BENEATH & BEYOND

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BY SONIA D. DAQUILA

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THERE is nothing permanent in this world but “change.” Dictator Ferdinand Marcos appointed his daughter Imee Marcos as national president of Kabataang Barangay and her by-word was “pagbabago.”

We need change for the better, hence, from the late dictator to the incumbent president, Rodrigo Duterte, there have always been attempts to change, and the potent instrument to be tinkered with is the Philippine Constitution.

Similarly, by sheer manipulation, dictator Ferdinand Marcos succeeded in revising this fundamental law to suit his whims and caprices. His constitution was modeled on a presidential-parliamentary system, but eventually turned into an instrument to legitimize his dictatorship. It had a semblance of a people overwhelmingly ratifying the 1973 “siopao” Constitution which started by a national move, worming its way to get support from the people in local and national levels.

Marcos started by dissolving Congress, and the Supreme Court becoming inutile. There was an escalation of lawlessness and violence left and right to legitimize the declaration of martial law.

As a high school student then, we were tasked to visit houses in remote areas to explain and to legitimize the moves to amend the Philippine Constitution which were said to be “obsolete.”

The original proposal was to “amend” the Philippine Constitution, meaning just to modify some parts, but it turned out to be “revision”, overhauling the entire governmental system.The rest is history from which we should have learned our lesson.

Here we go again. At a glance, federalism is good, it is ideal for the local government officials where their respective turfs are transformed into autonomous units, and their constituents have direct access to their leaders.

But wait! Is it not possible for local and national political dynasties to fortify themselves and stay forever? If the entire country was then manipulated, can’t the local units be cowed or manipulated? We are a splintered country, a nation born only after many years of sufferings from the colonizers yet up to now we remain regionalistic.

What about the vigilantes or the local military men? We are for clean, safe and healthy society, but we need to see respect for human life, and our rights respected.

We cannot imitate federalism of the USA where they had been stable states to start with, declaring their independence from Great Britain. Our Local Government Code provides for opportunities for the local units to be empowered yet it remains an elusive dream.

We neither want to see a dictator rise once again nor the Marcoses gaining accolades after they spat on us. We should not be accomplices because of our indifference or silence.

Change starts from within us, the people. (delsocorrodaquila@gmail.com/PN)
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