(Originally released on January 16, 2011 at 15:22 EST)
New: Footage from GNN Interviews on the Trends and Analysis Segment of the Business Portal hosted by Edmundo “Toti” Casiño (click on the title “Why Charter Change is CoRRECT™” to see the video)
Why Charter Change is CoRRECT™
by Orion Pérez Dumdum
It is not only the CoRRECT™ thing to do, it is also the CoRRECT™ thing that should have been done ages ago. Not having done it when we should have is precisely the reason the Philippines has long since ceased to be viewed as “Asia’s Bastion of Western Democracy” and instead, the wider Asia region and the rest of the world unenviably looks at us as “Asia’s Basketcase of Wasted Democrazy.”
The term “Charter Change” first came to the fore sometime near the mid-1990’s in the middle of former President Fidel V. Ramos’ term. I was a Computer Science student at the Ateneo de Manila University at the time and it generated a lot of attention in school. Most of it was presented in the press in piece-meal fashion, raising related issues separately such as “Unicameral versus Bicameral”, “Presidential versus Parliamentary”, and lastly “Unitarism versus Federalism.”
- “Charter Change” first came up during FVR’s time
Most people didn’t really understand what “Charter Change” was. The term by itself was ambiguous and confusing. People didn’t know what a “charter” was or why the word “charter” was being used instead of just directly referring to the Constitution. Say “Charter” and most people thought “Hmmm, Chartered City?” (Philippine Cities that officially report directly to the national government, and not the provinces to which they belong) Others were reminded of “chartering an airplane” or renting a “chartered bus.” Some thought of “Chartered Financial Analyst” or “Chartered Accountant.” Others were reminded of an old British bank whose historical Philippine headquarters was in Iloilo City, and later merged with another British bank to create today’s “Standard Chartered Bank.”
Quite often, it was condescendingly made fun of by conjuring images of the popular Latin dance called “cha-cha” which just goes forward and backward. Worse, enemies of the initiative (most of whom either had vested interests in sticking to the status quo or were just plain ignorant of the facts) and even uninformed members of the public demonized it as being essentially limited to only the shift from a presidential to a parliamentary system or a scheme to lift term-limits, stating that this was a bid to allow the incumbent president at the time the chance to stay in office beyond the 1987 Constitution’s 6-year term-limit. Little thought was placed by most members of the public into realizing that any slight change that had to be made to the 1987 Constitution, be it a change in punctuation, a deletion of a word or line, or placing in any additions that could make clarifications to the existing text, ultimately required grand nationwide initiatives such as a full-scale “Charter Change” movement, just to make little revisions.
Worse, the term “Charter Change” was extremely vulnerable because of the word “change.”
Instead of clarifying that this was specifically a change for the better, simply calling it “charter change”, opened it up to the criticism that the Constitution was being changed, not necessarily for the better, but in order to serve so-called “ulterior political motives.” Obviously, very few Filipinos at the time really cared to analyze the bigger picture and the wider implications as to why the 1987 Constitution needed some changes in the first place. Worse, when compared to today, the Internet was not yet in full-swing as it is now, and on-line resources for doing extensive research were just not available to the ordinary Juan, Pedro, and Procopio. Real research required the extra steps of going straight to a public or university library, using the Dewey Decimal System, and walking through rows upon rows of bookshelves looking for a reference book that could clarify certain matters.
Fast forward to 2011. We have broadband internet. We’ve got relatively cheap access to internet cafés. Free WiFi is found in many different places including selected McDonald’s and all Krispy Kreme outlets, and even SM and Robinsons have made it available in their malls. Almost everyone who knows how to use computers knows how to use Google.
- Doing research is now very easy thanks to Google
No need for that trip to the library. No need to go to the card-catalog system and flip through the topic index cards. No need to go through shelves only to find out that someone else already picked out the exact same book you were looking to read. No need to flip through pages upon pages of text looking for the specific bit of information you wanted to read.
And yet until today, despite the easy availability of information and ease of doing research via the Internet, far too many Filipinos are unfortunately still unaware of what “charter change” is really all about and why it is necessary. Mainstream Media, owned and operated largely by the mostly inbred and well-entrenched selfish oligarchy, with some employees and staffers who were themselves brainwashed years back in school by certain anti-business political persuasions, succeeded in keeping the mainstream Filipino public ignorant and uninformed about the need to make the necessary changes to the faulty, flawed, and pro-oligarch 1987 Constitution. Worse, most Filipinos weren’t even interested in the first place to find out what the structural and systemic defects were of the 1987 Constitution’s system that had caused millions of Filipinos to continue to suffer massive underemployment, unemployment, the pressing need for breadwinners or family members to leave their loved ones to seek jobs abroad as OFW’s in jobs beneath their qualifications, or worse, the lamentable entry of Filipina women into the flesh trade as a means to put food on their families’ tables or earn enough money to produce the matriculation fees needed to send their younger siblings to school in the hope of a better life.
Even Lee Kuan Yew himself lamented the Philippine situation in his famous book “From Third World to First” as follows:
“It made no difference. There were more coup attempts, discouraging investments badly needed to create jobs. This was a pity because they had so many able people, educated in the Philippines and the United States. Their workers were English-speaking, at least in Manila. There was no reason why the Philippines should not have been one of the more successful of the ASEAN countries. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was the most developed, because America had been generous in rehabilitating the country after the war.”
- Lee Kuan Yew
He goes on to say:
“Mrs. Aquino’s successor, Fidel Ramos, whom she had backed, was more practical and established greater stability. In November 1992, I visited him. In a speech to the 18th Philippine Business Conference, I said, “I do not believe democracy necessarily leads to development. I believe what a country needs to develop is discipline more than democracy.” In private, President Ramos said he agreed with me that British parliamentary-type constitutions worked better because the majority party in the legislature was also the government. Publicly, Ramos had to differ.
He knew well the difficulties of trying to govern with strict American-style separation of powers. The senate had already defeated Mrs. Aquino’s proposal to retain the American bases. The Philippines had a rambunctious press but it did not check corruption. Individual press reporters could be bought, as could many judges. Something had gone seriously wrong. Millions of Filipino men and women had to leave their country for jobs abroad beneath their level of education. Filipino professionals whom we recruited to work in Singapore are as good as our own. Indeed, their architects, artists, and musicians are more artistic and creative than ours. Hundreds of thousands of them have left for Hawaii and for the American mainland. It is a problem the solution to which has not been made easier by the workings of a Philippine version of the American constitution.”
Some questions need to be asked:
What did Lee Kuan Yew say about strict American-style separation of powers?
Answer: “Difficult in trying to govern.”
Which type of constitution did Lee Kuan Yew say former President Fidel V. Ramos thought worked better?
Answer: “British parliamentary-type constitutions.”
What did Lee Kuan Yew think of the Philippine press?
Answer: “Rambunctious, but did not check corruption.”
What made finding solutions difficult for the Philippines?
Answer: “The workings of a Philippine version of the American constitution.”
Did the framers of the 1987 Constitution realize what kind of monster they created?
- Fr. Joaquín Bernas, S.J. did not realize that the Presidential System was a step backward
Perhaps if the framers of the 1987 Constitution along with the much-touted and revered Jesuit constitutionalist Fr. Joaquín Bernas, SJ actually had done extensive research about political systems, they would have actually realized that there was already a whole lot of data and evidence that proved that a return to an American-style Presidential System was actually a step backward. Notice how Lee Kuan Yew views the application of the American Presidential System on the Philippines in the following quotes:
“In private, President Ramos said he agreed with me that British parliamentary-type constitutions worked better because the majority party in the legislature was also the government. Publicly, Ramos had to differ.”
…as well as:
“It is a problem the solution to which has not been made easier by the workings of a Philippine version of the constitution.”
Notice as well that Lee Kuan Yew mentioned “coup attempts” in this quote:
“There were more coup attempts, discouraging investments badly needed to create jobs. This was a pity because they had so many able people, educated in the Philippines and the United States.”
Had the framers of the 1987 Constitution been much more encyclopedically-informed, analytical, and clinically logical, instead of basing their underpinning philosophy for crafting the 1987 Constitution on vindictiveness and on reversing a whole lot of what was found in the previous Marcos-sponsored 1973 Constitution, Fr. Bernas and his colleagues might have actually come across the whole body of work that has been produced by the eminent Political Science PhD from Yale, Dr. Juan Linz, whose extensive research exposed the extreme vulnerability of Presidential Systems applied to Third World nations to breakdown from coups d’état and other extra-constitutional disruptions when compared with Parliamentary Systems. This is quite simply because Parliamentary Systems inherently feature a mechanism that allows a leader who has lost favor or has failed miserably in his programs to be immediately replaced.
- Dr. Linz: Coups and Unrest are common to Presidentialism
Presidential Systems, on the other hand, offer no such mechanism, and in fact, the concept of “impeachment” has often been a long, drawn-out, and distracting process (often prone to corruption through a sudden release of largesse and pork-barrel funds in order to avoid impeachment) when compared against almost the instantaneous intra-party ouster or a vote of no confidence in a parliamentary system.
Lee Kuan Yew even clearly pointed out our OFW problem – something that is obvious to Singaporeans today, as nearly all hotels and food establishments (except for most foodcourt and hawker center stalls) have Filipino waitstaff, entertainers, or concièrges:
“Something had gone seriously wrong. Millions of Filipino men and women had to leave their country for jobs abroad beneath their level of education. Filipino professionals whom we recruited to work in Singapore are as good as our own. Indeed, their architects, artists, and musicians are more artistic and creative than ours. Hundreds of thousands of them have left for Hawaii and for the American mainland.”
