Legal luminary Manuel “Lolong” Lazaro, the chair and CEO of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa), addressed the Rotary Club of Manila yesterday.
He talked about defects in the 1987 Constitution and how those defects have affected national life and the economy. The basic law of the land is wordy (almost 22,000 words), creates many unwanted and useless offices, makes the armed forces the protector of the people (which is a license for them to stage coups d’ etat. This is the only constitution in the world, outside of Turkey, with such a provision); talks of God, rather than Divine Providence (which is God’s care for man and order in the universe); and makes divorce and abortion unconstitutional.
According to Lolong, the Constitution has 97 provisions subject to laws to be approved by Congress. The most important is the ban on political dynasties. Since Congress is controlled by dynasties, the provision cannot be enacted into law to be effective.
The provision on term limits of elected officials—one term for president, two six-year terms for senators, and three consecutive three-year terms for congressmen, mayors and governors—was supposed to stop dynasties from ruling forever.
Instead, term limits produced the opposite effect. They expanded dynasties. So you have wives, children, siblings and other relatives of incumbents taking over to overcome the term limits. You then have families like the Binays ruling over Makati for the last 29 years, a full generation.
Often dynasties divide the political spoils and control constituencies between themselves, resulting in a no-contest between them and no choice for the electorate.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer editorial of April 6 talks of coronations, of 542 candidates running unopposed.
They include “former president Gloria Arroyo, who is running for a third term as representative of her congressional district in Pampanga; Pampanga Gov. Lilia “Baby” Pineda; and Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos. In Metro Manila, six reelectionists face a clear field: Representatives Miro Quimbo in Marikina City, Carlo Lopez in Manila; and, in Quezon City, Winnie Castelo, Jorge Banal, Alfred Vargas, and Kit Belmonte (or in four out of six congressional districts). The storyline is repeated in many other places; in Cavite, for instance, four of the seven districts feature unopposed candidates (three of them reelectionists). In Agusan del Sur, Gov. Adolph Edward Plaza is unopposed; in Agusan del Norte, his two sisters, Ma. Valentina and Evelyn, are running for reelection as representatives, also unopposed.”
What is the impact of such a setup? Abuse and impunity. And perpetual tyranny.
The Inquirer cites the case of Lala Mendoza, the governor of North Cotabato where three farmer-protesters were gunned down on April 1, by the police and military after they refused to disperse following four days of protest march to ask the government for rice because farmers in the area were hungry.
After the killings, Mendoza took responsibility, not to owe to the crime of murder but to the effect like, “why are you complaining?”
Says the Inquirer: “Virtually unopposed, she acts with the bold assurance of a politician certain of the sources of her power—not the support of a plurality or an outright majority of the voters in her province, but the understanding of the political elite in her province that she cannot be defeated at the ballot box.
Lawyer Lazaro notes that of the 97, only 10 provisions have been carried out by Congress into law.
What is the impact of a useless Constitution?
Among the five original countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand), the Philippines has the worst environment for doing business. In Asean, the Philippines is No. 5 or the worst, in global competitiveness. The Philippines is also the worst in Asean in quality and level of infrastructure—a key ingredient to economic dynamism and success in governance.
The Philippines’ global ranking, per the latest World Economic Forum World Competitiveness 2016, is 47th (the last among the Asean 5). Singapore is second, Malaysia 18th, Thailand 32nd, and Indonesia 37th.
Please note: the citizens of these countries are no more talented nor more intelligent than us, Filipinos, and their countries are no better endowed in resources than the Philippines. If you ask me, the Philippines has the best among resources of the Asean Five, has the most strategic location, and has the best people—100 million Filipinos, the 12th largest population on earth.
What is the problem then? One word: Leadership. We have had bad leaders. They have come from a very small gene pool—in a nation of 25 million families or 100 million people.
In the last 55 years, our leaders have come from only four families—Marcos (Ferdinand and his cousin Fidel V. Ramos, 26 years); Macapagal (Diosdado Macapagal and his daughter Gloria Arroyo, 13 and a half years); Cojuangco-Aquino (Corazon Aquino and her son, BS Aquino III, 12 years and four months); and Ejercito-Estrada (Joseph Estrada, three years).
Singapore had no toilets, no water, very few people, almost no land, and hardly any resource when it began 50 years ago.
Half a century ago, the Philippines was the richest country in Asia.
Today, Singapore is the richest economy in Asean and the third richest in the world in per capita GDP ($82,762 per IMF 2014)—thanks to a man named Lee Kuan Yew, who singlehandedly built a nation from scratch. The Philippines is 119th, with $6,962 per capita GDP.
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