Weaponize 1973 Constitution against corruption

Many government officials in the major branches of governance are now linked to high profile corruption cases because the pattern of wrongdoing generated by the “bicam” system under the 1987 Constitution has become widespread.

Some agencies of government have been infected with the virus that allows the bicam to generate big and quick money for the few.

The worst was in the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd). Corrupt the CHEd and you corrupt the country’s workforce.

Federalism under the 1973 Constitution was the weapon against corruption that under the 1987 Constitution caused the massive flooding, devastation, death and injuries aside from damage to agriculture and infrastructure that cost the country P1.2 trillion for nothing.

The costly and ghostly flood control project anomaly diminutized to the tiniest former CoA Chairperson Grace Pulido Tan’s description of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam as “kahindik-hindik” (disgusting).

All these disgusting, repulsive, hideous, terrifying, and horrible fund anomalies occurred under the 1987 Constitution.

The 1987 Constitution was formulated by the administration of President Corazon C. Aquino. The draft of the Constitution was prepared by the 48 delegates handpicked by President Aquino and chaired by retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Cecilia Muñoz-Palma. It was approved on 12 October 1986, ratified in a plebiscite on 2 February 1987 and went into full force immediately.

The 1987 Constitution abolished the Batasan Pambansa and established the bicameral Congress featuring the House of Representatives and the Senate, whose bicameral committee or the now dreaded “bicam” brought about the scourge to the greatest number of Philippine society.

Under the federal system, specifically the modified federal-parliamentary form, each of the 18 states would have its own system of fund control over every project it undertakes. If one state failed, only the people in that particular state would suffer.

Whereas, under the presidential–bicameral system, when control fails in Imperial Manila, the entire population of the Republic of the Philippines suffers.

During the oath-taking last year of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) in Malacañang, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed a preference for the federal system of government.

“The Philippines has taken the first step toward a federal form of government that would make the country’s political structure more stable,” he said.

“The seemingly federal setup will continue by bringing more power centers to other parts of the country. That is very simple. That derives from a simple idea that the stability of a political structure is made more reliable when we have many many power centers. If the power center is only here in Manila, then if Manila falls the entire Philippines would fall,” he explained.

“And that is why the idea of federalism becomes very important because again it is my firm belief that we really have to give. What I always say, which is very, very much in parallel with the thinking of federalism, is that all the systems that we are trying to put together, what we are to do is to make the decision process be made at as low a level as possible.”

Email: arturobesana2@gmail.com