The unitary presidential system

The unitary presidential system Featured

Lito Monico C. Lorenzana
LML Polettiques
18 December 2024
Comments:DISQUS_COMMENTS
THE previous two columns portrayed this fight between the Marcoses and Dutertes not so much as simply a conflict of personalities egged on by rabid partisans. This is not even a clash of political ideologies — as both are bankrupt of the same. But these are symptoms of what is defective with this country's system of governance. These flawed elements stitched onto our political fabric are woven into a tapestry of our systemic dissonance.

Historical context

The root of all this can be traced deep into our pre-Spanish history and customs when the bond between social classes, maharlika and maginoo (the nobles) to the freemen and slaves was balanced on the "padrino/patron relationship," primitively feudal but a perfectly working arrangement before its nature was transformed over the 300 years of Spanish tutelage and later, decades of American guidance. What was egregious was the imposition of another system of governance piggybacked on this traditional bond that began to alter the character of the rulers and the ruled.

For instance, America injected "Western concepts" of democracy and republicanism, particularly the idea of representative government, bypassing the cultural and political practices and roles of the datu and maharlika. This was the unitary-presidential system. Thus, along with all of these was the mutation of the pre-Spanish and pre-American "patron relationship" into what we now call the "traditional patronage system" as practiced to perfection by scions of powerful, charismatic but flawed political leaders, Marcos and Duterte peres. The modern patrons were ultimately the Philippine presidents.

Flawed political process

America's two-party system, alien to us, introduced the offices of the president and vice president. Both are elected as a team within a political party. Similarly, 100 American senators are elected, two per state constituting the upper chamber of the legislature, while the representatives (congress members), comprising the lower house, are elected through their districts. The election of the president and vice president is decided not by direct universal popular votes but by another American invention, the Electoral College. America did not hand this feature over to us.

These versions drastically departed from America's 200 years of their own experience in governance and were, therefore an American experiment over their first colony, ever. And these were all embedded into our 1935 Constitution. Allowing the two highest elected officials to be elected separately perfunctorily planted the seeds of discord (BBM-Sara in 2022, Duterte-Robredo in 2016, Aquino-Binay in 2010). And since they were elected universally, the vice president, along with the 24 senators, deemed themselves as entitled and almost co-equal to the presidency — a condition that is adversarial, inducing competition and strife. This is what is happening now with these incessant congressional/senatorial investigations, not so much in aid of legislation to improve laws — but in aid of their re-election. These hearings are typically used as launching pads by candidates to alter political narratives in their favor for the coming 2025 and 2028 elections.

Democratic deficits

These blatant democratic deficits are some of the root causes that, when paired with the US-imposed unitary-presidential system, become the petri dish for other political and societal evils to incubate. In passing, we identified these in last week's column as crony capitalism, kleptocracy, corruption and "rent-seeking activities" by those elected officials, and the bureaucracy and the birthing of political clans we now dubbed "political dynasties." The latter turns public service into a thriving family business, accumulating pelf and power, perpetuating the same through generations as heirlooms. Studies show that fully four-fifths of the senators and congressmen are scions of political clans. Thus, the constitutional ban on political dynasties is dead.

The overall effect of these defective structures inevitably resulted in the development of weak democratic institutions. Quoting the late Professor Jose "Pepe" Abueva, citing Gunnar Myrdal's book, "Asian Drama," depicting the Philippines as a soft state and a weak nation, he argues that "... it is unable to apply the law equally to all its citizens; our institutions are captives of the [political dynasty] oligarchy, and they serve mostly their own interest, the few rich allies, and powerful politicians. Our leaders failed to unite and inspire our diverse peoples as a nation."

It will be recalled that the US-sponsored 1935 Commonwealth Constitution was the overriding political document governing our political life until replaced by the Marcos 1973 Constitution, subsequently abrogated by the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. These authorizations contain these impaired structures underpinning our governance, buttressed by deleterious provisions evolving into what was to become the Cory Constitution of 1987.

Failure of an experiment

The presidential system may have worked in America after their experience of 200 years of democratic government. And still during those centuries, they learned to tidy up their system of governance with 27 amendments since the 1788 ratification of their constitution. This mature democratic country found it a necessity to amend its constitution to keep up with the times. Not in the Philippines.

The US' convoluted experiment with democracy and the presidential system clearly has faltered. Many of the political problems besetting our country can be traced back to the flawed political structure handed down to us under American tutelage. Yet, this was embedded in the 1935 Constitution of the Commonwealth, approved by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and ratified by the Filipinos. This was the same constitution used after we gained independence from America in 1946.

Since then, we have revised our constitution twice: the Marcos 1973 Constitution as an aftermath of violence — martial law, and the Cory Constitution of 1987, a product of a revolution. The Marcos Constitution attempted a pseudo-parliamentary system, establishing the "Batasang Pambansa" as a unicameral legislature, replacing the Congress of the Philippines.

The Marcos Constitution was effectively abrogated by President Cory Aquino during the EDSA People Power Revolution and upon the proclamation of the shortlived and provisional 1986 Freedom Constitution. Subsequently a constitutional commission (ConCom) was convened to fashion a new constitution and ratified in a plebiscite in 1987. But the old defective political structures in the 1935 Constitution were reinstated. This constitution, with its inherent political infirmities, has not been amended since then.

Revision of 1987 Cory Constitution

We reach a point in this column where we will attempt to answer the questions attendant to the thesis that our political problems stem not from the personalities but from dysfunctional systems. It's not the people, stupid! It's the system! — to paraphrase a US president.

In the next few columns, we will discuss the various alternatives. All these options will require the restructuring of the defective political and economic systems that have stunted our growth in the last 100 years. We could have done better compared to our Asian neighbors since the end of WWII. Offhand, the solution will require the revision of the 1987 Constitution with the proposals to shift from our current unitary-presidential system to a parliamentary-federal one. Advocates for some type of changes to our structures of governance from Presidents FVR to Erap to GMA and Duterte have, in one way or another, initiated revisions of the 1987 Constitution. All failed.

To be continued on Dec. 25, 2024




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