To federalize now will worsen an already bad situation

Manny Valdehuesa .

WE, Filipinos, have yet to experience real parliamentary government, let alone a credible democracy. We are captives of traditional leaders who turn our system into an oligarchy.

As a result, we can hardly influence our neighborhood government, the barangay.

Partly to blame is our poor sense of citizenship. We are notorious slackers and absentees from the governing process. Even in our own community, we do nothing to keep the incompetent or the corrupt from domineering positions.

In matters of policy, we let the trapos arrogate our sovereign role, letting their presumptuous decisions go unchallenged. And so our sovereignty counts for almost nothing. Our so-called public servants are really the masters.

So it’s no surprise that our nation is nothing more than a collection of principalities ruled by oligarchs and plutocrats who control politics and economics.

They monopolize public offices, installing family and crony to key positions. They corner the wealth and take liberties with the common wealth.

Not content with that, now they want to superimpose the federal system upon this feudal setup.

If they succeed in this conspiracy, it will setback our society’s political maturation; it will perpetuate their greedy practices in the new framework of alleged federal states.

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Going federal now will add new layers to a bureaucracy that has already been under their total control all along; one that the people can hardly influence.

New layers of authority will add layers and layers of expenditures that will have to be financed by layers and layers of new taxes.

There will be region-wide governors atop provincial and municipal units, regional legislative councils above provincial-municipal-barangay-sanggunians, and federal courts over regional-municipal courts and lupons.

Then, can layers and layers of graft and corruption be far behind? Filipinos are simply not geared to cope with or manage such a complicated multi-level setup.

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As for the idea to replace the presidential system with a parliamentary form, forget it!

Our barangays have long been ordained to operate with a parliamentary government—with the chairman as the “little prime minister” heading all three branches.

Now, consider: have any of the federal advocates ever have bothered to make this parliamentary system operative in their barangay?

The Barangay Assembly as local parliament remains dysfunctional; its members still awaiting to be empowered. Let alone enfranchised.

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The failure to activate and institutionalize parliamentary government in the barangay has prevented the emergence or rise of able parliamentarians and statesmen for our society. It is why even this small constituency is ruled by an oligarchy, a government in which power is in the hands of a few.

With such a fragile democracy, one in which party affiliation is merely a Game-of-Trapos, introducing the parliamentary system of government can only exacerbate the chaos we see in Congress.

You can’t have stability in a government composed of opportunists and partisans who will shift allegiances on personal grounds—and at the drop of a hat!

Just look at the disarray in the so-called “Super Majority” today; consider how it consists of turncoats, former members of other parties.

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The federal advocates want to create a national parliament; one that they hope to dominate and turn into an “Old Boy’s Club” for trapos like them.

One that will consist of “parliamentarians” without experience in parliamentary practice; pretentious “party members” without discipline or loyalty to party principles or platforms.

Had these federal advocates heeded the mandates of the Local Government Code since its enactment in 1991, even today’s barangay folks would already be experienced in the ways of parliamentary governance and the basics of autonomy, which is the essential ingredient for success in a federal system.

These superannuated advocates have been in power so long, but they did nothing to explain or institutionalize autonomy or the provisions of the Local Government Code.

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Such a pity. If they had done so, we would have multi-level parliamentary structures by now, with Barangay Assemblies as local parliaments operating in a befitting manner.

Then most Filipinos by now would have acquired a better understanding of the democratic process and the uses of parliamentary rules of order in community deliberations, consensus-building, and People Power.

Perhaps then, our people would have developed a congenial attitude towards the idea of federalism with a national parliament.

Then maybe they would go for federalism and parliamentary governance on their merits and perceived benefits—and not on the say-so of trapos with dubious motives.

(Manny Valdehuesa Jr. is a former Unesco regional director for Asia-Pacific; secretary-general, Southeast Asia Publishers Association; director, development academy of Philippines; member, Philippine Mission to the UN;  vice chair, Local Government Academy; member, government peace panel during the administration of Corazon Aquino; awardee, PPI-Unicef outstanding columnist. An author of books on governance, he is chairman/convenor of Gising Barangay Movement Inc.. E-mail: valdehuesa@gmail.com)