By the manner our representatives are behaving — in their mad and embarrassing scramble for power, quarreling on who is going to be minority leader — and considering the overall dismal performance of the Lower House, I am now convinced that the time has come to seriously think of a unicameral parliament with the Senate as the surviving chamber. If we just elect 36 federal senators, two senators each from the 18 federal states, then we shall have trillions of savings. And we can focus on the local government units, and really empower local leaders to work hard building the grassroots’s democratic institutions. That is the beauty of federalism.
The Lower House today is composed of scions of political dynasties who have governed the Philippine politics for too long and only to monopolize political powers and even control the social and economic life of the whole nation. If we are to go federal, we should include the abolition of the House of Representatives, which, to me, it is the most useless government institution today. It is nothing but a gallery of political demagogues who are paid billions of public funds just to show off their mastery of parliamentary procedures and their propensity to grandstand on national TV. Many of them just appear in the plenary session for the roll call then disappear to do their personal businesses and private affairs.
Many of the congressmen do not attend their committee meetings and public hearings. If they do appear, they are always late, and they just speak and speak without much preparation in terms of research and analysis. These political animals love to be interviewed on TV where they regale the masses with their glowing perspectives and their never-ending promises of a better tomorrow for the millions of hungry and hopeless and very poor Filipinos. They have been in Congress for too long — they and their forefathers — but problems remain unsolved. They keep on repeating the same mantra and the people keep on believing them. The people pay high taxes to fund their propensity to filibuster and display their oratory and elocution, while the nation starves and become more and more helpless.
Of course, there are few really good ones, but then soon these idealists shall also be eaten by the system, and shall become trapos as well. The House has not performed in proportion to the public funds that they have spent to finance their politicking. They hire hundreds, if not thousands of useless consultants who do not contribute to the solutions of our multiple problems. The country is still undeveloped. The people are still poor. The institutions are still weak. The Lower House has failed the people. It is time to put an end to this masquerade of democracy, which is in reality a house of few privileged political pretenders who are there only to protect their businesses, to gain prestige to their families, and make money, a lot of money.
I will consider charter change successful only if those who push it shall have the political will to abolish the Lower House, the most useless and the most expensive vice that we have today.