parliamentary Philippines

There was a moment when I was part of an audience where the former President Fidel V. Ramos spoke. It was in our graduate class in one of the conference rooms on the fourth floor of the RCBC Tower. Maybe around the second half of 2000.

I stood up as he entered. Why? I don't know. Maybe because my professor at that time only told us that he invited a very prominent speaker. I did not expect that it would be FVR. I stood up to confirm. I think.

The West Point education showed. The presidential aura and mojo still envelopes him. I was impressed. He spoke clearly. No non-sense.

That's why, at that time, I agreed with him when he said that the Philippines would be better if it goes parliamentary. My attention is always held by speakers who know what they're talking about and they say it in the most straighforward way. Simple.

A deeper chord was struck when he said that the parliamentray system would ensure that the best suited candidate would seat in Malacanang and not the most popular, like Erap.

And up to this moment that is true but my awareness of the situation has expanded since then.

History would show that the type of government follows a certain unfolding. An evolution of sorts. From King or Emperor to Presidents and then to a House of Commons. But this government evolution of sorts is a reflection of the maturity of the governed.

That's why we have the emperors and kings of the old world, from the Greco-Roman to the Anglo-Saxons and to the Sino-Malay civilizations. The pattern is Emperor/Kings to an evolution to a democracy. Look at China now, a socialist country behaving like a capitalist. It won't be long it would have a Sino version of Democracy running in its veins.

But the United Kingdom example is intriguing, the House of Commons.

This is what the administration politicians want and they are swaying the masses to dance to ChaCha.

Off the bat, I disagree with Parliamentary system not because GMA is pushing it.

I disagree with it because of one glaring fact - most of our educated and globalized minds of our population is out of the country making a living. Sending billions of dollars. From the last count, 12 million OFWs. Roughly, 15 % of our population and definitely more than a third of the voting populace.

Why would I exclude their voice because of greed-ravaged economics, of uninspired logistics, of limited view technology and of a misplaced sense of patriotic self-righteousness?

The House of Commons works because the globalized people of the United Kingdom can vote. This is not true for the case of the Pearl of the Orient. Our situation is different. Our values is different. Our greed is different. Our hopes is different. Our dreams is different. Our journey is different.

Let's not "plug and play" for we are different. Let's not use easy arguements.