Section 1, Article II of the Philippine Constitution declares: “The Philippines is a democratic and republican State. Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them.” This provision sets the democratic and representative system of our government and acknowledges that sovereign power is held by the people. We are a republican state governed by the duly elected representatives of the people. In a way, it is not a pure democracy where the people directly rule themselves, but that’s the most practical approach since the Philippines consists of 110 million people and the affairs of the state are varied and complex. It would be impossible to gather all its adult citizens to take up and discuss the problems of the country. Even if we can, such a deliberative body would be ungovernable and wild. Thus, most countries in the world, whether democratic or authoritarian, have adopted republicanism. Even in the smallest unit of our government, we elect the barangay chairman and his council members to govern our villages.
They may occasionally conduct town hall meetings but public participation is less encouraging. We have seen many of them held but there was hardly honest-to-goodness deliberation and resolution of public issues. One time we had it was during the Martial Law period when the 1973 Constitution was ratified by Citizens’ Assemblies conducted in each barangay with people raising their hands. The process was questionable and the result was suspect.
The sovereign authority of the people is exercised by the enfranchised citizenry when they troop to the polls to elect their leaders who will run the government and manage the affairs of the state. These elected leaders who are chosen every 3 or 6 years, depending on the position they are aspiring for, derive their mandate from the people. There is no perpetual hold on elective positions in our government. If they desire to serve longer, they should seek reelection, provided they are still qualified, or the sovereign people may boot them out and replace them with newfound leaders.
We subscribe to the principle that “a public office is a public trust.” The paramount objective of those who aspire for a public position is to serve the people and promote their interests. Our Constitution clearly stipulates this under Section 1 of Article XI, which provides: “Public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.” No question that the framers of our Constitution have set lofty standards of public service.
If Diogenes, the illustrious cynic philosopher, were alive today, he would be frustrated looking for a candidate for a public office who possesses the qualifications prescribed by our Constitution. I wonder if he would find a suitable candidate to fill an elective post.
The 2022 presidential election is less than 10 months away. Approximately 60 million registered voters will visit their polling places to elect the new president and other government officials. As the peoples’ representatives, the winners will swear to act on our behalf and look after our welfare. They ought to conduct themselves in office according to the people’s will that installed them into office. And representatives should comport themselves accordingly once they have assumed office. Sad to say, however, even before they could warm their seats, they would turncoat and join the ruling party to enjoy the perks handed out by the administration. Without consulting their constituents, they would betray their trust and jump to the other side of the political fence for their personal interest and convenience. They would break every promise they made during the campaign and start feathering their nest for their reelection. They would vote or decide not based on the dictate of their conscience but as ordained by the vested interests that control them. They subscribe to the politics of convenience, not principles. Public service is dishonored by gross betrayal of public trust, disloyalty to the people and loss of integrity.
Time and again, electorates have sent the wrong leaders to represent them and protect their interests. At campaign time when they solicit our votes, candidates put up their best foot forward, brush up their credentials and hire angels to proclaim their integrity. But once sworn in, they become completely different men and are seized by amnesia, which makes them forgetful of their noble commitments. Is there a viable alternative to the republican system? Is there a way we can go back to the system of direct democracy practiced in Athens during its glory days? Some 500 years B.C., the Athens Ecclesia or Assembly acted as a public place and a sovereign authority. Athenians convened there to take up public issues like taxes, laws, health, education, peace and order and even war. Athens was then small and the Ecclesia could accommodate more than the majority of them. Any Athenian could hold public office and he got paid for his services. The rule of majority was strictly followed. Today, it is almost impossible to replicate the ancient Athenian model but there must be some ways to do it given the cyber technology that we have. Online voting is becoming more common in many contests and public surveys involving multitudes and IT has enabled massive commercial transactions regardless of volume. Even partially, we can practice genuine self-governance with the help of cyber technology. For instance, in the field of legislation, public hearing can be done online. The public can participate by linking to the site, which provides access to them. In fact, Congress now enacts laws through online facilities. The Internet has totally transformed our ways of doing things—business through e-commerce, education through online learning, health system through online medical consultation, and practically in all phases of our life. Governance may not be far behind. And we can go back to direct democracy, minus the evils that currently hound our republican form of government.
1 comment
Here, here!