How could Fr. Bernas, SJ and his team not have seen the need to allow 100% foreign ownership of businesses as a means to attract investors to the Philippines in order to create the much-needed millions of new local jobs in the Philippines, when in fact the deployment of Filipinos to the Middle East was already in full-swing during Marcos’ regime back in the 1970’s and the deployment of Filipina women to certain European countries as domestic helpers was already becoming such an observable phenomenon in the 1980’s?
How come these people did not see that what actually caused the word “Filipina” to get featured in the Oxford Dictionary as meaning “domestic helper” was precisely the abject scarcity and dearth of local jobs in the Philippines?
- Would-be OFW’s processing paperwork at the POEA
Provided these constitutional delegates had actually known that the dearth of local unemployment and the extremely low wages for the few jobs that did exist was the very problem that forced Filipinos to find employment abroad, why had they not sought out real alternative solutions to the failed “crony-Capitalism” scheme that Marcos tried to use? Why did they simply revert back to the equally failed oligarch-led system of the pre-Marcos period? Why did they revert back to a protectionist business-climate which protected only rich local business owners, and provided very few real employment opportunities for ordinary working-class and middle-class Filipinos who depended on employment for livelihood?
Why had they not done the necessary fact-finding and research in order to find out that allowing 100% foreign ownership of businesses was precisely the strategy that allowed Singapore (and later Malaysia and even China) to combat their unemployment problem and that instead of becoming poorer, they all became richer?
Perhaps it was possible for them to make use of an excuse (however lame) back then: There was no Internet at the time. No search engines. No Google. No Wikipedia. Information was harder to access. Research was difficult.
That was then. This is now.
For those of us today who care for our country, there is no excuse for not having the relevant facts, knowledge, data, information, or the empirical evidence necessary to make informed decisions.
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Charter Change is now CoRRECT™
Thanks to the Internet and social networking, OFW’s & former OFW’s (and not impostors like those people from the intellectually-bankrupt Communists from Migrante who assume they can speak for us real OFW’s and former OFW’s), concerned overseas Filipinos, veteran Charter Change advocates, and other concerned locally-based Filipinos have now banded together to put up a more unified message which presents the public with a real “enabling” solution.
Instead of the confusing term “charter change”, and its unfortunate association with pretty much only one type of reform – the shift to the parliamentary system, a new movement has been formed in order to inform the entire Filipino public of a Three-Point CoRRECT Agenda.
Our movement is called the CoRRECT™ Movement, and CoRRECT™ stands for:
Constitutional Reform & Rectification for Economic Competitiveness & Transformation
The following explains the name of the CoRRECT™ Movement:
Constitutional Reform:
- If your system is not working, you need to fix it!
We want to be clear that it is the current Constitution we are looking to improve.
Reform means positive change. We seek to improve the Constitution, not just “change” it arbitrarily.
Rectification:
The current 1987 Constitution has flawed provisions which require a whole lot of major fixes (rectification).
Economic Competitiveness:
This is clearly for economic, not political reasons. We don’t want to be left behind. We want jobs.
Transformation:
We want the entire Philippines to transform itself From Third World to First.
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Instead of the confusing and conflicting messages from the days of the old “charter change” movement which were very often muddled, distorted, and deliberately misrepresented by anti-progress politicians and certain members of the press and media who were either under the influence of people who either wanted to retain the faulty and oligarch-friendly Status Quo or perhaps were simply misinformed or just plain clueless, the message of CoRRECT™, referred to as “Constitutional Reform” for short, has an intensely-focused objective of economic development and massive job creation in our Three-Point Agenda for amending, reforming, and rectifying the flaws and errors found in the current 1987 Constitution.
In summary, the Three-Point Agenda of the CoRRECT™ Movement is as follows:
1. Attracting Direct Foreign Investment in order to create local jobs & opportunities
Economic Liberalization:
We need to rectify the 1987 Constitution’s flawed economic provisions by removing the 60/40 protectionist clauses which have inevitably shooed away foreign investors. Allowing 100% investment more easily attracts investors to come in and create jobs for Filipinos. We need jobs to be created in the Philippines, never mind if the companies creating them are owned by local or foreign investors, as long as they are jobs, rather than sending Filipinos abroad to work as virtual slaves in unknown lands away from their loved ones.
- Dr. Villegas wants protectionist economic provisions removed
Whether we like it or not, the current economic provisions explicitly discourage foreign investors from coming in, forcing them to seek out local élites who are expected to put up 60% of the entire financial capital requirements. Are there that many Warren Buffets, Bill Gates, and Carlos Slim Helu-types in the Philippines who can put up the required 60% of any joint venture with large foreign Multinationals? Ultimately, there is a very limited list of people that more often than not has the same family names from which foreign multinationals can choose to find joint-venture partners.
In the current system, only the oligarchs win. Worse, those same oligarchs more often than not just pretend to own 60% of the entire venture, but often milk the foreign investors, essentially causing the foreign partners to front the entire capital, while the local oligarch-partner merely sits pretty, does nothing, acts as a dummy, and is present only to fulfill the paper-requirements of local ownership. The oligarch-partner, however, exacts certain “bribes” from the foreign investor for the local oligarch partner to keep quiet and maintain the charade of the 60/40 partnership.
The situation is extremely skewed against the ordinary working classes and middle classes who depend on employment for livelihood. Simple Law of Supply and Demand means that too many job-seekers fighting over the extremely scarce jobs results in bringing average wages down. Not only is the unemployment situation extremely bad for millions of Filipinos, even Filipinos who are lucky enough to have jobs have salaries that are often too low for them to meet their daily needs. This once again forces them to seek overseas employment at recruitment agencies (usually needing take loans from friends or relatives to pay for recruitment fees) in the hope of landing menial, low-paying jobs abroad which, when converted to pesos, are much higher than the pathetically low salaries they’d earn logically, all with the aim of feeding their entire families.
There’s no way out of it. The Noynoy Aquino administration must definitely amend the constitution to allow for 100% ownership of businesses by Foreign Direct Investors. Everyone else in the region has either already done this or are in the process of putting up such pro-foreign investor provisions. No ifs, no buts. Not later. NOW!
Frankly, economic liberalization in order to create local jobs for Filipinos should have been done 40 years ago!
2. Spreading out development to the regions and decongesting Metro Manila
Evolving Territorial Decentralization
- Different Ethno-Linguistic Groups and their Regions prefer decentralization (regional autonomy or federalism) over unitarism
We need to effectively decentralize the territorial administration of the Philippines from centralized-Unitary (“Imperial Manila”-centric) to a more devolved and decentralized system that is based on regions. This should be executed through a principled transitionary evolution from the current paradigm to a newer paradigm of either quasi, semi, or full-Federalism. That way, the jobs and economic opportunities created as a result of Agenda Number 1 on the Three-point CoRRECT™ Agenda do not all go to Imperial Manila, but instead get spread out to the regions and provinces which have long since been neglected.
Whether we like it or not, the 1987 Constitution is based on an Imperial Manila-centric paradigm of overly-centralized Unitarism. For the Philippines to evolve towards a more decentralized paradigm of territorial administration which gives meaningful autonomy to the regions and allows each region to manage their own regional economies and manage their own fiscal matters by themselves, the Constitution needs to be amended, reformed, and rectified in order to reflect this paradigm shift. While there will invariably be other concerns involved in moves for region-based decentralization, such as culture, language, and perhaps even religion (as in the case of the ARMM), the primary impetus is obviously financial and economic in nature.
Evolving Decentralization chiefly aims to spread economic opportunities across the various regions by putting the onus of economic management & development, fiscal & taxation management, and methods of attracting and enticing local and foreign investors to set up companies and provide jobs for local inhabitants of the various regions on each of the regional governments themselves. Being closer to the local people on the ground, these regional governments will obviously know best how to leverage the specific advantages of their regions and their people.
3. Setting up a stable and efficient political system in order to increase investor confidence
Shift to the Parliamentary System
“Presidentialism is ineluctably problematic“, as Dr. Juan Linz, PhD would say.
- Spain’s Parliament
Moving to a Parliamentary System will give us a more stable, efficient, accountable, flexible, cheaper to operate, more issues and policies-centric, more party-based, and overall superior system (esp. compared to the faulty and broken presidential system we currently have) that would drastically reduce the chances of the kinds of extra-constitutional disruptions such as rebellion, coups d’etat, military juntas and political assassinations that have plagued far too many Presidential Republics in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Not only will the Philippines end up with higher quality leadership in a Parliamentary System, the inherent stability found in it very often makes countries that use Parliamentary Systems much more attractive to foreign investors as well as encourages local entrepreneurs and investors to emerge.
Such a shift shall almost instantaneously greatly reduce or outright eliminate the emergence of incompetent Heads of Government who rely chiefly on winnability (a combination of name recall, popularity, patronage, and celebrity-status) as pretty much the singular defining characteristic that propels them to become President in the current system. The presence of such “winnable” presidential candidates has almost always also forced other presidential candidates (including competent ones) running against these winnable incompetents to employ attention-grabbing publicity stunts (such as singing, dancing, or doing karate demonstrations to name a few antics) just to be able to compete for the masses’ attention in the massive and expensive nationwide popularity contest known as the Philippine Presidential Election.
With the emergence of quality leaders to the top posts in the country, the quality of policy & decision-making, as well as the quality of economic planning would have much higher chances of also improving as well.
