Babe's Eye View article

It all started with the impeachment of then-president Joseph Estrada when he tried to follow the Constitution and submitted himself to an impeachment process. The first historical impeachment was aborted, however, when some senators staged a walkout, which eventually led to Erap's ouster.

Learning from history, GMA and her minions have shrewdly found a way to beat the system by endorsing a substantially weak impeachment complaint by Magdalo lawyer Roel Pulido amid allegations of a P2 million bribe claimed by party list representative Crispin Beltran.

After calling the complaint "very irresponsible," Speaker Joe de Venecia inhibited himself from the deliberations supposedly to avoid "conflict of interest" since Pulido had filed complaints before the Ombudsman and the House ethics committee against him, allowing Deputy Speaker Raul del Mar—a known GMA loyalist—to refer the impeachment complaint to the House rules committee. Ping Lacson, however, claims JDV copped out so he could protect his position as Speaker.

Obviously, Malacañang's game plan is to jump the gun by filing a bogus impeachment complaint to give GMA immunity from a stronger suit later, since the Constitution provides that only one impeachment complaint can be filed per year—technically making a mockery of the Constitution. The opposition, however, is pointing out that JDV cannot delegate his responsibility to Del Mar since the Constitution is clear—only the Speaker can endorse the complaint before the House rules committee.

The opposition can argue till kingdom come, but in this country where even the highest law of the land has so many loopholes, the name of the game is often "palusutan" and "isahan." Beating the system seems to have become a way of life for the Filipino. So, can you really blame the ordinary Filipino if they always try to make "palusot"?

They see their leaders as their best example. That's why they say the "rule of law"—or the three rules are—Rule Number One: Don't get caught. Rule Number Two: Don't get caught. Rule Number Three: Don't get caught. And we might add Rule Number Four: If you get caught, never admit. (Most Filipino macho men follow this golden rule.) There's also a useful little adage advising we should learn from our mistakes—and GMA has wisely learned from the mistake of her predecessor—beat the system to stay in power.

Some sectors say the problem is not really the system; it's the people. I say it's the other way around—it's the system that's the problem. There are a lot of things that need to be improved with the present Charter—without necessarily changing it or scrapping it altogether—but just to correct its infirmities, especially those concerning economic provisions.

While the world has turned so many times, here we are staying static instead of moving in sync with the rest of the changing world. Many of our politicians continue to mouth motherhood statements saying they want to save the poor, they want to elevate people's lives, but instead of concentrating on the more important matter of correcting infirmities in the present Charter to avoid scandals like the NBN deal from occurring again, to them it's politics as usual.

We need to be more progressive and open up our economy to global players and revise the provisions that limit foreign equity to 40 percent on real estate, public utilities, infrastructure, telecommunications, advertising, media and other key industries. Tourism is another area that needs a lot of investments, and there's not just enough local investors to help meet the growing demand from tourists that are getting more sophisticated and discriminating. We can't continue being over-protective of some industries that have the potential to open up our economy to bring this country at par with its neighbors—ultimately creating more jobs.

Those who know how to get around the limitations imposed on foreign ownership simply put up layers of companies. For those foreign investors who don't know how to beat the system—or prefer not to do business in that manner—they simply stay away. The other day, I had lunch with the new Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines, Zvi Vapai. He says most Israeli businessmen would like to invest in the Philippines, but obviously, they want to be able to own land and property, and have full equity on a number of industries. Israelis are very conservative in their ways and they would like to see that they can own real estate.

Now that JDV—the number one proponent of Charter Change—is under siege, somebody has to take up the slack and seriously push for improvements to bring the country at par with the rest of the other global players. At the end of the day, there's really no such thing as a perfect Constitution. Even the United States amended its Constitution 27 times to make it more attuned to the times. Obviously, the framers of the US Constitution were aware that changing times would necessitate revisions to their Charter so a dual process was provided by which amendments could be made.

We have to start somewhere in correcting the inherent weaknesses in some provisions of the present Constitution. Not doing so will only make people continue to try and beat the system—and make a mockery of the highest law of the land.