IN the United States, only the President and the Vice President have national mandates. No one else is elected on a national scale, because the US government was set up in a way that their 100 senators are elected at the state level. And each state, no matter the size, gets to elect two senators during alternate elections, with one being elected during a presidential election year and the other being elected during midterms.
These senators, two per state and 100 in all, hold office in Washington DC, occupying what is referred to as the “upper” or “smaller” chamber of the two-chamber Congress of the United States.
‘… a plan like this will require an amendment of the Constitution…’
If Americans elect their senators by state, why don’t we look at electing our senators by geographic region?
Here’s an example. Let’s say we will keep the senators to 24. How do we apportion these to our regions?
One simplistic way to allot the seats is to have four senators who hail from a province in Mindanao and are elected, at large, and are registered voters in Mindanao. Very clearly, Senators Koko Pimentel, Bato dela Rosa and Bong Go would qualify. Who else?
I would then allocate eight (8) Senate seats to the Visayan region: eastern, central and western, again only open to those who trace their roots in the Visayas and are registered voters in the Visayas.
You can imagine a Visayan Senate delegation consisting of a Waray bloc, a Cebuano bloc and an Ilonggo bloc. Senators from the Visayas who I miss are Serge Osmeña and the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
The balance of 12 I would allocate to Luzon. Five would come from Metro Manila, currently “represented” by more than five with the Cayetano (Alan Peter and Pia), Villar (Cynthia and Mark) and Ejercito-Estrada (JV Ejercito and Jinggoy Estrada) tandems already counting six. Plus Nancy Binay, Grace Poe and Win Gatchalian makes nine.
So under my plan, four will have to go.
The balance of seven will come from all other regions of Luzon: the Ilocos regions, Central Luzon, Regions IV A and B, and the Bicol region. Currently, I can think of Senators Angara (Aurora), Villanueva (Bulacan), Revilla and Tolentino (Cavite); Lapid (Pampanga) among those already representing non-NCR Luzon.
While regionalizing the Senate will NOT guarantee provincial representation – we have more than 75 provinces! – It will rebalance the representation in the Senate, region wise, and will be less costly to campaign for as well.
But of course a plan like this will require an amendment of the Constitution, unlikely if the senators feel their position will be at risk if their chamber goes regional.
But what do you think?
