Issue: Charter Change

I have come to a decision in negative. There is no need for charter change. Let us start knowing first the present form of government that we have. It can be said that the Philippine government is a representative democracy, a unitary and presidential government with separation of powers. Democratic governments are further classified into: Direct and Indirect Democracy. The Philippines is one with an indirect democracy or one which that involves the selection of government official by the people being represented.

If we try to look into the manifestation of our democratic and republican state such as the existence of bill of rights; the observance of the rule of majority; the principle that ours is a government of laws and not of men; the presence of election through popular will; We could say that the underlying principle of democracy is freedom, that the citizens can have their share of freedom. It is not only limited to certain people but it equally applies to all so long as this freedom is not being abused. It is more of an assurance that the will of the people are being followed rather than the private desires or motives of the government officials as shown in the bill of rights. And also we could prevent irregularities or any grave abuses made by persons in authority because of the principle of the separation of powers and the system of check and balance.

I could say that our present form of government does not have any defect in running our government. The problem only arises on the person representing the people and dispensing their governmental function. The predicament is not the system itself but the persons who are administering it. That is why I am confuse, is there really a need for charter change? Would the new system of government gives an assurance that our country will be more progressive? Is it really the solution of the political crisis? Or could the problem be the officials running the system not the system itself? Why are they changing the system? Could it be for the promotion of the general welfare or the promotion of a certain public officer? Could our freedom, as given under the present government system, be suppressed under the new system? What are the possible assurances that the new system can give to the citizens?

All this confusion has come into a decision based on the manifestation of a democratic and republican state. As Article II of section 1 our constitution provides that the Philippines is a democratic and republican state. Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them. Clearly it shows that the supreme authority to govern dwells in the Filipino people. I think that our system of government is no longer functioning well because of the conflict exists between in abusing the powers by the government official and the freedom of the people to indirectly govern our country. So the proper thing to do is to remove the root of the problem, the cause why our present system is not functioning well, we should not resolved it by amending our constitution because it would just entail unnecessary appropriation of funds that is needed before its implementation and as a result it would have a great effect on our economic stability. What we need to concrete more is on how we could establish a public office as a public trust.