The recent Commission on Appointments (CA) deliberations on the appointments of Perfecto R. Yasay Jr. and Regina Paz “Gina” L. Lopez to their respective Cabinet positions proves one point. The CA is doing its job as outlined and mandated in the Philippine Constitution.
The relevant article of the 1987 Philippine Constitution reads in part, “The President shall nominate and, with the consent of the Commission on Appointments, appoint the heads of the executive departments.” This is based on the United States Constitution that says, “[The President] shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate…to appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls.”
Interestingly, though, for those who wish the Philippines would change to a parliamentary type of government, the CA would probably not be a part of the system. In the United Kingdom the prime minister exclusively selects and appoints primarily other elected members of parliament to his or her Cabinet without any review process. While in both the Philippines and the US, members of Congress can be appointed to Cabinet positions, but they must resign their elected offices to be a part of the Cabinet.
Alexander Hamilton in his Federalist Papers reasoned that the mere act of having to submit nominees to a public body like the Senate would be reason for the President to put more thought into the decision. From this viewpoint, that is exactly what is happening as a result of the CA procedures.
The public is allowed to watch and form their opinion about the presidential choices and that transparency is beneficial. To quote Winston Churchill, “The spectacle of a number of middle-aged gentlemen who are my political opponents being in a state of uproar and fury is really quite exhilarating to me.” It is exhilarating to see the “uproar and fury” of the CA deliberations.
The decisions on presidential appointments handed down by the CA are, of course, going to be “absolutely brilliant” or a “disgrace to the nation”, depending on whether your guy or gal “won” the CA’s approval. We expect the members of the CA to have the wisdom of King Solomon, the divine truth as spoken by the Oracle of Delphi, and the impartial detachment of a Tibetan Buddhist monk from a 1,000-year-old monastery. Those traits are never ever going to rule the process and, perhaps, they should not.
Everyone in the room is motivated by their own personal agenda. It is the purpose of the collegial body to collectively share the responsibility and to decide, which “personal agendas” are in the best interest of the nation. And, hopefully, they are correct more often than they are wrong.
That is how a democratic system works just as in the election process. Every three years, over 50 million Filipinos are given the opportunity to vote their personal agendas for the best interests of the nation. That is how the democratic process functions.