Thursday, November 30, 2006

No!

Bandila

The parliamentary government, in its own right, is a very effective and systematic form of government. The Philippines' young democracy however is simply not ready for this system. Today, House Speaker Jose De Venecia announced that the New Constitution will be ready in 15 days, thus spurring the change of the Philippines' Presidential Government:





"We will have a Charter that shifts the nation to the parliamentary system
and replaces Congress with a unicameral parliament by Dec. 15,"


I oppose the proposed charter change due these points:

No Major Constitutional Breakdowns to Date.

First, the 1987 constitution is still young, it is still too early to judge it as ineffective or flawed. Yes, there may have been coups here and there but never have they prevailed. They might have gotten close to prevailing but the majority of our military is sworn to protect the constitution, and so have our leaders. We always found refuge in the current constitution, our government has remained intact throughout our young democracy (at least since 1987). The only real challenge that threatened our constitution's solidity is the issue of former Pres. Joseph Estrada's ousting, but a major breakdown was stalled due to a vital branch of the presidential system, the Supreme Court, ruling in favor of the legitimacy of Pres. Arroyo's Administration.

On Corruption

The parliamentary system shows to minimize corruption in any government, however corruption is so deep-rooted in our history as Filipinos that it is hard or nearly impossible to eradicate. This ill-practice has been around since the time of Legazpi, or perhaps even Rajah Bendahara Kalantiaw III, and a 400 year old deed is "indeed" difficult to amend. Bangladesh, the only country to surpass the Philippines in terms of corruption, is by the way under a Parliamentary Republic. Poor Bangladesh. Poor Philippines...

Ideological Cohesiveness

We have not had Political Parties with clear-cut ideological definitions since the time of Ninoy, namely the Liberals and the Nationalistas. This is vital in a parliament since political policies are defined by political ideologies. Our current House of Representatives is composed of at least 30 parties. How they can come to terms in building a unified ideology is doubtful. Do we expect our country to move forward in at least 30 directions? Progress is a one-way road.

Unicameral

In Unicameralism, there is no proper representation of provinces or states in a legislature. The control of the parliament will be greatly influenced by largely populated urban areas, thus taking away the needed representation of less populated rural provinces. Having an Upper House will not only be able to represent the provinces but will also be able to oversee the business of the lower house. Without proper supervision, the lower house may abuse its powers. Powers which include the ability to prolong tenure. Tenure possibly much longer than the late Dictator himself.

There are also no clear cut definitions as to the powers of a single house. The single house may in itself be comprised of today's Presidential, Legislative and Judicial branches, three separate branches with separate powers all boiled into one. Parliaments do have a judiciary branch, but this branch is also composed of parliamentarians themselves. Thus the principle of checks and balances is neglected, just pure power and control in the hands of the parliament.

True, most parliamentary countries such as the UK, Canada, Australia and Japan, are one of the most progressive countries in the world today, but neither of these countries have a Unicameral House. Unicameral Parliaments are preferred by countries like Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and... ...Bangladesh. In fairness, most unicameral countries are also progressive, but still... ...Poor Bangladesh, Poor Philippines.

The Election of the Prime Minister

In a parliamentary system the prime minister is elected by the party leadership. For as long as the Prime Minister has the confidence of the majority party, the prime minister retains the power. Judging Filipino politics, this really lies in favor to our traditional politicians or trapos as we call them. Politicians such as Jose De Venecia himself, and dreadfully, Pres. Arroyo who plans to stay in power until year 2010, long after her term is due.

No Time Frame for Elections

Parliamentarians, again, can just stay there for as long as they want. Unless the house calls for a clear out, there will be no elections. This may be good in terms of saving hundreds of millions of pesos politicians spend during elections but imagine a bad politician serving for, say, 20 years? I'd rather have a good politician serve 6 or 9 years in office, if one ever exists. These trapos may stay there probably until they all die...

In conclusion, a Parliamentary-Federal government is not at all bad, it has countless advantages over our current system. However, the Presidential government also has its advantages over this proposed change in government. The only problem is that we have not been able to tap its full potential... yet. And when I say this, I always mean that the Philippines is too young a democracy to go through another change. Why don't we make the current system work properly first and give it time to unfold itself for the Filipino people. Give it about 50 years, afterwhich, we can probably contemplate change.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

The Blogger is an Owner...



