Electing transforming leaders in 2010

There is a pending proposal in the House of Representatives to elect

delegates to a Constitutional Convention in October 2010.

• If it is approved in the House and the Senate

→the 2010 Constitutional Convention will propose the needed reforms
in the 1987 Constitution that can lead to “System change” in our
national and local governance.

• If the proposal is not passed

→the President we shall elect in 2010 and the senators and
representatives of the 15th Congress can lead us in initiating the long
overdue “System change” sometime from 2010 to 2016.
 Charter change demonized,
trivialized, and junked
Behind the repeated failure and frustration were
serious flaws in the process:
•suspicions that the incumbent president and legislators
merely wanted to extend their terms of office;
•the opposition of many in and out of government, including
the media and religious leaders, who have vested interests in
the existing system of politics, governance, and economic
policy.
 Revisiting the reform agenda

1. Reform our Electoral System, Presidential System, and

Political Party System.
1.1 National elections for the President and senators are too costly
and prone to corruption and fraud.
→Change our Presidential System to a Parliamentary System and
elect members of Parliament (MPs) in parliamentary districts.
→Abolish the Senate or elect two senators in every autonomous
region.

→Abolition of national elections plus automation will also make

the district and local elections more efficient and less prone to
fraud.
1.2. The 3-year term for House members is too short, costly and wasteful.
Impose no term limits for members of the Parliament as in other
countries

→“vote of no-confidence” by a majority of the MPs.

1.3 The 3-year term of local government leaders is too short, wasteful, and
costly. Increase their terms to 4 to 5 years.

→Synchronize all local elections including barangay elections.

→ Reconsider the maximum term limits on these local leaders which are
easily circumvented by the election of their relatives and proxies.
1.4 Grant government subsidies only to the three largest political
parties.

→Penalize party-switching of MPs.

1.5. Phase out the party-list parties that fragment our present
system of representation in the legislature;

→consolidate the party-list leaders and members in the regular

political parties.
 2. Replace our Presidential System with the
Parliamentary System.

• The national election of the President--------too costly and

corrupting
• The incumbent President is not really accountable
-assured of a full term with no re-election
-may be removed only by impeachment which is almost
impossible
• The “separation of powers” has become too divisive and
antagonistic.
• Excessive “checks and balance” result in gridlock and paralysis
in the governance.
 2. Replace our Presidential System with the
Parliamentary System. (continuation)
• We need national political parties whose members and leaders are loyal,
honest, competent, and committed to their party’s vision, ideals, and
platform of government in competing for the people’s support and
mandate.
• A system of “proportional representation” (PR) in the Parliament will
allocate additional seats therein to the various political parties according
to their respective share of the total parliamentary votes cast nationwide.
• The acknowledged leader of the leading political parties is the potential
Prime Minister, if his/her political party gains a majority of the seats in
the Parliament.
 2. Replace our Presidential System with the
Parliamentary System. (continuation)

• Whoever may be our President and legislators, our

divisive, personality-based, and unaccountable kind
of Presidential System and our top-down Unitary
System cannot deal effectively with our problems of
massive poverty, unemployment, inequality,
injustice, rebellion, corruption, inadequacy of public
services, environmental decay, low global
competitiveness, and a weak nation.
 3. Restructure our highly centralized Unitary System
• Create autonomous regions and strengthen local government
autonomy.

→The great majority of our people live in scattered islands and local
communities mostly far from Metro Manila.

→Our people expect public services and assistance from their government
through their local government leaders.

→Local governments have no control in the development of the natural

resources in their own localities:

• A just and enduring peace in Mindanao and elsewhere can be achieved

only “by thinking out of the box,” including Charter change.
4. Changing our Unitary System into a viable and
progressive Federal System of Government
•At the opportune time, after demonstrating the capability and
effectiveness of the autonomous regions and empowered local
governments.
5. Liberalization of our constitutional provisions.
•on the participation of foreign investors in our development and in the
operation of public utilities.

•compete more effectively with our more liberal neighbors in the rest
of Asia.