Stunk

I’ve just attended a forum where Mindanao federalists and business leaders made a big show of resuscitating the advocacy to push parliamentary-federal form of government, and normally I’m all for it but judging by the timing, I think it stunk and I had to stop myself from checking my shoes to see if I stepped on dogshit.

My suspicions were confirmed, at least to my mind, when the next day, I read in the national newspapers that charter change was revived. The timing couldn’t be better when we have Jun Lozada implicating just about anybody in the executive, except the gardener and the cook. No, wait! Could the cook be responsible for the FG’s voracious appetite? Maybe the senate investigation should also look into that.  

We have the same cast of (shady!) characters pushing for cha-cha, supposedly to push forward reforms. The script is also familiar, officials attempting to get Mindanao’s popular support by promising federalism, especially with Prosperous Nograles, a Mindanaoan himself, at the helm of the Lower House.

Wasn’t’ it just two or three years ago when cha-cha gained momentum and then speaker Jose de Venecia butt-fucked the Mindanao federalists by dropping from the agenda the crusade for federalism?

Of course, we all know that federalism was never the intention in the first place. Cha-cha was meant to catapult JDV to the position of prime minister because he could never be president and he controlled the numbers in the Lower House. At least, that was true before.

I do have a personal issue against the Mindanao federalists. There was also a debate on whether or not to effect cha-cha by way of constituent assembly (where lawmakers will decide on their own what provisions should be included in the charter), or a constitutional convention (where the delegates are voted into a body that will recommend changes to the charter).

So all the officials of the Mindanao federalists were for con-con, right? Obviously because the opportunity for patronage is limited; but in the middle of the campaign, JDV changed the rules of the game and pushed for cha-cha through con-ass, instead. And what did the federalists do? They swallowed their pride and accepted JDV’s proposal. The irony is, they were very loud in condemning the President for flip-flopping on charter change, one of the policy decisions she promised during her state of the nation address.

Who’s flip-flopping now?

Anyway, I’d be more inclined to believe that this is another diversionary tactic. When you think about it, the system itself is geared to favor enterprising officials (read: corrupt). The Senate hearings illustrated the point that corruption is systemic. Why else would politicians spend P200 million during elections – to earn the chance to serve the public?

Magicians are very good in diverting attention from the trick by spellbinding the gullible with their offhand. Like the wonderful Michael Caine said in the movie, Prestige, the process of magic could be subdivided into three parts.  The Pledge (where the magicians shows you something ordinary); The Turn (the magician takes the ordinary and makes it do something extraordinary); and The Prestige (because making something disappear isn’t enough, you have to bring it back).

Politicians would make very good magicians:

The Pledge: (where politicians promise something extraordinary) e.g. “When I get elected, you all will leave your slums to live with the rich in Insular.”

The Turn:  (the politicians make something extraordinary and raise the bar of credulity) “I will wipe out poverty and insurgency by the time I step down. We would become a first world country in 20 years.”

The Prestige: (the politicians screw Filipinos and the public keeps on coming back for more).

Now, why would the politicians who make our laws mess around with a perfect system for corruption to institute reforms?  If federal form of government is the answer to giving the local government units more autonomous to manage their own affairs and spend their own money, wouldn’t that be counterproductive for them?

But you know what? I have a bigger axe to grind. I do hope charter change will push through in order to become a witness to the biggest poetic justice of all: A parliamentary without Jose de Venecia.