GMA isn't the answer to the economic-military
crisis
Alejandro Lichauco
Opinion,
TODAY
March 25, 2000 We have an economic
crisis that have been compounded by the military crisis and those pushing for
the resignation of President Estrada with hopes of seeing Vice President Gloria
Macapagal succeed him have overlooked the origin and nature of the problem.
The economic aspect of the crisis has its
proximate origin in the havoc which GATT wreaked on the economy. The military
crisis, on the other hand, rooted in the Mindanao problem, has been deeply
exacerbated by the distressed condition of our Armed Forces.
In both aspects of the crisis-the economic and
military-GMA has much to account for. It was she, as chairman of the Senate
Economic Committee during the Ramos administration, who steered the Angara
Senate into a reckless ratification of GATT from whose impact the nation now
reels. As for the military crisis, she was a ranking member of the political
party under whose administration the P7.5 billion, earmarked by law for arms
modernization, was diverted to promote t he political purposes her party,
and perhaps her own vice-presidency.
GMA never raised avoice against the sale of
Fort Bonifacio nor did she opposed the diversion of the funds that should have
been applied to update the fighting capability of the Armed Forces, who are now
in a virtual suicide mission in Mindanao precisely because of logistic
inadequacy.
So how can you possibly entertain the
thought that she will succeed to Malacanang should Estrada resign, whether
voluntarily or forcibly. She won't and she shouldn't.
She won't because should Estrada, for any
reason whatever, cease to be president before the expiry of his term-whether
through another Edsa or a military coup or for plain reasons of health-the Armed
Forces are bound to have a heavy, if not decisive, say on just who will sit in
Malacanang,and the Armed Forces aren't stupid enough to allow GMA to do that.
They won't, precisely because of GMA's failed
record as GATT pusher and as one who, by her silence, acquiesced in the sale of
Fort Bonifacio and the diversion of funds earmarked for the Armed Forces.
The fact that, by virtue of the Constitution,
she is entitled to the presidential succession will hardly be relevant because
the pretermination of the Estrada presidency, for any reason whatever, will
bring into play powerful forces that would question, as they have long
questioned, the relevance of the political system, and of politicians elected
under the system, to a crisis that has beggared the nation and which threatens
to dismember it.
In the case of GMA, that questioning would be
even more acute precisely because of her record.
Let's not forget that while Edsa did restore
the institutions of representative democracy, the conduct of every civilian
governmen since Edsa has contibuted to the erosion of the Constitution as an
operative document. The Constitution is virtually dead.
The principle og checks and balances, for
example, no longer exists. Congress has become the outright extension and tool
of Malacanang instead of functioning as an independent body that would
scrutinize the vital policies in issuing from the Palace. The principle of
Church-State separation has been honored more in the breach than the observance.
The socio-economic constitutional directives that the State shall promote a
self-reliant and independent national economy, promote social justice and full
employment, have become a joke. The juducial system is in shambles.
The Constitution is up for the breaking by
anyone who can afford it, and presidents have been most guilty of that. So what
Costitution are we talking about?
Nobody gives a damn about the Constitution
anymore. And when you have a crisis of this order and magnitude, that document
becomes a a worthless piece of paper precisely because it was under that
document that the crisis arose.
And when the crisis becomes to a boil-which it
will should the Estrada presidency be predetermined, nobody is going to invoke a
Constitution crafted by a body whose members were hand-picked by Malacanang.
What will be invoke is the imperative need for
a crisis government that will effectively govern, at least during a period of
transition, without a Constitution and a Congress until the crisis is resolved,
or evidently in the process of being resolved. Is there a precedent for that?
Of course there is. That was the Cory
revolutionary government, which governed for a year without a Congress and
without a Constitution. The one-year revolutionary government that emerged from
Edsa will surely be recalled as a precedent to meet a crisis far more lethal amd
complex than what we faced after the Marcoses were put to flight.
So, stop visualizing a presidency under GMA
because that will never happen under these conditions.
And it shouldn't for one overriding reson.
The challenges facing the presidency are much too formidable for any single
person, and that challenge is going to be even more daunting in the immediate
future. There isn't a single one, man or woman, in the horizon who can possibly
live up to the challenge. That is the argument for a collegial presidency, or a
junta, whether composed by the military alone, or by civilians alone, or by a
combination of both. A junta will ensure that at least more than one brain will
be at work as chief executive of the nation, and that crucial decisions won't be
made on the whims or failed judgment of one, single person.
The fatal flaw of the presidential system now
is that those decisions are ultimately the decisions of one who isn't
accountable to anyone while he or she is in the office, who doesn't even have to
listen to the counsel of his her Cabinet.
And the even more fatal flaw is that where you
have an inept chief executive many of those decisions are simply left to the
individual members of the Cabinet-agriculture policy to the secretary of
Agriculture, trade and industry, monetary policy to the finance secretary and/or
governor of the central bank, and so on.
And so the result is utter confusion and the
effective abdication of presidential responsibility for policymaking at the
highest level.
That wouldn't happen if the responsibility and
power of the chief executive were to be vested in a collegial presidency. At
least the chances of uncoordinated decisions would be happening would be
considerably minimized. The decisions of one department of government will
actually be the responsibility of all. And that is how you achieve coherence of
governance, which is exactly what we do't have, and which is a major source of
confusion.
That, in the view of this piece, is the closest
to an ideal political system and decision-making mechanism that could
effectively respond to the rising emergency. That would be much more preferable
to a scenario where GMA sits in Malacanang, and we owe it to ourselves to work
for that and see to it that GMA never sits, period. Nothing personal.
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