Unbeknownst to many Filipinos, Parliamentary Systems also feature a check-and-balance system that is far superior to the grid-lock prone and extremely slow and dilatory nature of the separation of the executive and the legislative branches in the presidential system where “veto” or “blocking” is the only means for “checks-and-balance.” Far too many Filipinos and Americans erroneously think that separation-of-powers is the only way to provide checks-and-balances.
- Shadow Cabinet Ministers carefully observe, scrutinize, act as devil’s advocates & provide constructive alternative advice to their counterpart Ministers
Such people have unfortunately never heard of what is known as the Parliamentary Opposition’s Shadow Cabinet. In such a system, every single position in the official Government Cabinet is matched and “shadowed” (followed around – the way a shadow follows a person) by his Opposition counterpart. The Prime Minister’s meetings and decision-making is watched closely by the Leader of the Opposition. The Minister of Finance is “shadowed” and watched closely by the Opposition Shadow Minister of Finance. The Minister of Education is watched closely by the Opposition Shadow Minister of Education. Every single decision each Minister makes is watched carefully and scrutinized by their Opposition counterparts.
Moreover, Shadow Ministers (called “Opposition Critics” in Canada) do not merely oppose or criticize their administration counterparts. More often than not, they offer constructive alternative advice or point out areas that were most probably missed during Ministry Committee Meetings. Instead of seeking to put down the government, the Opposition can play a constructive role in testing out ideas and proposals and provide better alternative solutions. Once a week, during Question Time, the Opposition Shadow Cabinet has the opportunity to openly criticize the Government administration on areas where they made real mistakes. Oftentimes, the information and data collected by members of the Opposition Shadow Cabinet is exposed if and when the policies of the Government actually do fail.
In a Parliamentary System, the Administration Cabinet aka “The Government” cannot make any decisions that the Opposition Shadow Cabinet are not aware of. It is for this very reason that countries with Parliamentary Systems dominate the top ranks of quality-of-life rankings, transparency and “no corruption”, GDP-per-capita, Human Development, etc.
There is absolutely no doubt based on all the relevant data and objective empirical evidence out there that Parliamentary Systems are hands-down superior in all ways to Presidential Systems.
It must be stated very clearly to each and every person reading this that the Three-Point Agenda of Constitutional Reform and Rectification for Economic Competitiveness and Transformation was never meant to act as some sort of perfect instantaneous solution that would solve all of the Philippines’ problems in one big bang.
No one clamoring for the old “charter change” or the new movement for “Constitutional Reform” has ever stated that making changes to the constitution would be the “silver bullet” that fixes everything. That as soon as the constitution were changed, poverty would immediately get solved, the Philippines’ GDP per capita would suddenly shoot up, crime and corruption would automatically decrease, and so on and so forth. Not at all. Constitutional Reform, as stated earlier is meant to be an “Enabling Step.” It is simply a step that makes other subsequent solutions easier to accomplish.
- Enabling step: Before you fix leaky plumbing, you must first turn off the main water supply so you don’t wet the whole place
Take fixing a faulty leaking pipe in your house.
You may decide to go straight into trying to fix the leak by replacing the faulty pipe with a newer one. Or before doing so, you may decide to use your brains a bit more and go first to the main water supply switch to turn it off and after doing that, you go straight at replacing the faulty pipe.
Technically, you can do the former. However, you will obviously end up taking much longer to replace the pipe and you will also end up getting yourself and your house wet.
Doing the latter, where you start off first with turning off the main water supply, starts off with an enabling step. That enabling step of turning off the main water supply makes your task of changing the faulty pipe much, much easier.
The same goes for improving Philippine Society.
Some people believe that Filipino Character first needs to be changed. That’s easier said than done. People change en masse only when subjected to a changed environment or “system” where the disincentives or certain punishments cause people to avoid certain behavior and are encouraged through rewards towards desired behavior. That, in itself, is a system change. Changing the system to a more appropriate one is therefore more likely to enable changing behavior and ultimately change mindset and culture. Quite often, the inherent features and dynamics of certain systems force the participants within the system to actually change their behavior.
As an example, take the sport of Football. The size of a Football pitch, the existence of goalkeepers, and the inherent rules of Football where ordinary football players may not use their hands, for instance, forces players of football to practice much more teamwork and cooperation in order to be competitive because the sheer size of the pitch does not allow footballers to easily run the entire length of the field. Passing the ball to teammates is necessary to get the ball from one end to the other. Moreover, scoring goals is almost always a team-based effort where a player passes the ball to another in order to score a goal because it is necessary to deceive the goalkeeper through misdirection. Strikers often pretend to score a goal in order to fool the goalie but they almost always pass it on to another teammate at the last nano-second and that teammate scores. In the game of football, teams are forced to develop teamwork because of the inherent features, qualities, and characteristics of the entire system of the sport of Football. It is thus inaccurate to say that teams must first develop teamwork before playing football. Instead, Football’s very own environment or “system” forces teams to develop teamwork. Those that develop teamwork have higher chances of winning and eventually succeed. Those that do not develop teamwork lose matches and eventually fail.
More and more Filipinos need to start reflecting more on the cause-and-effect relationships of phenomena and how systems work. More and more Filipinos need to step up to do more research as well as knowledge & information-gathering in order to avoid making knee-jerk statements based solely on erroneous pre-conceived notions and biases. Constitutional Reform, like it or not, is a necessary enabling step that must be done.
If it is not done at all, then we will forever find ourselves having difficulty in coming up with the specific solutions to each and every problem that hits us. Sooner or later, we might just wake up to see that all the other countries whom we currently are ahead of, such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, East Timor, and even Myanmar, may have all passed us by because they’d have gotten their acts together, while we Filipinos ignored the need to take that first enabling step of going with CoRRECT™:
Constitutional Reform & Rectification for Economic Competitiveness & Transformation
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More and more Filipinos support the CoRRECT™ Agenda
- Members of the Save Our Languages through Federalism group
Thanks to the efforts of many veteran “charter change” advocates, including Mrs. Carmen Pedrosa, Dr. José Abueva, and many others, after almost 2 decades of campaigning to make Filipinos exercise their mental faculties and look at what is so obviously wrong with the 1987 Constitution, there already is a snowballing amount of support for the CoRRECT™ Agenda. Constitutional Reform has struck a chord with millions of Filipinos who are affected by unemployment, underemployment, and the OFW phenomenon (which affects far too many as almost every family is directly related to an overseas worker sending money home) as the pseudo-nationalist and Filipino Leftist “anti-Transnational Corporations” and anti-Globalization rhetoric which these frothing-at-the-mouth groups used to sell to the public has been totally discredited. Many ordinary practical-minded working Filipinos who think properly have seen that it is far better to invite Foreign Multinational Companies to the Philippines to create local jobs than to send Filipinos to work in foreign companies in foreign countries.
- Franklin Drilon is anti-CoRRECT™ because he doesn’t know how a Parliamentary System works
Millions of Filipinos from outside of Imperial Manila, especially those from the Visayas and Mindanao as well as Filipinos from the Cordillera and Bicol regions who feel that their regions have been neglected are strongly supportive of the Decentralist pro-Federalist advocacy that requires Constitutional Reform. Even people from Imperial Manila itself, angry at the congestion, extreme traffic problems, proliferation of slums and crime, has led many from the national capital region to see the necessity of decentralizing the country culturally, economically, and in terms of tax collection and budget allocation.
Admittedly, shifting to the Parliamentary System was unfortunately the hardest to sell of the three agenda points in the original “charter change” advocacy. Because understanding it required some seemingly technical and somewhat complex analysis in finding out how a parliamentary system was indeed better, certain vested interests as well as numerous misinformed and ignorant Filipinos who did not care to do the required due diligence and research decided to focus on discrediting the move to a parliamentary system. Owing to the highly dysfunctional Filipino trait of sticking to a “familiar” but flawed status quo instead of making the effort to find a better solution, those self-same vested interests were quite successful in demonizing any proposed shift to the Parliamentary System as being a ploy to extend whichever incumbent president was in power at the time.
Call to Action: Spread the Word!
There are no ifs and no buts about this. Constitutional Reform must happen now. It should have happened long ago. The information and all the data is out there. Must we continue to allow the Philippines to be “Asia’s Basketcase of Wasted Democrazy?”
Perhaps it is time we asked ourselves and our close friends & relatives all the following questions to get all Filipinos thinking more and more about what’s wrong with the Philippine situation and what needs to be done to CoRRECT™ it:
1. ECONOMY:
Why are so many Filipinos poor?
Why are jobs so scarce?
Why are local salaries so low?
Why do so many Filipinos have to find work abroad?
Why are there so many unemployed and underemployed people?
Why did Intel leave the Philippines to move to Vietnam?
Why did Canon choose to set up factories in Vietnam and not in the Philippines?
Why do we have difficulty bringing in foreign investors in when our use of English is cited by these same investors as a major advantage?
- Think carefully about all these questions and go to the root of all our “policy documents” that cause our problems and prevent our progress
2. TERRITORIAL ADMINISTRATION:
Why are most well-paying jobs in Imperial Manila forcing provincial residents to have to come to the capital for work, creating over-congestion, squatters, and too many traffic jams in the capital?
Why is it that if you want to watch Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber their concerts are only in Imperial Manila? Why not other cities?
Why is it that if you want to watch a classical concert, it must be in Imperial Manila?
Why is it that what Imperial Manila says goes even if it is oftentimes not appropriate to the culture, language, or unique situation of the different people from the various regions?
