“What is happening in Congress is the biggest argument for the abolition of the Senate and the adoption of a parliamentary system of government”
Santa Banana, in all my years as a journalist, I never realized how low and to what extent our Philippine politics can go!
For the past weeks after the House of Representatives initiated the “People’s Initiative” as a mode of amending the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, some senators started accusing leaders of the lower chamber of funding has as much as P20,000 for each of the 50 congressional districts to push for the “PI.”
My gulay, the Senate for its part also came out with its own mode of amending the charter through a Constituent Assembly.
Thus came an exchange of toxic words from the Senate against the push of the House for a “PI,” so much so that even NEDA (National Economic Development Authority) had warned that foreign investors could be prevented from investing in the Philippines if a “Constitutional crisis” could result .
All of a sudden, former President Rodrigo Duterte came out of the blue accusing President Marcos Jr. of being a drug addict and whose name was even included in the list of wanted drug users when Duterte was President.
How Duterte came up with that claim was obviously the result of comments that soon enough the ICC would issue a charge against Duterte and his cohorts in the bloody drug war when Duterte was President.
Obviously, Duterte accused BBM of orchestrating the entry of the ICC probers last December to the Philippines to investigate the Duterte war on illegal drugs and the extrajudicial killings.
The ICC accused Duterte and then Police Chief, now Senator, Ronald dela Rosa and some others of committing “crimes against humanity.”
In turn, President Marcos retaliated, saying Duterte must have had an overdose of “Fentanyl,” an addicting pain killer which Duterte admitted to taking.
The PDEA came out with an official statement that BBM was never on its list of drug addicts. Just where Duterte got that accusation against BBM he did not say, but we all know that’s how Duterte is. Santa Banana.
Duterte even challenged BBM to have a drug test with him at the Luneta to show to the people who is telling the truth.
Santa Banana, I said to myself the “illegal drug war” was becoming a big “Moro-Moro,” which can only happen in the Philippines.
My gulay, even the children of Duterte came into the picture, with Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte calling for the resignation of Marcos, for which he apologized later as an emotional outburst. The Vice President Sara Duterte, Secretary of Education, even came out with a statement that she would run for the Senate in 2025.
For its part, the Senate called for a probe on what really happened with the House’ push for a “PI” when signatures came in to the Comelec as a consequence of the House’ move for a “PI,” calling on members of the House to attend.
Again, the Senate made itself clear that it is superior to the House.
To me, what is happening in Congress is the biggest argument for the abolition of the Senate and the adoption of a parliamentary system of government.
Members of the Senate had always considered themselves superior to the members of the lower chamber, being elected nationally, while members of the House were elected by districts, and party-list members only represented marginalized sectors of society.
Before the 1987 Constitution was drafted, the country then was under the late Marcos Sr., under a Parliamentary system with the late Cesar Virata as Prime Minister and the late Jose Rono, a congressman from Samar, as Deputy Prime Minister.
When the 1987 Charter went into effect, under Corazon Aquino, the issue on what kind of a government would be adopted, the parliamentarians lost by one vote against those who wanted a multi-party system.
As for me, I can trust the leadership of Speaker Martin Romualdez and President Marcos Jr.
Now Sara wants to run for the Senate and so does the former President.
Santa Banana, the Senate is becoming a family get-together with the former President also running for the Senate.
We already have a mother-son with Senators Cynthia and Mark Villar, and siblings Alan and Pia Cayetano, the half-brothers Jinggoy Estrada and JV Ejercito and in 2025, Raffy and Erwin Tulfo.