Group pins hopes on federal govt

A group of statesmen on Wednesday urged President Aquino to change the country’s present form of government from presidential to  federal system.

In a summit dubbed “Securing the Country’s Future” at the  Club Filipino in San Juan,   the group “Bagong Sistema, Bagong Pag-asa” led by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno    reiterated calls for a shift to federal system, saying that the architects of  the present Constitution have “failed to adjust our form of government to our changing needs.”

“Our present form of government “caused the majority to be deaf and dumb to the distinct needs of the minority, and gave them arrogance to impose uniformity despite the pluralism of the people,” said Puno.  

“Everyone seems carried away by the idea of choosing the captain of the ship while few have bothered to examine the seaworthiness of the ship and the state of the ocean,” the group said.  

BSBP affirmed that the unitary form of government “has failed our country for the longest time.”

“Our experience under a unitary-presidential form of government runs for eighty years now. The question is, ‘What has this unitary-presidential form of government brought to our people?,’” Puno said.

For one, Puno cited the imbalance of    powers among the three branches of government and between the national government and the local government units and autonomous regions.

“We have a government where power is tilted too much in favor of the Executive,” Puno said. “Arguably, the biggest abuse of power in our tripartite government has been committed in our Executive Department. Consequently, almost all of our Presidents have been subject of impeachment, but none has been successfully impeached,” said Puno.   “Our democracy has collapsed under one President.”

“We have a very strong president who has too much power,” he added

The former chief magistrate also criticized a supposed “powerful” judiciary for failing to do much that what is expected, but too little is given.  

“We do have a very powerful court theoretically but reality will reveal that the independence of the Judiciary is insufficiently insulated with our Constitution,” he said.

“The impeachment of a Chief Justice shows how unequal is the Supreme Court to its political counterparts, an inequality that mocks its role as the guardian of the Constitution and as the bastion of the rights of our people,” said Puno.

Puno also quizzed how political safeguards enshrined in our constitution – such as the Commission on Audit, Civil Service Commission, Commission on Human Rights, and the Ombudsman have failed to meet the ‘expectations’ expected from them by the people.

“The disquieting questions are: have we solved, nay dissipated violations of human rights? Have we controlled the runaway corruption in government? Have we produced a bureaucracy based on meritocracy? Have we checked the plunders committed on the money of the people,” said Puno.  

The group sees Federalism “as the best hope of our distinct minorities to be allowed self-rule”  referring to  the Muslim  in Mindanao.  

“Diversity, is in truth, the touchstone of democracy,” Puno said.  

“The best form of government that can best handle diversity is the democratic form of government but more specifically, the federal-parliamentary species of democracy,” said Puno. “The unimpeachable data show that the federal-parliamentary form have fared better than the unitary-presidential form of governance.”

 “Federalism challenges the will of the majority, and the rights of the minority will flourish,” he added.

Apart from Puno, the power cast ensemble of speakers at the summit included former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr.,  former Senate president Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Supreme Court Associate Justice Francis H. Jardeleza, former Budget and Finance Secretary Salvador Enriquez Jr., former 1986 Constitutional Commission member Rene V. Sarmiento, former University of the Philippines President Jose V. Abueva, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, and economist and author Calixto Chikiamco.

Leaders from various sectors – from the political arena, business, church, labor, farmers, youth, academe, nongovernment organizations and cause-oriented groups, professional associations, indigenous peoples, and other sectors, including some former delegates from both the 1970 and the 1986 Constitutional Commission drafted a statement urging the Congress and the President to form a Con-Com and providing members thereof.  

The group called onto our leaders to act immediately, “as these problems can bring down our democracy if dismissed with a shrug of shoulders.”

 “It is downtime for motherhood statements. It is uptime to save the motherland.”