What requirement did the MILF tell the Government of the Republic of the Philippines it needed to see happen for the MILF to lay down their arms and bring about Peace in Mindanao?
Why is it that far too many Overseas Filipino Workers are Filipinos who are originally from outside of Imperial Manila?
3. SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT:
Why does our political system cause only celebrities to have the upper hand, and in case a politician wants to win, he/she needs to do what celebrities do (song-and-dance numbers)?
Why is it so difficult for highly intelligent and highly competent experts to emerge at the top of the leadership of Philippine Government?
Why do we end up with mediocre-quality leadership? And sometimes, even if the leadership is good, why is it so hard for the leaders to do what needs to be done?
Why is the Philippine government so prone to grid-lock?
Why is the Philippine system so prone to coups d’état and other destabilizing moves?
Why is it so difficult to get rid of incompetent leaders or leaders who did not deliver on their promises?
All these questions inevitably lead to the conclusion that the 1987 Constitution has given the Philippines an extremely dysfunctional environment, forcing Filipinos who want a better future for themselves and their loved ones to emigrate to greener pastures. Now that we all see that the 1987 Constitution is flawed, what do we do about it?
Must we wait until the Philippines is decisively overtaken by Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, East Timor, and Myanmar so that we find ourselves at the absolute bottom of the list of all Southeast Asian countries before we even start fixing our flawed Constitution? Will waiting another decade or so when Filipinos will have reached around 120 million people make any sense?
We need Constitutional Reform & Rectification for Economic Competitiveness & Transformation now!
Don’t be wrong… Support CoRRECT™!
- Counter Clockwise from top right: KL-Malaysia, Singapore, Bilbao-Spain, Makati-Philippines; All are Parliamentary; All allow 100% Foreign Ownership of Busineses; Malaysia (Federal) and Spain (Quasi-Federal) are decentralized. The Philippines is Protectionist, Presidential, and Unitary: Kulelat
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If you liked this, you might also like these articles by Orion Pérez Dumdum:
1. Philippine Progress: Shift in Sports, Shift in System
2. Senator Pangilinan and the Parliamentary System
3. The Parliamentary System Fits the Philippines
4. Two Filipinos: A Football Legend & A Spanish Prime Minister
5. Eight Points in Enlightening the Élite
6. The Parable of the Mountain Bike
7. F to A: What P-Noy Needs to do in order to Succeed
8. Lee Kuan Yew on Filipinos and the Philippines
* * *
Why is this site called antipinoy.com? Click here!
About the Author
Orion has written 12 stories on this site.
Orion Pérez Dumdum comes from an IT background and analyzes systems the way they should be: logically and objectively.
Being Cebuano (half-Cebuano, half-Tagalog), and having lived in Cebu, he is a staunch supporter of Federalism.
Having lived in progressive countries which use parliamentary systems, Orion has seen first hand the difference in the quality of discussions and debates of both systems, finding that while discussions in the Philippines are mostly filled with polemical sophistry often focused on trivial and petty concerns, discussions and debates in the Parliamentary-based countries he's lived in have often focused on the most practical and most important points.
Having experienced OFW-life himself, he has seen firsthand how the dearth of investment - both local and foreign - is the cause of the high unemployment and underemployment that exists in the Philippines as well as the low salaries earned by people who do have jobs.
He is one of the founding members of Get Real Philippines and hosts the Sentro ng Katotohanan political commentary show which airs on Tuesdays and Thursday on DWBL 1242kHz from 8:30pm to 9:30pm.
If you think Orion looks familiar... He most probably is. ;)
Excellent post, sir! All we need is a generous amount of wisdom. I hope someday our country be ruled by a Governor-General (to remind our Spanish and American heritage) and a Prime Minister, Japanese/British/Singapore-style.
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The Lazzo Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 12:03 am
When you mentioned Governor-General I thought you meant that brief period in the 1700s when the Philippines almost became part of the Commonwealth.
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very good article. the challenge now is how this information is to trickle down to “masa”
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Cy Reply:
January 22nd, 2011 at 12:20 pm
DIGRESSIONS by DJ Cy
Yo! How’s that, homie? To pour down the information as soda pop for the masses? No way! They like opium (according to Marx) more than bubbling soda pop. Got it? Yo!
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HA!HA!HA!HA! So there was already a dance of cha-cha in the early part of the 60s. I was in the balls of my father then. At the same time the 60s Flippers instead of dance the cha-cha they debated moving the independence day from July 4th to June 12th. June 12th is a phyrric hollow victory to Aguinaldo who was bribed by the spaniards to live a lifestyle in Hong-Kong along with the Katipuneros …. HA1HA!HA!HA!HA!
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i am very much agree into “Spreading out development to the regions and decongesting Metro Manila”. Languages and cultural affinity cutural affinity should be the basis for creating such states or autonomous provinces. And the provinces that constitute an island, that island should just be treated as one entity
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Renato Pacifico Reply:
January 16th, 2011 at 11:08 pm
Manila collects tongs from all provinces to concentrate development in Manila. Provinces should get to keep the tongs collected. I agree.
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There’s no way out of it. The Noynoy Aquino administration must definitely amend the constitution to allow for 100% ownership of businesses by Foreign Direct Investors. Everyone else in the region has either already done this or are in the process of putting up such pro-foreign investor provisions. No ifs, no buts. Not later. NOW!
It’s the CoRRECT™© thing to do, but I’m not so keen on opening it up that instantly so quickly, mainly because of this:
Are there that many Warren Buffets, Bill Gates, and Carlos Slim Helu-types in the Philippines who can put up the required 60% of any joint venture with large foreign Multinationals? Ultimately, there is a very limited list of people that more often than not has the same family names from which foreign multinationals can choose to find joint-venture partners.
I’m willing to place an internets on the fact that there are probably dozens of non-family-affiliated small investors or companies that would love a foreign boost. But I fail to see any provision that would let them do that. I fail to see any provisions (as ChinoV suggested, such provisions should be legislated, not constitution-alized) that would prevent it from merely changing the type of corporate palms that grease the gears of local politicos. Small local investors and businesses will still suffer even as they try to be competitive, especially with many more foreign conglomerates now willing to take their share than there were when we should have opened it up.
The only reason our fellow bottom-feeders on the corruption charts are doing so well is because the politicians earn so much more that they can afford to dole out a little more to improve their respective regions and still have enough for another Porsche or a chandelier for their mansion.
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Fantastic article. I will repost this everyday and spread the article to my friends. I rather fancy a debate every now and then. The only disappointing this is that only a few of my friends and acquaintances are really interested in changing the country.
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Orion Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 1:18 am
Hi concerned_citizen,
I think a good start would be those “sample questions” at the end which are all related to the fact that the 1987 Constitution is totally flawed. It keeps investors away, it keeps jobs away, and it sends Filipinos abroad. Small Filipino entrepreneurs who want to expand and have foreigner friends who’d like to help out in investing large sums and injecting a little bit of extra technology/know-how (thus owning majority – albeit retaining industrial directions and control to the Filipino entrepreneur who has the know how) can’t do that because of the 60/40 provisions. We have the unitary nature of the Philippines which means everything revolves around the capital, and of course, we have all the well-documented dysfunctions (personality instead of party-based political dynamics) associated with the Philippine Presidential System.
Pester those friends all the time with the questions at the end of this article and perhaps make your own questions which are in a similar vein. Either they’ll give you the right answer or they’ll ask “can you tell me why?” And that’s when you tell them how flawed the 1987 Constitution is. As soon as they recognize how flawed it is, the next step is obvious: fixing said flaws.
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Mr. Orion Perez, may I request that you use your connections in Philippine media and become a newspaper columnist (since you live here)? CoRRECT will only succeeed if you can gain a foothold on major mediums such as the newspapers. We need to sway public opinion.
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Aegis-Judex Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 4:27 am
Excellent idea! Orion and Carmen Pedrosa can work together to spread the gospel of this country’s salvation. Only question is: Which paper would want him besides TPS?
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The Lazzo Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
TPS is the 3rd biggest newspaper in the country, so that’s a pretty good start.
Unfortunately, you also have The Chair Wrecker waiting in the next editorial column…
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Aegis-Judex Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 9:27 am
Well, flip me sideways… At least they get a balanced meal of bollocks and meaning…
Renato Pacifico Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Orion or BongV or benign0 will be syndicated, vindicated and mentioned in some radio shows. Newspapers are expensive here. Most of the poor listen to radio talk shows which is accessible over-the-air and very cheap. Middle class buys newspapers. Foreign-based Filipinos are on-line. THIS IS A GOOT START !!!!
Let us be assured that Tunisia president was out-Twittered and out-Facebooked by Tunisians.
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Renato Pacifico Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
Very right. Before Orion publish his column, I’d rather he publish it first in AntiPinoy for vetting and debate to make it perfect for public consumption.
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Beware of the MILF. They will not lay down their arms even if they get their federal state. If they become rulers of that state, they will face revolts. If they don’t become rulers they will claim discontentment. If they get a chance to ultimately secede from the Philippines, they will take it and carve out a chunk of Mindanao off the nation.
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Orion Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 6:35 am
That’s why the idea is to have a system of Quasi or Semi-Federalism and not Full Federalism so that it is obvious that the “Autonomous Region” or “State” exists at the pleasure of the Central Government, and not the other way around. In many Full Federal type countries, there is the ability of states to secede because the Federal structure was created from independent states coming together.
