(This article was originally published in year 2012)

Who makes laws? In most of the democratic world, that’s the sole preserve of elected governments. But in Finland, technology is about to make democracy significantly more direct.

Earlier this year, the Finnish government enabled something called a “citizens’ initiative”, through which registered voters can come up with new laws – if they can get 50,000 of their fellow citizens to back them up within six months, then the Eduskunta (the Finnish parliament) is forced to vote on the proposal.

DEMOCRACY is said to be “less a specific set of government institutions and more a cluster of values, attitudes, and practices that the nation share a common understanding of and agree with.”

These values, attitudes and characteristics include, though may not be limited, to the following:

ABOUT five years ago I visited General Joe Almonte in his office in Greenhills. I told him about the plans of my young Philippine Centrist friends to set up a principled Centrist Democratic Party with the purpose of overcoming the patronage system with all the misery it brings to the Filipinos. His spontaneous reaction: “Peter, you must be crazy! Do you know what you are up against?” I asked: “OK, but what other options do you have to overcome the hardening poverty, failing judicial system, violence, impunity, lack of perspectives for the young people?”

The biggest lie foisted upon the Filipino voters this election is that the leaders we enthrone into government to manage our country’s affairs will change our lives.

This is not entirely true!

EVERYTHING’S wrong with Philippine politics – period!

This tongue and cheek reply to the first query above encapsulates the frustrations of many a writer on where to begin to dissect the multitude of problems reducing them into palatable morsels. The easier way to go about this is perhaps to focus on the current state of affairs which has obstinately captured the interests and occupied the minds of our people since about a year ago, or even beyond: the election of a Philippine president.

Key leaders of Tagum City, Davao del Norte as participants to the CDPI's workshop on Federalism and Centrist Democracy conducted simultaneously last April 23 and May 1 in collaboration with the Office of the Vice Mayor of Tagum City, Hon. Geterio Gementiza.

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—Former Chief Justice Reynato Puno on Friday warned of the “darkness” threatening the democratic foundations of the country.

“A government run only by a few is a democratic failure as there is the exclusivity of the elite to govern the country,” said Puno, who keynoted the Freemason’s annual convention that opened Ibalong Centrum and Recreation (ICR) here on Friday.