Philippine Suggestions
So allow me to impart my craziness on how I think we could pave the way to start the renewal of our country and hopefully our rise to fame once more rather than shame..
Leaders
I think we’re a country of celebrity fans. It has been inculcated in our psyche to “idolise” people. I’m pretty sure we got this from our colonial past, where those whose skin is lighter than ours, whose nose is sharper than ours, and whose built is bigger than ours is considered “better” than us. I think it also explains why a big number of big named celebrities run for politics and win. Even the old political clans win because of their own celebrity status in their own territories.
And so we end up with a well-loved leader but not necessarily an able leader, think President Estrada hehehe or we have an able leader yet hated think GMA (common regardless of what you think and feel about her, you must admit that she did lead the country like an able president should)
How do we balance this mentality burned deep in our culture?
We should have a royalty and a prime minister. Yes, we should vote for a king or queen every after a certain period of time. This would allow people to vote based on “emotions”. That they can relate to this person. That this person is for the poor or the masses. This king or queen is nothing but an opium to the masses. A symbol of the country and it’s people, just like any other constitutional royalty at present. And if they do good at being this symbol, then the people could vote again for them and for their offspring and could continue to be the Philippine royalty albeit voted by the populace.
And then we have a prime minister voted by parliament. Hopefully, this guy would not come from royalty or a celebrity but someone who does wield power and influence. Well, I guess to have parliament vote you as their prime minister already shows your power and influence.
And yes, it should be a two-party system. It’s easier to label one as good and the other evil. Or conservative and liberal. Better and worst. Rather than good-bad, bad-good, goodie-baddie, baddie-goodie. You know what I mean.
Political Landscape
Congress, The Supreme Court, Ombudsman, COMELEC are some of the constitutional bodies that have been established to ensure the check and balance between the government agencies and the people who govern these agencies as well as their responsibilities. But come on, how can someone check the very same person who put them into power. Filipino culture dictates “utang na loob” “pakikisama” and all its variants. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but the other spectrum of these Filipino values could result into what we have today in Philippine politics and society as a whole.
So what’s the solution?
Have these offices up for election. And if they all come from one party and we find that they are in collusion with people in government, there is no one to blame but ourselves and hopefully the voting public would know how to vote the next time around – Wisely.
And because they were voted by the general public, in theory they owe no allegiance to those in power – of whom they should “check and balance”.
I also think that the country should be divided into “states” based on languages. While it looks divisive, it actually is more unifying since people could identify to one another more rather than a Filipino, which honestly is a vague concept. People would identify more as an Ilocano, Visayan or Tagalog than a Filipino. Probably overseas this is evident, but we’re not trying to change the landscape of the world, we are trying to change our country for the better. And once we have identified ourselves with something, then the real Filipino would rise and then we truly could be proud of being Filipinos, not because one or two of our countrymen excel and got the world’s attention, but because we as a nation excelled.
Then probably we could build something to marvel the world. Or we probably have what nature gave us to marvel the whole world.

