Hard sell is effective

I am personally saddened by our failure to make an early amendment to our Philippine Constitution with the junking by the Supreme Court of the People's Initiative.

The Constituent Assembly also cannot succeed because this needs the concurrence of the Senate. And the Senate has been stonewalling. The only way is through the Constitutional Convention. No. P.I. Con-Ass is vague. And so it's the Con-Con, which is just as uncertain.

The opposition will again argue, it's costly. And I think they will keep on opposing if the Con-Con is pushed through by both President Arroyo and Speaker Jose de Venecia because of the moves that are perceived to abolish the Senate.

If Charter Change cannot be had under the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the next President, I am afraid will not want to amend the Constitution to demote him to the rank of only prime minister. Where does this bring us? Shall we be able to amend our Constitution from presidential to parliamentary?

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I am afraid many of our lawmakers might not be really interested to go into parliamentary system. Under the parliamentary system they may lose their perks and privileges.

The tenure of a lawmaker in a parliamentary system is not fixed. If he has spent quite a sum to get elected, he cannot be sure whether he can recover the amount before a new election might be called and he has to spend again and possibly lose.

In the parliamentary system, when Parliament disagrees with the Prime Minister, Parliament declares a no-confidence vote and the Prime Minister steps down and Parliament elects a new Prime Minister.

But a Prime Minister, if he chooses, can dig in and dissolve the Parliament which calls for a new election. He also submits himself to the electoral process and, believing he has the issues in his favor, he campaigns for his candidates and thereby get a majority in the Parliament and get himself elected again as Prime Minister.

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Many countries with a parliamentary system hold an election sometimes more than once a year. And there is stability because the elections are fast. Campaign period is short and a candidate, fearful another election might be called soon, will have to spend again.

So, he does not spend much. And because he does not spend much his work to recover the amount is not as strong. There will be less graft and corruption.

I can see the President and the Speaker are sincere in having the Constitution amended. But, I doubt if our legislators are really interested. For all we know, we are just being treated to some zarzuela.

Everybody was happy with the campaign for People's Initiative. Money was spent there. And for sure, not all of the amount went to the voters. Their names were just written and submitted. Whether their signature was genuine or fake, the Supreme Court thinking is it is the latter.

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So, what now?

I believe in this saying, "Change the things that you can. Accept the things that you cannot. And wisdom is knowing the difference."

Can we change the Constitution? Yes, I believe, we can. I also believe, everybody believes in it, even those who oppose.

The only problem is they do not like the process. And the agenda of the people behind it.

And the problem was the hard sell.

Both the President and the Speaker were using the hard sell technique, pushing it through, even making shortcuts that made people and the Supreme Court suspicious.

Many do not agree with the unicameral system, done by abolishing the Senate. Of course, these Senators, even with the charges that they are an impotent lot except in making noise on investigations after investigations without turning over important legislations, are a potent political force to reckon with.

Besides, if you study a little, you will find out that most of the progressive countries have a bicameral system, an Upper House and a Lower House. Many countries with a unicameral system are backward economically.

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Where do we go from here?

Let us accept the things we cannot change. Let there be healing. Let the country go on and not be hampered by the failure of People's Initiative. There will be election next year. This not being a presidential election, it will be less interesting. During a presidential election, presidential candidates have plenty of money to spend. And many candidates will run if assured of funding in exchange for campaigning for a presidential candidate.

But many will still run, just for the fund of it.

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Our problem every election is that candidates with more money most often win. They don't work hard but keep on amassing money in the belief that, in the next election, they can buy the voters again.

This is the tragedy. That is why we wanted the Constitution amended. But change cannot be had now.

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Correction: The launching of Jose Villacin's book is Nov. 3 not Nov. 5.*

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