...of a brand new, hot and fresh out of the oven, 5th Gen. iPod! I'd like to dish a shout out to old Makoy, who, without special powers to create Presidential Decrees during his notorious dictator-regime, none of this would have happened. Thank God for creating 13 months in a payroll-year!

Now, after all is said and done, I'm out of cash even before the Holidays begin. Shoot. I should have settled for one of these:

Saturday, November 25, 2006

The Blogger is a Dancer

CHAMPIONS! The AOL sales program brought home the title of GIGSTER CHAMPS in the recently concluded SBU-GA (SALES BUSINESS UNIT GENERAL ASSEMBLY) and rightfully so. In a competition of sing and dance repertoire, the AOL Sales program battled with 4 other sales programs who equally gave outstanding performances worthy of applause. AOL's number however, was too much of a concourse for them to go up against. The ensemble comprised of songs both old and new namely, Falling, the popular ballad and classic often so mimicked, Ne-yo's Sexy Love, Buttons by the pussycat dolls, I'm Coming Out, the disco classic, and Last Dance by Donna Summers that capped the set. Each piece was sung live and was consorted with raging dance numbers rendered by boys, girls and of course, gays, but the most paramount accompaniment of all was a comical mime interpretation of each of the songs' lyrics and dance numbers. The x-factor, which enthused the whole crowd, was no doubt the effeminate mime.


NOTE: Drawing the loudest cheers was the boys' HIP-HOP dance rendition of Sexy Love, spearheaded by no other than yours truly. (It's my blog isn't it?)üüü

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Sarah Geronimo is Also The Best

"And now, to sing the Philippine National Anthem, Ms. Sarah Jerow-neemow..."

-Michael Buffer



Pretty isn't she? But no, you can't rrrrummbllle with her...

PINOY PRIDE!

Manny Pacquiao is The Best!



"First of all, I'd like to say Thanks for the God..."
-Manny





Manny Pacquiao is the best! Proud to be Pinoy down to the very bone! Also guys, Christmas is just around the corner. I think it's time to buy the Pacman IXTRIM-IXTRIM MAGIC SING!



Also, this guy here has a great take on Manny's interest in politics: If Manny Pacquiao Became President.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Soul Searching (part II)

The Downfall, teetering from the edges.

You went off balance from then on. You made decisions here and there, and none of those decisions seemed to bring up positive and favorable results, rather they led you to the depths of a deep, deep hole. You were subjected to the magnifying glass, considered a rebel, branded a delinquent. They really saw a lot of promise in you, yet you let people down with their expectations, and to you, expectations were everything. Expectations were your mana, your fuel, your drive. To make things worse, you dug yourself a deeper hole by your sloth. And worst of all, you found your zone of comfort in that hole. You succumbed to your feelings and used your dampened esteem as an excuse not to climb back up and out of that hideous comfort zone. What do you do next?

...now that you have come to terms with the situation, it's time to find new direction...

Soul Searching (part I)


The Beginning, the Optimistic Pilot Project.

You probably went off beat when you realized that some people were not playing the game as fairly as you did. You started out the project with an innocent determination that this would be for the good of the company, for the good of the project itself, where you could later reap the fruits of your labor and take pride in what you and your colleagues have achieved. These new players however never shared that vision with you. To them, it was all for the money, the commissions, the spiffs, the lavish contest prizes... all for the money. Disappointment covered you more when you realized the tacticts and means the newbies were bringing in were not only new and notoriously effective (for their green-eyed goals) but they also were able to get away with it. You tried to seek refuge from your peers, nay realizing that they've gone ahead of you, some wisely bailed out, some were just plain better than you and moved on up the heirarchy. Then you began to lose your sense of security in the project. The newbies owned the house now. You began to lose your confidence. That was the mark of your downfall...

...you were driven out of the herd, however too young to face the wolves outside the core. It was a misjudgement...

Thursday, November 16, 2006

AAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

the first letter of the alphabet...