Calling themselves “warriors,” which is a group of individual businessmen, lawyers, doctors, media practitioners, professionals and lay leaders and, of course, the usual political priests and bishops who can never be behind any political issue, such alliances are used to bring down the government, despite their names and participation in such groups remaining unidentified.

Members were not identified except for the usual so-called leaders who generally find fault in almost everything the government they dislike, if not loathe, does, but keep silent even when the government they embrace violates the Constitution and even makes a pile of money, the corrupt way, of course.

Just who are these so-called media practitioners in the group anyway? Such members must be identified, as they may be using their media outlets as a propaganda tool to make it appear that the group’s membership is bigger than say a group of maybe 10 with no real ground support.

This same group warned the public recently that the House draft federal charter has 12 “dangerous, anti-Filipino, anti-youth, anti-NGO and anti-democracy provisions” authored by outgoing Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Political activist Bishop Broderick Pabillo, obviously part of the group, was quoted as saying the House provisions in the draft charter make political dynasties “stronger, bigger and more powerful than they already are.”

This group, if it is indeed made up such as those claimed earlier by the self-proclaimed “warriors,” must surely be intelligent enough to know that the draft charter won’t even get to first base, given the fact that the House and the Senate are close to ending their sessions and saying goodbye to the present Congress. And even if there is going to be enough time to get this draft charter submitted to the Senate, this is hardly going to be taken up since it has already junked the constitutional mode of a joint vote by the chambers through the formation of one constituent assembly.

What this means is that this House draft charter will merely be archived — in other words, it is as dead as the dodo.

Why then would this group of “warriors,” whose members appear to fear being identified, which can mean that they are, to put it politely, not true warrior types, bother fighting for a draft charter through the media and over a dead issue?

What this group really wants is to get the public to support its paper claim to get the “anti-political dynasty” provisions in any charter change move removed. The group injected a personal insult saying this failure to remove such provisions shows that Gloria Arroyo is not a leader of the people, but only of the politicians, especially the political dynasts.

So, what has that got to do with leadership merely because it goes against that which they want removed? And this group believes that they are true leaders? Heck, they can’t even get elected by the Filipino electorate no matter how much they try because it has no ground support!

Truth is, insisting on term limits and a ban or abolition of political dynasties in this country is highly undemocratic since such measures limit the voters’ choice. It is the Filipinos who vote for their choice, and if the political dynast is their choice, then that dynast gets elected. That is what democracy is all about — in elections.

The way it is going anyway, even when the term limits exist, political dynasts will still exist, through their wife, son or daughter taking the outgoing dynast’s place.

In the United States under a federal system, there are no term limits for senators and congressmen, only the president and vice president are limited in their terms as they only get two terms at most, if reelected.

No one seems to scream about political dynasties there and democracy continues to thrive. So, why go about the removal of political dynasties and even ban children and wives of a political dynast from running for public office as long as they are the choice of and elected by the people?

Isn’t this group, as well as others that can’t hope to run and win an elective seat, just want them out so they can make it? But hey, no one is stopping them for running for an elective seat — including the presidency. So, why should they think that a ban on public dynasties would be the very opportunity for them to run and win?

Perhaps the better way would be to hold primaries for those running under a political party, congressmen, senators and even presidents. Of course, even this does not limit the choice of the electorate since independents can run even if primaries are held in this country.

There really is only one way to get a charter change going and that is through an election of delegates for a constitutional convention. It will be the delegates who will have the say on whether to dump the federal and parliamentary systems.

And it will be up to the Filipino people to make the choice on whether to accept or reject the new charter — but only after a full and thorough information drive on the pros and cons of provisions and changes in form and systems of government.

It is always the people who are sovereign, not such “warriors.”