Gloria and her Parliament

by: Juan Carlos Cadiz I used to believe in the idea that a parliamentary form of government would probably suit the Philippines. The argument was it's more democratic because it doesn't require a full-scale and costly national campaign for president. You only have a prime minister who was elected by your representatives and can be deposed anytime in a no-confidence vote. As argued, it is more responsive to the mood of the people. Another advantage that made me believe that a parliament fits into our landscape is the fusion of the executive and legislative branches of government. It streamlines red tape, coordinates policies better among all the agencies of government, and democratizes the entire government set-up because the cabinet ministers come from parliament, thus they are directly elected by the people. Well, well. If you saw the debate at the Lower House, and I emphasize the word lower, you will find every reason to oppose the shift. In the Gloria parliament being proposed (or railroaded) by her paid hacks in the rubber stamp lower house, you find the specter of legislators who will change the rules of the house and even the rules on amendments only to satisfy their desperate political ends. The members of the lower house are ready to disenfranchise an entire chamber which has a wider national mandate simply because it has made its opposing views earlier on. No to chacha. If this lower house still decides that it wants to be the interim parliament in may, despite the objections of the Senate and the silent disapproval of the masses, we gain a clearer idea of how the country will be governed by a group of men and women with very little intellectual endowments. The size of their arrogance when they disregarded the rights and powers of the senate is never matched by the depth and breath of their own political vocabulary. And this is the very reason why a parliamentary form of government is dangerous, very perilous indeed for the Philippines. While our experience with the parliamentary form with Marcos was brief and artificial, it hardly provided us any memories of how a parliament governed. Because the Batasang Pambansa never truly governed since it was merely a smokescreen for the dictatorship. Today, however, I still don't have a clear picture of what these Neanderthals are picking as their model for a parliamentary form of government, the French or the British. The French is a hybrid of a strong presidential and a parliamentary form of government. While the British rests executive powers on the prime minister who was elected by a majority of the Members of Parliament. But whichever parliamentary model these men of exceptional lack of social sensitivity choose, they will pick the system that suits their own parochial interests - one which will make it easier to bring pork barrel to his district and even to his querida. He will pick a system that will even make it easier, yes it can still be pushed, to cheat in elections and get away with it. And remember that because a parliamentary form of government exercises the ultimate collective power in the country with the capacity to recall a sitting prime minister, rules will be constantly changed by these pachyderms to further their political and economic interests. Anybody who sincerely believes that there's no money going around the Batasan right now to smoothen the landing of ratsada ni Gloria sa Camara must have been too far alienated from the president's perfected skills at wealth distribution. Then begin to imagine what they can do together as one reunited species of political animals in a zoo called the Philippine parliament. And that's a lot of difference from the already corrupt system that we have today. While today the Congress is just one of the 3 co-equal branches of government, tomorrow's parliament becomes the sole source of political power. Imagine the same retards you saw debating a while ago on ANC as the next members of parliament. Imagine the same gang whose main source of political training in political sophistication and fairness was act as the cristo sa sabungan, would you trust your future in a parliament run by these dimwits? And the shamelessness with which they are pursuing their dream of a Philippine parliament is astounding. They are counting on the people's apathy on national issues no matter how criminal they may be. They are counting on the fact that gone are the days when Filipinos would still be outraged when their basic human dignity is trampled upon. They are counting on the people to stay home in much the same way they did when Garci escaped, was hunted, and came back to the country almost like a returning hero. To add insult to injury, Garci is running for congress, or parliament, as the case may be and with his sponsor's backing, could land a seat in the country's new house of horror. Sadly, if all these are to happen and Gloria’s ratsada succeeds, the Filipino people have indeed lost its mojo. Tags: gloria, arroyo, parliament, congress, senate, chacha, conass