Appreciating the work of the Concom

I have always been wary of reports coming from the surveys of Pulse Asia because as I have always said in more ways than one, the survey questions can be tailor-made to suit the group that has paid for the survey. The latest Pulse Asia survey on Charter Changes was out a week ago when they reported that 44 percent of Filipinos opposed the move to amend the Constitution. That survey, conducted last July 2 to 8 with 1,200 respondents, also showed that 39 percent of Filipinos support the proposal to shift to a federal form of government, compared to 33 percent who are against it.

In truth, only the intellectuals know what is good for the nation, especially when it comes to amending the Constitution. It is a fact that a great majority of the Filipino people have not even read the contents of the Philippine Constitution… so whether they oppose its amendments or not is totally irrelevant. What this nation need is a fresh start with a fresh constitution devoid of political patronage and with strong institutions that do not tolerate abuses by government officials, especially corruption.

I understand that the constitutional committee (concom) headed by former Chief Justice Reynato Puno has proposed to return our political way of life to a two-party system. Indeed, if the Philippine political system was dubbed as “dysfunctional” it is due to the reality that we have a parliamentary like multi-party system but with a presidential form of government. This is the system that Filipinos have been living with since the start of the 1987 Cory Constitution that former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. declared as “the best” Constitution we ever had, which is why he is against Cha-cha.

Another earth shattering issue that the concom has tackled was the proposal to ban political dynasties. But after due deliberation, the decision by 10-9 of the concom members was to “regulate” political dynasties, where the panel decided to prohibit an incumbent official’s relatives from the first and second degrees of consanguinity and affinity from running for public office. Included in a person’s first degree of consanguinity, or relationship by blood, are his parents and children, while grandparents, brothers or sisters, and grandchildren are within the second degree.

Finally, the concom tackled one of the most sensitive political issues that has plagued our political way of life for many decades…it is called “turncoatism” a.k.a. political butterflies. This is the changing of political parties like one changing his underwear. This is why politician are always in power for decades and decades because all they need to do is switch allegiance to the powers-that-be and to the dismay of their political rivals, they are still inside the proverbial, “kulambo!”

Concom proposes to prohibit switching of political parties while in office. Another suggestion is to prohibit switching of political parties two years before elections and two years after the election. Any violation of these rules, will ban the turncoat from running in the next elections. These may just be mere suggestions, but if the Concom is serious and this gets voted when we have Charter changes, then it would certainly change the political landscape of the Philippines.

Least you have forgotten, party-switching has created monolith political parties that have dominated past and present administrations – from the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) under then Pres. Ferdinand Marcos, to the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) during the term of Pres. Corazon Aquino, followed by the Lakas-NUCD-UMDP founded by Pres. Fidel Ramos, the Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino (LAMMP) of Pres. Joseph “Erap” Estrada, and the Liberal Party (LP) under Benigno Aquino III, and most recently the PDP-Laban under President Rodrigo Duterte.

I would like to believe that if all that we have written today about the work of the Concom would be included in the up and coming changes to the Constitution, I’m sure that the ordinary Filipino would embrace these honest-to-goodness changes in our political way of life… for the betterment of Filipino society.

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With Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo Teo out of the Tourism Department (whether she was fired or asked to resign, find this out yourself), because of the P60 million in advertisements that the DOT placed in a television program produced and hosted by her brothers, Ben and Erwin Tulfo, and broadcaster Alex Santos, this fiasco is finally over and hopefully lessons are learned from this incident. Meanwhile, Sec. Teo was replaced by Agriculture Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, whom we know so little of. I do know that she is the daughter of a good friend, former Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, so she has good genes at the very least.

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