In a quasi or semi-Federal system, there is no ability to secede. All they have is meaningful autonomy (cultural/linguistic/etc) as well as fiscal management autonomy. Besides, the Organization of Islamic States are supportive of the Republic of the Philippines. They have stated that they will not recognize an independent Bangsamoro State that is not part of the Philippines.
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jcc Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 9:52 am
I am a dreamer. MILF/MNLF are not interested in a Federal System. They are interested with Mindanao being a separate Republic. Nor are they interested in “Peace”. They want what all of us wanted. “A Piece Of That and A Piece of Those”.
Incidentally, let me repost here the comment I have made in the article by BenK, entitled “ x x x “Rarer Than The Red Mercury”.
An offshore replica like Japan or Singapore cannot be transported to RP and hope that our country can be as robust as these two foreign models unless we meet some of the conditions: “highly disciplined and industrious people with a strong pride of nationhood.”
And it is false to claim that Japan has opened her portals to unmitigated foreign investments which made her economy vibrant. And assuming she did, her industries have their footings fully rooted on the ground before the so-called “trade liberation” with the West occurred. This later condition was not obtaining in RP.
In Singapore, urinating against the walls as well as throwing your gum wrappers on the street is a misdemeanor. A Japanese bureaucrat, suspected of taking in bribes, resigns or commit a seppuku. But everybody seem to toy with the idea that “economic amendments” to the constitution will make RP as prosperous as her Asian neighbors even absence of the operable culture inherent in these two offshore models.
“Westerners have evidence of Japan’s industrialization all about them. MADE IN JAPAN is stamped on radios, television sets, steel, clothing, machine tools, motorcycles, baseball gloves, and a cornucopia of other things. The label once meant cheap junk; it now means the product of sophisticated industrial complex. Westerners, seeing this, may assume that because the products of the Japanese economy are like the products of the Western economy, the system that produces them may also be like their own. But behind the Western façade of corporations and factories is an economic structure and mode of operation that is different. It defies labels of capitalism, or socialism, or state capitalism or communism. The Japanese have absorbed deep injections of technology, methods of trade, financial concepts and corporate organization from the West while they developed their own ways of operating and controlling their economic machine. Japan’s economy today is probably the world’s mostly deftly guided economy, governed by a set of controls more refined than Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin, or Josef Stalin ever dreamed of.
The centralized control of the modern Japanese economy began during the Meiji period (this is what I meant by shogun/samurai elites who developed Japan, in my earlier post- JCC) when the oligarchs welded a strong alliance of themselves, the bureaucracy and the new industrialists to foster economic development. Businessmen, politicians and militarists struggled for control of the economy in the 1920’s and 1930’s, the militarists bringing it under their dominion. The occupation started to break these controls but relented when the advent of the Cold War made an economically strong Japan an asset against possible encroachments by the Soviet Union or Communist China. After Japan regained its sovereignty in 1952, the controls that had been dismantled were among the first to be reassembled. They have become even stronger as the economy recovered and moved into its tremendous expansion. The Japanese, a deliberate people, are reluctant to leave anything to chances and regulate the economy to bring all its component into harmony. They intensely dislike competition. The Japanese are personally competitive for power and prestige but fear that if this is not controlled, what they consider excessive competition will cause economic chaos. Japan has limited space for agriculture and industry, limited natural resources limited capital. The margins for error are small and the Japanese believe that laissez-faire, uncoordinated decision-making and the play of market forces are luxuries they cannot afford.” (Japan, Images and Realities, Richard Halloran, p. 133).
You have also to consider that Japan for over half century, has no huge defense budget like RP because of the American bases in Okinawa, and therefore, she was able to channel her funds to her economic development.
And finally, our own F. Sionel Jose said: “The real and lasting solution to our problems lies in our minds, in our culture, which must first be radically altered before changes in our country may be achieved”. ( Why We Are Poor, Solidaridad Publishing House, 2005).
That piece of paper you called the constitution which will liberalize foreign investments in the country is a long shot. I will bet on it!
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BongV Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 12:55 pm
you can have all your cultural improvements in a FLAWED environment – go migrate to North Korea- they are are as culturally hardworking as the South Koreans.
or hey, take a Time Machine – go to East Germany – stay there with the culturally optimized Germans in a FLAWED policy environment.
jcc Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 2:51 pm
When it comes to Filipino writer whose sentiments align with my thought, I choose F. Sionil Jose.
“Here is the height of irony; government leaders are begging foreign investors to come while, at the same time the rich Filipinos are sending their money out in the billions unabated, compelled as they are by avarice and the compulsion of colonialism. And if they invest money at a, It is in non-productive enterprises, in shopping malls and luxury spas, resorts and fancy condominiums.”
“You do not appeal to the civic virtue of such people because they have none, because they have no loyalty to the country which they are bleeding.” (F.Sionil Jose, Rats in the Kitchen, Carabaos In The Closet, p. 153)
Trade liberalization and Federalism are overrated.
Miriam Quiamco Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
jcc: how do you know what these muslim rebels want, you have been living abroad, it seems for ages and certainly the moslems in mindanao have evolved in their struggle for independence from the central government. they know they will never be able to win an all out war against the manila government. their senseless war has only brought about extreme suffering to their people and has stunted development of the region. this is a realization shared by leaders of moslem mindanao. orion is right, what the bansangmoro wants now is development, economic, cultural and political, in other words, they want stability in their lives, war has devastated the region far too long, i sense weariness now on both sides, that is why what we have in mindanao is what could be considered “low intensity conflict”, not an all out war and it is draining government resources which could be used to develop the area. even foreign donors have been driven away because of this armed conflict that is not brought to a definite conclusion.
F. Sionil Jose is a fiction writer, I met him by the way in Kyoto, he is rather emotional in his take of things and to dismiss liberalism and federalism, two very effective government policies in Brazil on the basis of F. Sionil Jose’s take on things back home is rather questionable, coming from a lawyer like you.
ricelander Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 7:55 pm
I tend to agree yet how could we achieve that? Seminars? Preachy billboards? Paid ads?
Precisely why we need to let the foreigners in because the alternative is bloody Marcosian: lock them in jail or make them flee, confiscate their money and properties and turn them over to hopefully more enterprising cohorts.
BongV Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 8:10 pm
how exactly do people have cultural memes implanted into their psyche? through interaction within the household and the schools.
if the household and the local schools propagate the same defective cultural nuances AND resist introduction of new ideas – what is the better solution – do more blogs – or introduce new schools that have new ideas?
time to get real folks.
ulong pare Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
daaaang! … 1000+ words post, and the only line worth mentioning >>> “The real and lasting solution to our problems lies in our minds, in our culture, which must first be radically altered before changes in our country may be achieved”…
the solution is LAW ENFORCEMENT… there is no other alternative…
thinking people should start doing some thinking…
jcc Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 11:39 am
Why is the editor of this website editing my comment? I said in my opening par. in the above comment: “Another dreamer”, obviously referring to the author of the post, but it was edited to “I am a dreamer”.
The last sentence I wrote. “Don’t bet on it”. It was edited. “I bet on it”. Waaaaahh… its obvious that those who want to dish out their unmitigated “advice” to our government managers on what to do with our dysfunctional country is not receptive to being pointed to their own dysfunction!.
ulong pare Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
daaaang! …. @jcc: stop complaining… you are lucky that you still have your shreded post available…
ulong pare’s piece of collegiate wisdom was totally blown out of cyberspace…
i spent all my brainpower to compose the daaaaang thing, too…
Homer Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 12:16 pm
Don’t feel too bad about your post, jcc. Most of us would have ignored it anyway.
jcc Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Waaahhhaaaa…. My being in America does not deprive me of my birthright to speak as a Filipino. I believe I read more about the Philippines than most of those who are living in the Philippines. My favorite authors are Nick Joaquin, F. Sionil Jose, Chitang Guerrero Nakpil, Bienvenido Santos, among others. While this blog was thrilled with the book of Lee Kuan Yew, I am not because he was just telling us of things that our own writers and historians already knew and had written about.
The MILF/MNLF struggle just like the NPA struggle. The first phase is the so-called parliamentary and tactical struggle, the second is the armed conflict, and the last phase is pacification. You see NDF elements, mostly students and squatter dwellers staging anti-government demonstrations in Manila since 1970, which is the first phase of the struggle. The NPA have not passed their first phase of their struggle because the Pinoys believe in God and the influence of the West is a big factor. They went ahead with the second phase, the armed conflict. Parliamentary struggle and armed struggle are now being waged. You see Satur Ocampo participates in the political process as part of the parliamentary struggle; and sometimes, the armed elements would do some random assassination of their enemies in the cities or engaged the military in the provinces in a pitch gun battle. The final objective of the struggle is to topple the government after which, they will establish their own. The pacification phase comes, which simply means, shooting people who still oppose them in public plazas.
The MILF/MNLF have the same issues with the government. Their people being oppressed by the imperial government of Manila, need liberation. They formed armed groups, demanded ARMM, and now a Federal system of government. They seek Malaysian intervention in the conflict as a first step towards seeking a “belligerent status”. When the conditions are ripe and they are ready for the full-blown conflict, they can and declare a “separate Mindanao Republic”.
