLFED’s aims are: to preserve Philippine languages (and the ethnolinguistic peoples that they define) by having them taught in schools;.to espouse a decentralist form of governmental structure- federalism. The SOLFED leadership believes that these two aims are closely related and cannot and should not be set apart. They are the offspring of the same spirit of freedom. "

My e-mail is [email protected]