Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Just Do It

It would be nice if former president Ramos made a clear and positive declaration to our people whether he still supports Gloria Arroyo or not.

He has to stop titillating the public with his on-again off-again support for her. It’s been going on for too long.

It’s simply not fair. He already has the public confused with his equivocation, must he also befuddle them with mixed metaphors?

“But as chief executive and commander-in-chief, she (Arroyo) must perform with greater agility and skill than the ordinary circus juggler, whose feet are on the ground…The President still on the high-wire may be riding a bicycle, while still balancing the critical issues whose number may increase because of outside forces. That is how difficult and complex it is to be in the hot seat or pressure cooker called Malacañang.”

Maybe that’s why Mrs. Arroyo can’t decide whether to ram charter change through, run for Congress, or declare a state of national emergency. She’s also bewildered.

By the way, why doesn’t Gloria Arroyo run for senator?

If she tops the winners, it would prove to everyone that people actually like her. But more than that, she would be walking her talk.

“We have a vision. We would like the Philippines to be on the verge of the First World in 20 years. What I hope is we would be able to work on the things that are needed to reach the First World in 20 years...”

Unfortunately, Senate President Enrile says she can’t run for any other office.

“I don’t think constitutionally she can do it, to run without forfeiting her seat as President…She cannot toy around with this position as if you are a governor, a mayor, a councilor, a barangay captain…Now, if she will run to become an emperor, that’s an entirely different matter. That’s a higher post.”

An emperor? Hmmm…does that mean a sex change before charter change?

But seriously, a monarchy may not be such a bad idea considering that the biggest problem with representative government, be it presidential or parliamentary, is the lack of a fail-safe against crooked officials dipping their sticky fingers into taxpayers’ money.

In a monarchy, a ruler has no compulsion to steal because tax revenues are his personal property. So, if Gloria were to become empress instead of president or premier, would she steal what already belongs to her?

Instead of obsessing over how to steal, Empress Gloria will focus all her attention and energies into collecting taxes and preventing those taxes from being stolen from her.

She will not allow anybody to evade or avoid taxes. She will not let BIR or Customs officials take a bite off her cake. She will monitor very closely every other source of government revenue, from cedulas to God knows what, to make sure she gets every single centavo due her.

She will not tolerate rigged bids, kickbacks, unnecessary projects, over-priced projects, ghost projects, double-insertions, and other leakages. There will be no wastage in infrastructure and public services spending.

Honesty, discipline, and professionalism will prevail because a monarch will not put up with any mishaps from those dealing directly with her subjects. She knows a breakdown in public services will cause dissatisfaction. And that can lead to unrest and unrest to revolution.

Furthermore, there will be political stability. Hereditary succession will ensure an orderly transition of power. Everyone will know ahead of time “apres Gloria, le Crown Prince Mikey.” So everyone will have ample time to build an ark.

A monarchy takes the load off the people’s shoulders. They will not be blamed for electing the wrong leader. As George Carlin quipped many years ago, "I don't think we should be governing ourselves. What we need is a king, and every now and then if the king’s not doing a good job, we kill him."

Thus, politics, under any guise, is ultimately a numbers game. The greater number gets to swing the axe. And so, at the end of the day, although a monarchy may not be democratic in form, it is in substance.

8 comments:

Ben Vallejo said...

Our Glorious Queen, The Gloriana as Empress?

All taxes go to the Crown but by convention the Monarch doesn't carry cash. Her government carries the cash.

Changing the Constitution means changing Her. The Sovereign is the foundation of the Constitution. No one will ever consider cha cha unless a republican revolution is a brewing. We would have Constitutional continuity.

The Queen is the Fount of Justice. Pardons granted is her own Royal Prerogative and thus cannot be construed as political.

The Queen requires our allegiance. But she has to be above politics and symbolizes the unity of the realm.

Now can Gloria ever be apolitical? The closest we got to an apolitical Head of State was Mrs Aquino but she fell into political temptation.

And I don't believe Mikey should have the succession, principe de Lubao. The honour falls on the Princess Royale, Luli.

If we have a Monarchy, we should pass through the Henry VIII phase, where "kabits" are beheaded, meddling priests burned, the Church reformed. this would force Parliament or Congress to find its testicles to clash with the Queen and be truly representative of the Commons. Who knows Parliament will be supreme over the Queen.

Then that's the only way a monarchy will be democratic in substance.

Anonymous said...

Silly...

Deany Bocobo said...

MB,
As they say, Democracy is a terrible system, except we've not found any better!

But I think we must accept one thing: that Democracy is not a guarantee of results. For example you seem to give up on the idea of "Majority rule" only because you perceive the Majority's will to be frustrated by the officials they elected (or seemed to.) This may or may not be factually true, but whether or not it is, we have an obligation to comply with the Law and come to believe that within that Law are enough checks and balances and countermeasures to correct the situation.

"Corrigibility" is the only quality required for Democracy to survive.

Remember Quezon, "hell heaven Filipinos, etc" --It's really true, we want that system, even if it is run like hell, because at least we can change it.

Anonymous said...

Well it would fit in to the Flip's worship of God-Kings. Maybe in a few decades guillotines will become fashionable.

manuelbuencamino said...

DJ,

Change is not foreclosed in a monarchy. Revolution is a matter of flexing muscles not just the exercise of some god-given sovereign right. Revolution whether through ballots or bullets is democracy in action. Although the replacement of a leader does not guarantee anything good will result. France has gone from monarchy to republic to revolutionary government to dictatorship back to monarchy and now to republic again. But note that in all the transformations France has gone through, the common denominator is support of the people. Consent. Until they decided to withdraw it. That to me is the essence of democracy.

But seriously, it's only a satire written around George Carlin's quip, my logical formulation that a pickpocket will not pick her own pocket, and a swipe at the imbecile gloria spawn - succession will allow us to prepare for the deluge.

Deany Bocobo said...

MB,
Of course naman it's satire! haha. i enjoyed it like that. Fr. Bernas had this to say yesterday: "We should have monarchy...as long as I am King."

Ben Vallejo said...

We presume that Bernas is celibate, thus he cannot have any issue.

That would shoot down that monarchy!

Deany Bocobo said...

Funny you mention that! don't know about ateneo, but my younger brother is now teaching at UP College of Law (Diliman) and he reports the topic of their first Faculty meeting was...sexual relations between faculty and students! Must be the 70% female enrollment rate at these law schools. At ADMU yesterday, the audience was maybe 90% female!