‘That’s why every incumbent seeks an ‘exit strategy’ that provides him ‘protection,’ and because of this urgent need, the opportunity to think beyond elections and electioneering is
sacrificed to partisanship, to politics in its most pejorative sense.’
IN 364 days, one day less than a year, more than 60 million qualified Filipinos can troop to the polls to elect the man or woman who will lead the nation for the next six years. How many will eventually do so will depend on a number of important factors, including: 1) how many of those now qualified to vote for the first time will actually register; 2) how many of those whose registration have been canceled due to non-exercise of their right to vote in two successive preceding general elections will revive their registration; and 3) how many will actually turn out to vote at a time when the COVID-19 virus may still be sweeping the country.
It is for the latter reason that I am hoping the current administration will move heaven and earth to get as many of the 60+ million qualified voters vaccinated. Never mind the fear of some quarters that those in power will use the vaccines as a sort of “bribe” to get the voter to vote for its slate; I do not share this fear and would paraphrase the late Cardinal Sin by saying “take the vaccine but vote for the candidates of your choice.”
Next year we will have so many seats up for grabs: all elective local government positions from city and municipal councilors to vice mayors and mayors: all elective provincial government positions from board member to vice government and governor; all 250+ seats in the House of Representatives: 12 seats or half of the Senate; the Vice Presidency and, of course, the top prize, the Presidency itself. If everything proceeds as planned this will be the sixth transition from one president to another since the People Power Revolution of 1986 installed Cory Aquino as president. But it will only be the fifth peaceful transition of power from an outgoing to an incoming president.
Since 1986 we have had a one-6 year-term president, one of the most highly debated Constitutional provisions then and now. After the proposal to abolish the Marcos-era parliamentary system and revert to a US-style three branches of government won by a single vote at the Constitutional Commission created by Cory, the next question became how long should a president serve.
Four years, some argued, is too short for a good president. His first year alone would be consumed setting up his administration and filling up vacant positions and drawing up his agenda .And because he would have to undergo a re-election for a second term his third year could be consumed by doing things with an eye on re-election. This would effectively leave him a year, at most two, during which he could focus on things that had to be done even if unpopular.
On the other hand, eight years may be too long for a bad president.
And I guess that’s how the “wise” men and women of the ConCom settled on a single term of six years. Long enough for a “good” president, and manageable enough for a “bad” one.
(For the latter, I have discovered so many friends who have also been waiting for God to intervene, to no avail. I suppose God has far more serious issues to deal with in other parts of the globe, and believes fully that we get the governments we deserve!)
And so in less than a year we will be bringing to an end another presidency and inaugurating a new one.
If only the beauty of a single term could be maximized.
When a leader does not have to worry about currying the public’s favor, he is (theoretically, at least) free to pursue any and every program and policy that must be pursued, no matter how unpopular. Raise or lower taxes? Raise or lower the minimum wage? Open or close the economy to foreign investments? Abandon old alliances and forge new ones? These and many more can be single-mindedly pursued by a president who has a fixed term and can look forward to the day when his successor is sworn into office and he reverts to becoming an ordinary citizen and a pensioner.
Unfortunately, it never happens that way. Especially in the Philippines where politics has long become a life-or-death struggle, a zero sum game, where the winner takes the spoils and the loser can go to jail. That’s why every incumbent seeks an “exit strategy” that provides him “protection,” and because of this urgent need, the opportunity to think beyond elections and electioneering is sacrificed to partisanship, to politics in its most pejorative sense.
Less than half a century after EDSA, this has what has become of the one-term presidency.
A fault as much of those elected to the position, as it is of those who elect. And that’s you and me.