If you cannot read their motivations and aspirations while living in the Philippines, you should thank someone who can look at things more objectively, though living thousand miles away from RP.
ulong pare Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
daaang! @jcc naman naman… “I believe I read more about the Philippines than most of those who are living in the Philippines”…
ano ka hilo? why would flips read about themselves when they are “living” it?…
“The MILF/MNLF have the same issues with the government. Their people being oppressed by the imperial government of Manila, need liberation”.. ano ka hilo?… bangsamorons (silent n) have the same number of reps/representation in ‘tang inang imperial manila… RIDO… you something about it?… it’s bangsamorons (silent n) past time…
flipflam HILOminatis endorsed prez gung gongs to their hearts’ desire…
anong say mo sa prez jakolero?
jcc Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
paren ulo;
my post is only edited but your post was blown to kingdom come. clue: quality of the post makes the difference. if i own this website. i would not have none of your nonesense!
ulong pare Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
daaang! @jcc naman naman… lookit you… i busted your ego, now your hurting… your posts will not pass the quality control (QA) at ulong’s bullsheet room… pick up the pieces, will you…
ulong pare Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 1:45 pm
pahabol: daaaang ulit… your IF >>> “if i own this website. i would not have none of your nonesense!”…
my IF >>> if you own this website, ain’t posting… i have better sheeet to do than read sheeeeeety nonsense from you…
BongV Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
jcc:
what are you doing in america with its liberal and federal regime.
return to the Philippines and live there – enjoy lack of trade liberalization.
Better yet go live in NORTH KOREA – no federalization and no trade liberalization.
jcc Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 5:31 pm
BongV,
Why don’t you ask yourself the same question. Why not go home and work for Trade Liberalization in RP? I am not against it though. I simply said, it is not the solution, the same way that Federalism is not the solution to our problem. I am just expressing the views from the other spectrum for quite frankly, I do not claim that my view is the right view, the way you offered yours as the right view.
Pareng Ulo. Though you live in RP, you have not lived the lives of people who went before you, hence you need to read about them, learn from their perspective. Simply living in RP will make you aware of those years you live, but not of the years that you have not lived them. You have to read the history of your people, not necessarily your humdrum personal history.
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ulong pare Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 8:54 pm
daaang!… @jcc: wow… that’s deep…
i live and breathe flipland… i’m a product of politics which for too long has been about the use of smoke and mirrors… you, on the other hand, “read” about it… simply living in ‘merka and consume the works of your fave authors will not make you an authority on flipland; vicariously and emphatically living the life of “my people” does not make you an expert…. just like padre damaso lecturing flips about family values which they do not have an “experience” raising one…
my common sense has wounded your ego and made you bitter…
the old adage applies >>> experience is the best teacher…
about my humdrum personal history >>> i’ve been to places you only dreamed about…and even in dreams, you wouldn’t achieve or reach it… i wouldn’t comment about your life, which i figured is lost in distorted priorities…
the distinction between the past, the present, and the future is only an illusion…
mario taporco Reply:
March 27th, 2011 at 4:35 am
jcc, BongV, ever so beautiful Miriam Quimco, ricelander, and ever so pragmatic ulong pare.
Orion does have some good pointers. When will it take effect, and when.Musta na kayong lahat. That was lots of reading. Tulog muna, G’night.
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This is really an excellent article sir. Will be sharing it.
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Why is it that if you want to watch Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber their concerts are only in Imperial Manila? Why not other cities?
you mean you want those fags here
no thank you
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Renato Pacifico Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 10:08 am
Because in Imperial Manila they have riot police, SWAT teams, advanced hospitals you know just in case if there is physical violence against them. What goot in sending Justin Beiber and Taylor Swift to provinces when they can barely make out? They are paying tongs to Imperial Manila …..And the tongs never come back to their provinces … HA!HA!HA!HA!
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ulong pare Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 10:56 am
daaang! renpac naman naman namnnn… there’s no power/electricity in the provinces… i was in viva republic of cebu not too long ago… i could not get any reception… it’s all static on my radio and snow on my top of the line mac…
kasi, da south of ‘tang inang imperial manila has not seen civilization as of today…
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The prevailing thinking then was bagsak ang Pilipinas kasi ninakaw ni Marcos ang lahat ng kayamanan ng Pilipinas. That explained everything. It was not about policy, it was Marcos plunder pure and simple. You raise policy or structural defect as the culprit, you question the wisdom that Marcos was the entire cause of everything.
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ulong pare Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 9:39 am
daaaaang! @ricelandi: the marcos thingy was/is personal… we shed blood during his term…
there’s no law/justice in flipland… this should be the first problem to tackle…
put law above all… implement it to the fullest… just like all traposakals y magnanakaws y balasubas blurted out every time a high visibility murder/anomaly>>> WE WILL PROSECUTE BLAH BLAH BLAH NO STONES WILL BE LEFT UNTURNED BLAH BLAH BLAH….
tapos, kodakan/photo ops with padre damaso… and then, forgotten, swept under the batalan…
hay naku, flips puro kayo gung gongs!
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Renato Pacifico Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 10:26 am
Filipinos love to play the blame-Game. Blame Marcos for the economy. Blame Gloria Makapal-Arroyo for the economy. When the economy boomed Noy2x took the credit. IT LOOKS LIKE THE GOD-THINGIE.
If Filipinos pray and no answer from God, BLAME FILIPINOS. If Fiilipinos succeeds, GOD GETS THE CREDIT …… !!!!! DUH!!!! DUH!!!! who says THIS IS COLONIAL MENTALITY …. YES IT IS COLONIAL MENTALITY … OUR MINDS WERE COLONIZED BY GOD !!!!!! HA!HAZ!HA!HA!HA!
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ulong pare Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 10:42 am
@renpac: have you noticed here in AP that everybody has the silver bullet? … no guns…
flips like to play the SPIN THE BOTTLE… then use the mental telepathy to control it… the bottle hasn’t stopped… spin…. spin…. round… and round… and round….
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daaaang! every articles written about point to one glaring problem >>> FLIPS.
every articles suggest solutions.
is any out there ACTUALLY doing something?
it’s getting old re-reading the same old articles in different packaging…
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ricelander Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 9:23 am
daang! oo naman. i have convinced ten so far and killed one who disagreed with me hihihi!
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ulong pare Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 9:24 am
of course, y’all ask, “what are you doing about it?”
Answer: i’m preserving my dna and trying to build my tribe back….marcos destroyed my tribe and our livelihood, we haven’t recovered fully… lost my elder brother and my dad to politics… recent elections. we lost (gunned down) the best candidate our ‘hood could post… neither we are pushed against the wall nor become lame , but we are very cautious in our every move…
besides whining and bitching in the blogosphere, what have you done to flipland lately?
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daaaaang! calling our AP prolific writers… where is the article about LAW ENFORCEMENT???.
flipland covered all facets of civil liberties known to civilized world… it’s not flip original law, but that would work…
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Renato Pacifico Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 10:21 am
Aw, c’mon, Pareng Ulo. Naman, naman, naman. Lookit, they covered Congresman Singson drug importation to Hong-Kong BUT NOT ONE … REPEAT … NOT ONE EVER BROUGHT UP THE QUESTION: WHO WERE CONGRESSMAN SINGSON’S PHARMACIST? I want to know where he bought the Cocaine from so I can have a snort !!!!! NOT ONE!!!! NBI did not ask the question. IDIOT PERYODISTAS did not ask question. CONGRESSMEN and SENATORS did not ask the question: WHERE and WHO were Congressman Singson’s drug supplier? I WANT A SNORT !!!!! HA!HA!HA!HA!
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ulong pare Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 10:33 am
daaaang! @renpac naman naman namnnn… daddy sing-a-song pharmaceuticals, inc… located in ilocandia republic…
daddy sing-a-song’s song caused my idolo-bigotilyo-iyutero erap’s fall from grace…
santa doktora ate glo proclaimed herself as the durog (drug) czar during her term to take over daddy sing-a-song’s pharmaceuticals…
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Renato Pacifico Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 10:36 am
HA!HA!HA!HA! Sinong nag-sabi wala tayong 100% owned pharmaceuticals ? HA!HA!HA! Senators and congressmen do not want 60/40 ownership in Congressman Singson’s drug supplier. Because according to them they are already wholly owned by Filipinos !!!!! 100% pure white !!!! HA!HA!HA!HA!
ulong pare Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 10:52 am
daaaaang! renpac’s fedex sexy gurlz, inc. is 100% flip… renpac will never ever let me screen his prospects…
Renato Pacifico Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 11:34 am
NAMAN, NAMAN, NMAN, PARENG ULO. Once you insspected my gurlz you were already limp, dry and tired
It is very sad for country, with so much natural resources; with so many talented and educated people; to go to foreign countries as OFW slaves; underemployed, abused and subjected to many indignities; just to earn foreign currencies to support a corrupt and incompetent Feudal Oligarchy government led by the Oligarchy.
I happen to know a Filipino Medical Doctor; working in a chicken meat processing plant. He is operating on chicken; instead on people…He cannot pass his State Board Exam; no way to find a good job. He tried Caregiver job. He tried selling furniture in a local furniture shop. No good pay. Now, he is packing chicken meat…better pay…
We, the Filipino people determines our destiny. Not Noynoy Aquino; not his Hacienda Luisita Mafia; not his crony Oligarchs. Noynoy Aquino is not our master. He is our Employee. We can easily remove him; as we easily remove any President. If the government needs to be changed; the Constitution modified: Do it as soon as we can…
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In what sense is the philippines NOT decentralized now?
what more do you want that is NOT covered by the LGU decentralization?
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Velcrohair Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 11:23 pm
Isn’t the tax collection in the Phils such a bitch? Most of what a province makes goes straight to Manila, then it in turn gets reallocated resources by the Nat-Gov? LGU decentralization doesn’t do enough.
