Filipinized Charter model

SENATOR Richard Gordon shared with me the other day a novel idea for a new set-up of government in a future Constitution. A Constitution, he makes it very clear, that must be rewritten only after the issue raised in the impeachment proceedings against GMA are resolved.

I agree with the senator on this score, because Cha-Cha cannot and must not be used to sweep under the rug the issues of accountability that GMA has to face concerning the whole "Hello Garci" scandal.

The "Gordon model" is a hybrid of elements of the current presidential form, the American presidential form, the French presidential-parliamentary form, the German model and a few other examples we can find around the world. It acknowledges elements and sentiments that are unique to the Filipino — the Filipino’s desire, for example, to still be able to vote directly for his leader. This is why under the "Gordon model", a President nationally elected remains as head of both government and state, a continuance of what we have at present, which is also a feature of the French parliamentary model.

Like most legislatures worldwide -- presidential or parliamentary -- the make-up of ours under this plan remains bicameral — a Senate, nationally elected, that will help provide a "broader" view of things, and a Lower House, elected by districts, just as we have today. Again, the French and Germany and Malaysian and Japanese and Australian and Canadian and British and Spanish and Italian parliaments all have upper as well as lower houses, contrary to what the unicameral proponents want us to believe.

One twist under the "Gordon model" is the vote for one is a vote for all system that applies to the president, vice president and speaker of the house (more on that later), the governor and vice governor, as well as the mayor and vie mayor. In short, one vote for president or governor or mayor automatically is a vote for his ticket mates. No more vote splitting.

Team building!

Similarly, voting for 12 senators can be done by block, with saves a voter writing down twelve individual names - and so much time in canvassing, tallying and cheating! - helping insure that by midnight of voting day there is a fair chance we all know who our next national leaders are.
The vice president and speaker of the House are elected with the president, and, as in the United States, the vice president becomes the presiding officer — the 25th member and thus the tie breaker — in the Senate. The reason for this under the "Gordon model" is that it insures that a president has, at the helm of the legislature, two leaders who share his vision and plans for the future!

While the Senate retains its role to provide a "national" outlook, congressmen take on a new role. In a bow to regionalism-federalism, congressmen from each region or federal state will, together will all governors from that region or state, make up that region’s assembly, with the powers to enact local laws, as well as impose regional taxes. We no longer will have the specter of our national legislature churning out 5,000 laws in a year, only to find out that of that number, 4,950 consist of changing the names of a hospital or a street or a school.

This feature is also a fusion of executive and legislative power in many ways, a bow to a strength of the parliamentary system. It is strengthened at the local level where mayors of towns and cities that make up a province also become members of the provincial board, what lawyers term "ex officio" or by virtue of their office. We thus no longer need to vote separately for provincial board members. Similarly, barangay captains automatically become city or municipal board members, doing away with the separate councils. These officials thus end up wearing two hats: executive at one point in time in a year, and legislator at another. Thus they need to know exactly what laws to pass because these are the laws they themselves will have to execute later!
Admittedly, these features will be like a stone in a shoe for political analysts who view presidential or parliamentary forms of government in a fixed, boxed way. But why not a hybrid indeed, since we all agree we are such a unique people with unique traits and kinks, and know also that wholesale application of models from other countries don’t work as well here?

One more unique feature of this model is the vote of confidence/or no confidence that the legislature can give a president and his vice president and speaker. When 2/3 of the Lower House and 3/4 of the Senate vote to unseat the three leaders, out they go - necessitating a call for new elections. At the same time, a president is also empowered to dissolve either or both houses of the legislature if they are "uncooperative" — both of which are features of parliaments worldwide.

At the proper time, I hope that Dick Gordon — who happens to have been the youngest member of the 1970 Constitutional Convention — will go public with this model of his so that we could all discuss and debate it. In the meantime, above is a preview — meant to provide you something to chew on in between the waiting for new developments on "Hello Garci"!

Email address: malaya_columnist@yahoo.com