WHY WE NEED CHARTER CHANGE: ECHOES FROM THE PHILIPPINE COUNTRYSIDE: After 116 years of independence and 15 presidents of the Philippine Republic, The countryside remains under develop where poverty and under employment is prevalent, in spite of the facts that most of the natural resources and agricultural products are sourced from the area. School building and health infrastructures are inadequate. Malnutrition and hunger among the population exist in everyday life and are prevalent, because of government neglect in developing the countryside; opportunities for employment and livelihood source are almost none existing. . The current situations are unacceptable, for it breeds resentment and frustrations among the people. The country, in spite of the facts that IRRI was based in the Philippines has become the number one importer of rice, while other countries that are sending scholars to IRRI are now exporting rice to other countries, isn’t that a sign of incompetence of the people leading this nation to perpetual poverty. That must change. The policies of agrarian reform without adequate support to the farmers have led us to rice insufficiency, rice land being converted to residential subdivision, and the opening of overseas employment had led to depletion of manpower in our farmland, even our women are being exported as nannies leading to family insecurities and eventual break up of the family unit. The Philippine Constitutions in spite of the several amendments has failed to address the problem of poverty and countryside development. This is the reason why we must amend the 1987 Constitution because it is defective and there a lot of loop holes for abuse. 1. It allows Political Dynasties to perpetuate and feast on the nation’s wealth, and prosper. Where in the world can you see, one family had a senator son, and a congresswoman mother, a governor daughter and other members occupying a government office in one Province. A father is an incumbent Vice President, a daughter is a senator, another daughter is a congresswoman, a son an incumbent mayor of a big city and all serving at the same time. The mother being a past mayor makes the government a family business enterprise. Those are only tip of the ice berg when it comes to Political Dynasty many abuses are being committed under the 1987 that we need to reform. 2. It allows graft and corruptions to flourished and remain uncheck. Who would prevent graft and corruptions in a province or a city, if all the people running the affairs of the government belong to one political clan? 3. It allows unqualified persons for the jobs to be in the government. There must be a provision in the constitution, that all people working for the government must have a civil service eligibility and those seeking an elective offices must have civil service eligibility plus a college degree and must possess psychiatric and drug testing , NBI, Police clearances. 4. The Supreme Court, is the third co equal branch of the government, that wield enormous power, its members are all political appointee with no fix term limit, they are the elite practitioners of laws picked up from the academic school of laws, may have successful law practices, and may have vested interest that can be influenced by their corporate attachment to their corporate law offices which they co founded. They must be non partisan and are nominated by their colleagues and are elected by the people for a term of 6 years in office, they must be held answerable to the people and must maintain judicial independence. A provision on Jury Trial of all cases must be adopted in the judicial reform, and the time limit of maximum 6 months for case resolution. A justice delayed is justice denied. The Commission on Elections must be composed by non partisan members, chosen from the different fields of the academics, must have Civil Service Eligibility, Their duties are 1) manage and implement clean and honest elections and plebiscites 2) Screening of political candidates 3.) Receive and resolve election protest within 90 days of filings. 4.) Investigate and prosecute all electoral issues within 90 days. The duties and obligations of the Comelec and SC must be defined with finality in Resolving Elections issues, so that elections issues are under the jurisdiction of the Comelec, because of petitions brought to the Supreme Court , allows election issues to drag on without being resolved in due time allowing the term to expire without being resolve . Electoral issues must be resolve within 90 days. The Separation of the Church and State, The INC a religious sect are often visited by politicians before an elections for their anointment and block voting, resulting in having elected officials owing a special favor and losing their independence. The unequal distribution of the nations wealth, results in having an imbalance in terms development of the whole country, resulting in the underdevelopment of the countryside, there must be constitutional provision regarding Equalization funding between the wealthy and the have not provinces, so that the have not provinces can be able to accelerate their development and improve their service rendering to the people. The issues of allowing foreign investors to own land in the Philippines, should be looked into with caution. China, because of the economic boom that they are enjoying, they are on shopping spree investing, buying companies, real estate in Canada and US, at which the price of real estate right now in US and Canada had gone up tremendously. The seemingly recovery of the US housing market is due to the housing investment of China. The price of the real estate market had gone up tremendously, that a safe guard on these must be in place. The shift from purely presidential form of government to a federal parliamentary form of government might be advantageous for the country and provinces. Each province can initiate its own law with its given culture and accelerate its own development. These would solve the struggles of our Muslim brothers and those from the Cordilleras. The establishment of 2 party systems of Principles, The adoption of a Party list system, is too expensive, and not effective, that a party can be formed over night with out a visions and principles, based on personal whims. Instead of a party list system a third party of principle may be form, A system of peoples party affiliations may be formed by encouraging the public and a public donations from a portion of their tax refunds to their party affiliations in their annual tax return. These people participatory donations would give the people a voice within the party, and helps in managing a clean and honest election, the funds shall be divided among the three parties of principles. A system of 3 party funding shall be established based on which is the majority party, and the 2 minority parties based on the number of elected seats in the legislatures. These donations shall fund the uniform size of campaign posters. Fund the public debates of all candidates in each district. The parties may solicit campaign fund from the public but within allowable threshold .The collected amount must be reported to the Comelec. At present, the defect of the Present Constitution are clearly seen, we have a sitting President charged with 3 impeachable offense, a Vice President facing plunder investigations before the senate blue ribbon committee, 3 senators are facing plunder cases before the Sandiganbayan, and more are to come. We have a Past President impeached for corruptions and are back in public office as a Mayor a Past President who step down to be a congressional representative facing graft charges, a Chief Justice impeached for unexplained wealth. There must be a constitutional provision banning any public officials from running again to a lower position from the one he previously held, like a Past President running for congressman, it desecrate the office. There must also be a provision on the constitution of perpetual disqualification of any officials from public office upon conviction of any crime. These Reforms are necessary for our National Discipline in our path to Development and Prosperity. 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Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 19:50:02 +0000
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