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GabbyD Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 11:42 am
the IRA goes by a formula based on size. this means that rich LGUs help subsidize poor ones.
this subsidization will happen IN WHATEVER POLITICAL CHANGE.
all local taxes are under 100% CONTROL OF THE LGUS.
so it isnt really a bitch. its pretty extensive actually.
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BongV Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
Clarification:
1 – Is the LGU collecting the taxes and remitting to the national government? or,
2 – Is the national government collecting the taxes and remitting to the LGU.
ChinoF Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
If local taxes are 100% under LGU control, then why do they all have to go to Manila? Why do they have to, as the prez himself said, be used to subsidize MRT fare in Manila? It is centralized, not decentralized.
GabbyD Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Local taxes are under the LGUs control. National taxes are collected by the national govt. part of that is to maintain the national govt. the other part goes back to the LGU according to the IRA formula.
ChinoF Reply:
January 19th, 2011 at 9:16 am
Yun nga daw, the local taxes aren’t coming back. That’s the problem. Besides, why should the local taxes still go to Manila? That’s the issue of decentralization. Let money for Davao stay in Davao, don’t bring it to Manila anymore.
GabbyD Reply:
January 19th, 2011 at 12:44 pm
local taxes dont go to national govt.
National taxes go to national govt, and get redistributed.
GabbyD Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
@Orion
there’s lots of articles about the decentralization law, the responsibilities and powers of the LGU, etc…
what more do you want? more importantly, WHY?
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BongV Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
For one reason – Imperial manila
In the case of the UK, less than ten years after devolution began there are complaints that the system is undemocratic, as England’s representatives in the UK Parliament (which retains full control over England) have been over-ruled on occasion by Scottish & Welsh MPs voting on issues that do not apply in their home nations.
The same things can be said about Imperial Manila.
Federalism can be further qualified into a variant known as asymmetric federalism (as distinguished from traditional/symmetric federalism)
- Asymmetric federalism or asymmetrical federalism is found in a federation in which different constituent states possess different powers: one or more of the states has considerably more autonomy than the other substates, although they have the same constitutional status. The division of powers between substates is not symmetric. This is in contrast to a symmetric federation, where no distinction is made between constituent states. As a result, it is frequently proposed as a solution to the dissatisfactions that arise when one or two constituent units feel significantly different needs from the others, as the result of an ethnic, linguistic or cultural difference.
An asymmetric federation is similar to a federacy where a state where one of the substates enjoys considerably more independence than the others. The difference between an asymmetric federation and federacy is indistinct; a federacy is essentially an extreme case of an asymmetric federation, either due to large differences in the level of autonomy, or the rigidity of the constitutional arrangements. An asymmetric federation however has to have a federal constitution and all states in federation have the same formal status (“state”), while in a federacy independent substate has a different status (“autonomous region”).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_federalism
Lastly, decentralization/devolution can be repealed by an act of Congress whereas a formal asymmetric federal structure is enshrined in the Constitution Constitution and is harder to repeal.
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daaaang! all you geniuses are ignoring the obvious… the core of flipland’s problem lies not in the form of government or the existing constitution or the current prez squatting in the palace…
it’s LAW ENFORCEMENT…
y’all are so obsessed of your literary presentation which is doing less than nothing…
y’all have been accentuating the works of world’s successful leaders and downplaying the fact that laws in their respective countries played a major part… they were/are strictly enforced and adhered to to make the changes…
i.e., the flip ofws have to follow their host countries’ rules, hence, they’d be tossed back in sump called flipland…
flipflams aka pekeng ‘merkans know it by heart… break unc sammy’s rule and see for yourself…
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ulong pare Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 10:29 pm
daaaaang! … investors pour their $$$ in a stable country (stable, meaning >>> rule of law) … whether its communistic, democratic, parliamentarian, or monarchial form….
flipland is a choleric and dysfunctional form…
kaya kayong mga henyos, your runaway imaginations will fill the vacuum you leave behind when you ‘bakwet to ‘merka/anywhere sa abroad… and, it is not helping any…
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kusinero Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 4:47 am
I totally agree. But then again, are pinoys ready to follow the law? I think you already know the answer. We already discussed that way back the Lee Kwan Yew article
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ulong pare Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 12:16 pm
daaaang! … flips geniuses are jealous of tsekwaland’s rise to power… envious of singapura, taiwan, japan, brazil, argentina, ‘ong kong (ngo ngo kasi), russia, inglatera, and the rest of the civilized world…
hey, yo flips, can’t y’all figure out that the reason is simple as >>> wan tu tri >>> LAW ENFORCEMENT…
flips balasubas are convicted around the globe… but not in flipland??? allah eh, baken ga???
flips, puro kayo gung gongs!
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Artemio Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 5:05 pm
ulong pare,
Hard to implement law enforcement when police patola can easily be bribed because of small wages. In the U.S., police are slighted or even insulted when you bribe them, because they will not risk their handsome wages for just lunch money and severe penalties to the ruin of their careers.
Also, Noy’s admin is even trying to starve an already starving judiciary by lowering their budget even more, just because, of all the gov’t branches, the judiciary branch is that only branch that requires professional training, while the other branches such as Noy’s executive and the legislative branches are dependent on votes based on flipper popularity or celebrity–no further skills required…hahaha!…It’s like Noy is trying to control the judiciary as well by some kind of economic sanction to make them more submissive to Noy’s bidding…hahaha!
We may however do a concerted approach by reforming both the upper and lower layers of the gov’t, such as the leadership and LAW ENFORCEMENT (i.e. the police force and justice system) at the same time, even by degrees.
Reforming the constitution (as proposed) has also psychological and cultural consequences–If more investors, driven by profit, are now less restricted, they will be encouraged to invest in flipland, and this will open up opportunities for more employment. This will give flips a better sense of direction and boost their morale. Both businesses and flips who are employed by them will direct their taxes to flipland instead of Uncle Sam, the Mid-East or other countries. This will help supply funding for improvement of our LAW ENFORCEMENT. So, actually they are all interconnected.
Lastly, think about it…If foreigners open shop in flipland, there will be an influx of middle-aged white guys that will mix with punk’d nosed native-looking flip women (I don’t know why, but alot of them prefer atsay-looking flip women). This will improve the population and perhaps lessen the need for Belo nose jobs because they are already improved at the genetic level. With so many tisoys and tisays running around, there will be an over-supply of celebrity material (local media is partial to mixed breds), and now they may select future celebrities based on genuine talent instead of just tisoy/tisay features…so there!
ulong pare Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 9:16 pm
daaaang! @temiong: communist countries do not pay their law enforcement much… china, cuba, nokor, russia… these countries reached the level of law enforcement never heard of from the west… while in moscow and st petersburg, i came into contact with the ruskies, i envy their devotion to duty and to their country…
on the other side of the pond, in ‘merka… ‘merkan military and police force’ salaries are small compared to their civilian counterparts… i know i made more compared to them (naks, yabang noh), but their level of discipline and and ethical behavior far exceeds that of flipland…
it’s not about the money, it’s discipline and devotion to duty…
previous flipland chief execs did not implement the RULE OF LAW… from marcos dictatorial, to corazon’s anarchy to fvr’s kotongs to erap’s chaos to gloria’s god squad and lastly to retarded prez gung gong’s kamag-anak inc…
rule of law is still missing…
i briefly studied the G8 and G20 nations forms of government… each government differs, from one end of the spectrum to another… one thing they have in common >>> RULE OF LAW…
why couldn’t flips see that?
Miriam Quiamco Reply:
January 19th, 2011 at 4:27 am
Russian and Chinese law enforcement officers are actually quite corrupt. However, if their corrupt practices do not bring damage to the country with a bang, then, that seems to be tolerated. But when the goals of the country are compromised, namely, if they milk a multinational corporation which causes a foreign investor to disinvest, in the case of China, the culprit will surely face a firing squad. In Russia, it is compromising state secrets and security that could get law enforcement officers to face the wrath of the barrel of a gun, through extra-judicial killing. Precisely, there is corruption in the law enforcement in both these ex-communist states because of low pay. In the U.S., police officers could be corrupted by drug dealers because they offer bigger bribes, so we heard of some corrupt police officers at the border between U.S. and Mexico. But you are right, in general, the U.S. police officers are professionally trained and would not take petty bribes. There are a lot of stories of corruption in the U.S. involving police officers though. In our country, it is a way of life everywhere, the judges, the police and everyone working in government because of the lack of professionalism in our bureaucracy. Teodoro saw clearly the need for streamlining our bureaucracy and for creating a management system so that we may have professionalism in our government agencies and these include enforcement agencies. I wish Teodoro had won!!!
ulong pare Reply:
January 19th, 2011 at 8:14 am
daaang!… ohayo gozaimasu, daijobo desu, prof miriam q…
corruption is endemic in all fields of endeavor, from the pulpit of padre damaso to ****pits of flipland… from holyland of israel to the seat of holy c to allahu ahkbar of mecca…
no country is free from it…. from china’s communism to saudi monarchy to japanese harakiri all the way to democratic ‘merka…
corruption takes many forms… from outright bad-ass to goodness sake…
civilized countries enact laws to lessen the impact of graft and corruption… the perpetrators face their fate and suffer the consequences… mostly prisonlife or afterlife…
in flipland, corrution is the embodiment of flips success…
they hold the highest offices, occupy at the highest judicial benches, and wear the bottle-hardened uniforms…
nay naku, flips, puro kayo hilo!
