Change the Constitution for political change

I received an interesting posting from election lawyer Romulo Macalintal. He said “With only one law passed, it’s time to abolish Congress. “

He goes on to say just how much was spent by Filipino taxpayers to have that one law passed. “The very dismal performance of our legislators in 2013 with only one insignificant law enacted for that year with a whopping P35.2 billion budget, is enough justification to call for a Charter change to abolish Congress and let the provincial governors and mayors of highly urbanized cities to form the legislative assembly.“

Worse he adds that “based on the 2013 budget of Congress, the annual appropriation for the Senate and the House of Representatives was P3.3 billion and P6.4 billion respectively.”

He cites even more shocking details like “P500 million was the annual budget of the Commission on Appointments made up also of senators and representatives.”

“The annual pork barrel of a senator is P200 million or a total of P4.8 billion for 24 senators; while the annual pork barrel per representative is P70 million or a total of P20.2 billion for 289 representatives.”

In effect we spent P35.2 billion for that one law passed in 2013. The one page law was RA 10632 which suspended the 2013 Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

Macalintal is right and I think it is a reasonable demand to “abolish Congress.” But there is a caveat and that is what I want to warn my readers about. It may be true that we spend a shocking amount for a useless Congress but abolishing that branch of government is not enough.

On the contrary, it has its dangerous streak. Lurking at the back of what looks like a good thing is something that can even be more tragic to Filipinos — absolute control of government by the executive. If you consider that it is the executive that corrupts Congress with PDAF and DAP, then it would be a mistake. Why remove one and not the other? The briber in fact is more reprehensible than the bribed.

I am glad that he adds, however, that given our predicament we ought to consider seriously the need to amend our Constitution. But I do not agree with him that “the abolition of Congress should be its first priority. “ Indeed that would be dangerous and reckless if in the interim we would be left with the dictatorship of the executive. Piecemeal amendments will not solve the evil governance that the 1987 Constitution has spurred and sustained to the detriment of the Filipino nation. We need to change the entire Constitution for a new politics with a new governmental structure.

*      *      *

A day on Facebook…I have three grandchildren staying with me while their parents are in Hong Kong. They all have an iPad. Before he sleeps the grandson is with his iPad and when he wakes up he is back with it again. I asked him what was so interesting to read in his iPad and he said, “Twitter.” In other words he is communicating most of his time with friends about what interests him most. What about? “Football.”

There you are. I am not in Twitter because my children tell me it is a rough world where people praise and insult each other once too often for any reason at all. You can’t explain, you don’t apologize, whatever. But then Pope Francis is in Twitter and so is President Obama. Indeed, that is social media and there is no mystery about a communication vehicle. It is instantaneous and goes immediately worldwide. If you are a leader or an advocate with ideas to spread, you could not be out of social media.

There are as many reasons as there are individuals for using social media. Each one has her or his reasons. Some limit their friends to an intimate few, some to find followers and there are also, as there are in the real world, troublemakers who use social media for crime.

I am in Facebook, but not in Twitter. Twitter I am told is more favored by the young. Strangely enough a recent article describing the Philippines as a social media capital says that Facebook is more popular than Twitter. Maybe it is because there are more who want bigger space in which to put photographs and tell stories.

When I first came into Facebook, I thought of it only as an alternative to print media circumscribed by oligarchs with influence in the advertising world. What couldn’t get printed in newspapers could be printed in social media plus the bonus if you know how to produce audio videos for your advocacies.

But now it does more for my advocacies and me. It is an entire world altogether with many things you would never experience or think of any day in the real world. It also cuts across all social classes if you want to get a feel of differing opinions from people in all walks of life. I especially like sites with inspirational quotes with a click of the button. Here’s a post from today:

“It’s easy to get lost in our own heads. It’s easy to allow the thoughts and worries and plans and hopes to take on their own lives and control our minds in such a way that we lose sight of all that’s around us in any given moment. It’s difficult to allow those thoughts and problems to take a back seat in our lives in order to be completely aware of what’s right here, right now. Perhaps there’s a person who really could use you to take a couple of moments to pay attention to him or her; perhaps there’s a cool autumn breeze that’s going to calm your spirit with its amazing touch — but only if you actually notice it.” — Tom Walsh.