Our present Constitution is much flawed. But to use it as an excuse for our failures and hardships is simply too much. The fault, my dears, is not in our Charter that we are underlings, but in ourselves. We can never have a perfect Charter, but we can always strive for perfection under any. We must make do with what we have, not just because we can’t afford a new one. With it there’s still so much we can do, and undo.

On Land Reform.

Land Reform as practiced is mainly land distribution. It is counterproductive. We give lands to people who can’t even own a carabao and a plow. What will they do with it? The support services that reach the farmer, if any, is barely enough to keep the him alive. We have so much idle lands. The challenge is how to till them. The only way is through mechanization. Land Reform stands on the way.

On EDSA’S.

With the benefit of hindsight, we now may see EDSA 1 & 2 as nothing but the acts of a carabao gone berserk from too much abuse. Atlas shrugged, but, that’s all he ever did. Now we are being invited to the same adventure, or misadventure. Then what? We meekly submit ourselves to another yoke, another master.

On a prescription.

We all want to lend a hand in anti-poverty and food production programs. But we can’t. Imperial Manila is doing it for us. Or, rather, is robbing us of the resources for it. Remember the fertilizer and swine scams?

Give these funds to the local government units where we can participate in its more effective utilization, and in checking abuses. Let us institutionalize the bayanihan spirit. Let us strenghten our cities and provinces. Let us all work in areas close to home. The playing field is somewhat level out there.

Presidential campaigns are expensive undertakings. Whoever wants to win the presidency has to campaign Apari to Jolo and spend, according to some figures bandied about, at least 75 to 100 million pesos. Minimum.

Given that we don’t have a robust 2 party system that can collect that kind of money from political donations, presidential aspirants resort to spending their own money (like the multi-millionaires Danding, Ramon Mitra, Imelda Marcos, ) or have millionaire “backers” (Erap’s Lucio Tan) or use the current administration’s resources (GMA and the pork largess).

That alone would already compromise the loyalty of a president. Those who spend their own money will recoup it by corruption. Those who spend other people’s money have to repay the favor to their backers.

Under a parliamentary form, the prime minister is basically just a Congressman chosen by the majority party. Congressional campaigns are cheaper (because they’re local). So there’s less money spent on elections and less favors to repay or money to recoup. Thus, prime ministers can be literally poorer but still be head of the state.

With our country being poor of finances, we cannot afford campaign reform. Campaign reform basically is putting a limit on what presidential aspirants can spend. The government will then pay a certain amount to a party, so that they can use that money to campaign instead of parties getting financial backers or spending their own money. That’s not gonna happen in the Philippines because we cannot budget for it, so we might as well go parliamentary.

The important thing is to have a decent wage and education to pay for that lease and other costs of living your whole life.

If you spur the cost of land, either by raising land taxes (impossible to implement given our corrupt BIR) or by bringing in foreigners who are awash with cash to buy land freely, productivity shoots up. This is so because land is now “valuable”. People won’t just leave their land idle waiting for kingdom come for their idle real estate to increase in value. They can sell it at a higher cost (hence, more money will be injected in the system), or will be compelled to develop it to keep up with rising statutory taxes. This will only result in more economic activity and more jobs and higher income for the Filipino people.

I don’t understand the xenophobia of anti-parity “nationalists”, given that a lot of OFW’s are allowed to buy land and homes in Canada, U.S., Australia, U.K., New Zealand.

I’ve been thinking that Filipinos are not stupid or apathetic at all. In fact, they know exactly what is at stake and what has to be done… to kill people, destroy families (of oligarchs) and take the bitter pill of appearing backward and regressive to the international community, all of which may bring us too many steps back to recover. Hence, the non-response. I agree with them, and like them I’m waiting for the center (Church, mainstream military) to step up.

Manolo,

Yeah, you’re pitting the observations of an experienced rallyist to the impressions of an impressionable young man. From the capture there wasn’t a few hundred heads.

all of which I’m in favor of.