Putang Ina! Wala ng pag-asa talaga ang Pilipinas. Lagay dito, lagay duon. That’s what the people in control are used to. To wipe that out by changing the form of government will be useless. Same people, different game. We only have two options to save our country from the medieval, backward and primitive mentality:
1. Assassinate all those who are corrupt.
2. Allow a rich country to colonize us like Germany, Japan, Britain or even America. (This option will make our country the richest in Asia in just 20 years.
Other than that, our country is really hopeless. It’s like praying for devils to transform hell into heaven.
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ulong pare Reply:
January 19th, 2011 at 8:30 am
daaang!… @pugot naman naman naman… it takes two to tango… “Lagay dito, lagay duon”… who’s doing the lagayan?…
i have some “issues” in flipland… the administrator is waiting for the lagay to release my thingy… well, guess what, he will be waiting for a long time….
at the meantime my basura biz continue to operate… they cannot raise any issue with me because i have all the docs to support that i followed the law…
it’s a chess game… patigasan lang ‘yan…
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Ang hirap, yo. DJ Cy’s struggling, now he’s just plain Cy…. Anyway. I have nothing against charter change or no charter change, but the mindset of the nearly 100 million FIlipinos must change first before we can change the Constitution in a way that the people will benefit from it. Because the results of whatever artifice we plant into the Constitution, no matter how salubrious, will be undone by the wanton disregard and ignorance of the people.
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Yo! To charter change or not to charter change? Yo! Difficult; DJ Cy can’t handle it, but plain Percy has a say here, just minor: Any effects of any artifices that we can plant in our Constitution, no matter how salubrious, will be undone by the wanton disregard and the sheer ignorance of the majority of the nearly 100 million people we have here, so first we’ll have to figure out how the 100 million citizens think and act, and convince them, within all our means, to discard values that prove inefficient in handling the pressures of modernity.
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ulong pare Reply:
January 21st, 2011 at 10:04 am
daaaang!…. word!… 99M flips have no knowledge of the articles of flipland constitution, yo! those who do ‘bakwet to ‘merka and/or abroad as OFW/slaves and txt about it back to left-behind flips… yo!
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Cy Reply:
January 21st, 2011 at 10:52 am
Yo! Anu kaya yung itetext nilang mga parts ng Constitution? Nice idea to speculate with.
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Cy Reply:
January 21st, 2011 at 11:25 am
DIGRESSIONS by DJ Cy
Damn! Yo! Bakit pa yung mga OFW magaabalang mag-aral ng constitution ng bansang di na nila kinabibilangan (Philippines/RP/Phil.Islands/Lupang Hinirang?Perlas ng Silangan/Pearl of the Orient/Flipland)? That means that the rest do not know either, and so 100M Filipinos don’t know… Yo!
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Ulong Pare, Leche ka.. ang ingay mo! Hinayupak ka tumahimik ka nalang at pakinggan mo ang opinyon ng iba. O sasagot pa.. oh.. shh. Ay sus!..
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ulong pare Reply:
January 21st, 2011 at 3:25 pm
heto pa isang tunggak na unggoy… estupido indio….
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Aegis-Judex Reply:
January 22nd, 2011 at 2:40 am
ulong pare, let the supernatural be. It has better things to do than fornicate with mortals like ourselves.
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Cy Reply:
January 22nd, 2011 at 7:53 am
@ impakto
May point naman si ulong pare sa mga posts niya ah! (Para kang nagbabasa ng poem ni e.e.cummings, who is a great and unconventional poet.) Anyway. Tingnan mo yung huling post niya: “daaaang!…. word!… 99M flips have no knowledge of the articles of flipland constitution, yo! those who do ‘bakwet to ‘merka and/or abroad as OFW/slaves and txt about it back to left-behind flips… yo!”
Ulong Pare’s post is in lyrical form. I will break it down in parts you can understand:
1. “99M flips have no knowledge of the articles of flipland constitution” – refers hyperbolically to the fraction of the Filipinos who DO care about the Constitution, which, sadly, is miniscule.
2. “those who do ‘bakwet to ‘merka and/or abroad as OFW/slaves ” – refers to what happens to the educated Filipinos who have at least an inkling of Constitutional knowledge. They’re not there in the Philippines. Consequently, how will they give it priority?
3. “txt about it back to left-behind flips” – refers to what Filipinos do when abroad. Talk to their family members in the homeland. Obviously, this is hyperbolic again, for, when texting or talking to your friend, would you talk about a highly intellectually-charged topic such as the Constitution? Not really; you talk about your personal experiences.
Hope this little instruction helps you to analyze more deeply what you read.
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ulong pare Reply:
January 22nd, 2011 at 10:53 am
daaang! yo… it’s my poetry in the wind… flips do not realized that flip traposakas, magnanakaws, y balasubas lead them to a ghetto which they seemed destined never to escape…
concerned_citizen Reply:
March 25th, 2011 at 4:40 pm
All you have to do is go beyond ulong pare’s words dude. I for one am amused at his poetry and may I say eloquence.
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so orion, lets continue this scintilating conversation:
i’ve taken the liberty to combine here 2 threads on consti change.
1) what is you desired level of autonomy/decentralization? how different from the current levels of autonomy?
2) one key issue is party cohesion. pork barrel is the reason for the lack of it (from your source). if so, why not reform pork barrel?
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Orion Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 7:36 am
1) Since I have pointed to “Evolving Regional Decentralization”, the interim stages may start off first looking like the UK’s component “countries” (which are under a unitary British Parliament, although a Scottish parliament and others now exist), or look like China’s devolved Provinces which are also unitary, but have been given special fiscal, taxation, and other subsidiary powers. In the medium-term, the situation might look like Spain’s system of Semi or Quasi-Federalism with each region having their own legislature and there is significant autonomy as far as cultural and linguistic rights are concerned as well as some fiscal/financial autonomy. The end-goal would probably be to have something similar to the states of the USA or Canada in terms of degree of autonomy. The level of autonomy is something they should decide for themselves.
2) By shifting to the Parliamentary System, the pork barrel as it exists today will cease to exist because there will no longer be a need for the executive to “bribe” members of the legislature to comply with the executive’s agenda through the use of the pork barrel. Why? Because in a parliamentary system, executive and legislative are fused.
It would be good for you to just read up on why the Parliamentary System beats the Presidential System hands down:
1. http://antipinoy.com/philippineprogress
2. http://antipinoy.com/should-the-philippines-turn-parliamentary-by-rep-florencio-b-abad
3. http://antipinoy.com/spps
4. http://antipinoy.com/parliament_fits_the_philippines
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I found the piece a difficult read because of its length. I finished it, though.
I’m not against it; in fact, I’m in favor it, on paper, though. I’m willing to give it a chance. A secluded country cannot remain secluded forever, and should not refuse any form of enlightenment, foreign or otherwise, when the opportunity presents. Foreign enlightenment in the form of business, investments, and new ideas come only when local enlightenment strikes in, and one way for the local enlightenment to take place is through reforming the Constitution. The other way is to reform the values of the FIlipinos.
What parts of the Constitution should be reformed? I do agree with putting the protectionist clauses away, because protectionism has a tendency to preserve mediocre economies, thus fostering stagnation rather than growth. It has a tendency, too, to condition popular thinking that there can be no systems efficient than what we have, because we have no contact with them, and thus resigns us to a particularly paralyzing fatalism.
I also agree with putting away the presidential system. In a nation where the dominant value system (maintenance of “Smooth Interpersonal Relationship”, in Tomas A. Andres’s books) incidentally (although not yet intentionally) protects crooks in the government, prevention of error is relatively more necessary, than in a nation where the dominant value system is favorable to meritocracy. A succession of crooks will be easily cleared out through a “no-confidence” vote. I have my qualms, however. Because SIR is more important than meritocracy, how do we expect that the “shadow system” will work? If A is a “government” cabinet member and B his “shadow”, in the SIR value system B will hardly dare criticize A because of the Filipinos’ general disdain of criticizing and being criticized. For the same reason, because a “no-confidence” declaration is basically a final criticism of a minister, a declaration of his incompetence, those voting may be reluctant to declare such votes.
Furthermore, what if A and B are compadres? In a Filipino setting, the informal relationships Filipinos are used to usually build up faster than the formal ones where the FIlipino is usually uncomfortable with.
Decentralization – I have no solid idea about this, but I’m always in favor of spreading enlightenment nationwide. Also, it builds a sense of healthy patriotism within a region without animosity towards the other regions. What is commonly called “patriotism” today is actually a sense of false superiority of a region’s inhabitants based on their region, to the disparagement of the value systems of other regions. False superiority is caused by not knowing one’s region well; decentralization places the region within closer cognizance of the people, as it allows the inhabitants to take more responsibility to what happens to their immediate geographic region, where they can more easily use their skills to make it progress. The system today presents the main geographic point of reference as the “country”, which is a land area and a concept too large for many of us to grasp, and if we have a hard time grasping it, then we will have a harder time helping it and improving it.
Thumbs up! Yo!
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ulong pare Reply:
January 22nd, 2011 at 11:40 am
daaaang! yo, flips find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exist.
flips are caught in a time warp… and fail to realize that times change and standards change with them, yo…
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Cy Reply:
January 22nd, 2011 at 12:07 pm
NEEDLEPOINT by DJ Cy
The world changes every instantaneous moment in time. Figure that out. The world gets annihilated every infinitesimal fraction of a second, then reassembles itself back almost instantly. Repetitiously.
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I like Orion’s intention of breaking down what can be done to improve our country. Be it accurate or not, having such a drive is a good starting point.
I am hoping that there will be moral , industrial, and political transformation in our country.
Excellent article, Orion!
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