Morons-in-waiting

That awesome silence you heard when Joey de Venecia announced that he was going to run for Congress? That was the sound of no one being surprised. It was inevitable, really, and quite obvious from the get-go. What is less obvious is whether this de Venecia will be any different from the one he wants to replace. My gut tells me NO.

A bit more surprising is the news that Manny Pacquiao will be hanging up his gloves for good so that he can run for public office in 2010. Sure it’s stupid, but I figure he has an itch that needs to be scratched. At this point, I’m ready to give him the benefit of the doubt: maybe he really is doing this out of some genuine desire to serve. But the belief that he’s only someone’s wind-up toy never actually disappears. After all, having good intentions is one of the best ways of becoming someone’s puppet. My gut tells me that the Pacman has had his head pumped so full of hype about his own magnificence that he now actually believes it.

Apart from poking fun at these two morons-in-waiting (my theory is that getting elected to Congress sucks up a person’s IQ; makes him an idiot – just like MSG does), I’d like to tell you that I’ve decided to wrap up the polls on Ninoy and Federalism.

Out of 39 votes on the stupendously unscientific poll on Ninoy, 19 votes (49%) called him a non-hero; 14 votes (36%) called him a hero; and 4 votes (10%) didn’t care. An amazing 2 votes (5%) went ‘D-oh!” OMFG. Seriously, two people with access to the internet actually don’t know who the heck Ninoy is? Maybe they’re part of the iamninoy target market. LOL!

On the Federalism – also stellarly unscientific – poll, Yes got 31% (8 votes); No got 50% (13 votes); 12% (3 votes) said they didn’t know if they wanted to federalize; while 8% (2 votes) didn’t even care. These t

wo votes were prolly cast by the same people who didn’t know Ninoy.

It’d be funny if it weren’t so fucking tragic.

Oh, and, please vote in the new poll. Help me decide who to put money on. Only keep in mind that the money I’m talking about has to do with grad school and a brand new iPod. So please, don’t screw me up. :p

Filed under: 2010 watch, politics, pop-culture, society, vacuity, 2010, federalism, Joey de Venecia, Manny Pacuiao, ninoy aquino

Federalism

Should we federalize?

Listening to Nene Pimentel rant about federalization, anyone would be justified in believing that transforming the Philippines into a federal state would solve all our problems.

But will it really? Come to that, do we even really know what federalism truly entails? For instance, if we federalize, who shoulders the national debt? Will the Federal Government  assume the burden all by its lonesome? Or will the onus be divided among the States? If it is divided among the States, what will the basis of the division be? Alex Magno says that if the burden of the debt is spread out among the States, some will go bankrupt the following day, unable to meet the debt service requirements. Is he correct?

Seriously, there must be only a handful of people who can intelligently support or debunk Magno’s assertion. But it isn’t just this handful of smart people who will vote in a plebiscite for or against federalization. A vast majority of the votes will come from those people who have no clue – quite possibly including me. And with the timetable federalism’s rah-rah squad is pushing, how the heck can the electorate be informed enough to make an intelligent decision. What basis will we, the blissfully ignorant, have to choose? Pimentel’s glossy descriptions of the fruits of federalism? The passionate rhetoric of those opposed?

On another front, assuming that our federalism will at least resemble the USA’s, I can only assume that all existing departments will have to be replicated in each state – with the possible exception of the Bangko Sentral and the military. With a national budget already pushing into the trillions, how much more expensive will the federal system be?

And what about the military? With a unitary government, we can’t afford modern fighter planes; we can’t afford choppers that can stay up in the sky; our navy fleet is mostly made up of outrigger canoes. If we federalize, how can the States afford to organize, equip, and maintain their respective National Guards (assuming, once again, that we will be aping the US)?

Now consider the Judiciary and the Legislature. Each state will have to set up its own Supreme Court – since the existing SC will prolly become the Federal SC; and each state will have its own legislature. There is only one other existing legislature today, other than the two Houses of Congress – the Regional Legislative Assembly of the ARMM. How has that turned out? I mean, didn’t the SC just recently handed that body a smack-down when it uncreated Shariff Kabunsuan?

I could go on and on. But the bottom line is, will the electorate really be able to understand all these issues enough to formulate a reasonably intelligent decision?  And no one is even bothering to start educating people about federalism. I sincerely doubt it. All you hear about nowadays is how the archipelago will be cut up. And you can bet your last donut that the divisions were formulated more for political considerations than realistic; with not a whit being said about the nuts and bolts. Sometimes, it seems like the proponents just want it done, and leave the details to the devil. Kinda like how for a woman desperate to marry, the first order of business is to get a groom – any groom – to the altar.

That blows. So, to mitigate the suckiness of being ignorant about the various factors affecting this crucial decision, even just a little bit, read the Federalist papers here.

The Federalist Papers were written and published during the years 1787 and 1788 in several New York State newspapers to persuade New York voters to ratify the proposed constitution.

In total, the Federalist Papers consist of 85 essays outlining how this new government would operate and why this type of government was the best choice for the United States of America. All of the essays were signed “PUBLIUS” and the actual authors of some are under dispute, but the general consensus is that Alexander Hamilton wrote 52, James Madison wrote 28, and John Jay contributed the remaining five.

Sure, they refer to the US, but with the scarcity of works explaining Philippine Federalism to the Filipinos, these essays will at least be a good place to start. If anyone has any other suggestion, the comments section is the best place to post those suggestions. If you have links, I’ll post ’em too.

The way I see it, people at this stage are still too pre-occupied with how the Federated Philippines will look like. So, anything to get the education going will be a welcome change from the hysteria.

Filed under: federalism, politics, federalism

It’s just a dance

Whenever a President starts talking about amending the constitution, everyone starts foaming at the mouth before the process even starts. The opposition automatically paints the initiative as an attempt to install the President as dictator for life or something. It happened this way under Ramos, it happened this way under Estrada, and now, it looks all set to happen this way again – for the second time – under Arroyo. Which begs the question, when are we ever really going to get around to fixing the damned thing?

Maybe the problem is that whenever people talk about charter change, they always present huge sweeping packages like shifts in the form of government and the institution of federalism, and very truncated time lines. I mean, hello. Whenever you talk about shit like that, you ought to expect resistance because there is no way in hell the ordinary Filipino will understand enough about those concepts in the six or so months that is the usual timetable set by the proponents. Come ON. You try to push that through, in as little time as you’re trying to do it, the perception of railroading becomes inevitable. And once people think you’re trying to pull a fast one, well hell, that’s the start of the end for your initiative.

So maybe, we should start small. A politically neutral tweak here, and a tweak there, Get people used to the idea of the constitution as a dynamic document. And in the meantime, launch the debate on things like federalism – give the idea time to percolate in the public consciousness. Then, when something like a consensus is reached, launch the amendment initiative.

As it is, this federalism move isn’t popular. First off, we know that those bandits in the ARMM support federalism because it brings secession that much closer – and how popular is that? Sure several senators support it too, but that’s obviously a political decision – perhaps motivated by the anticipation of becoming petty kings within their own federal states. I don’t see it as a reflection of public sentiment at all. Of course, public sentiment is a notoriously ignorant and gullible animal, so we must take extra care to ensure that when people vote on this measure, it’s not simply because of who endorsed it.

The way I see it, this debate on federalism – if we’re sincere about it – can easily outlive the Arroyo presidency before any clear and intelligent consensus is reached. We can’t get to that consensus simply because the President and her merry-band of sycophants say that it’ll be good for the country.

Filed under: politics, Charter Change, federalism