Rafael L. Oriel, Jr.
30 May 2007

Mr. Carrera, the political and other prevailing cultures in the Philippines and here in Canada are the products of the systems being used. The maladies you itemized are the results of the malfunctioning systems being used in the Philippines.

I wonder where you got the idea that those who are undesirables will easily change attitude and mentality without improving the systems to control and regulate them. The problems are getting worse. Breakdowns of law and civilized behavior are becoming accepted as a way of life.

It is already very obvious that the current presidential system does not work to the best interest of every Filipinos. Common sense should dictate that if a system doesn’t work, then fix it or improve it or redesign it or change it to something much better, more efficient and productive.

It is no different when you are in a bus with a malfunctioning electrical system. You have to fix the faulty system instead of blaming the passengers or the driver, is it not? Of course, if there are undesirable passengers or driver in the bus, they deserve to be kicked out but the faulty system still needs to be fixed or improved if we want to continue using the bus in good shape.

Because of the excellent systems being used in Canada, those kinds of problems you patiently enumerated are not encountered. In other words, they are considered taboo.

There was a time very recently when anomaly was detected and a public inquiry was held. The investigation led to the downfall of the ruling political party and was replaced by another party belonging to the opposition. After the fiasco, certain measures were enacted on top of the already existing forms of election campaign finance regulation.

The lawmakers made Canada one of the most tightly regulated electoral environments in the world. Those who wish to use money to engage in some form of illegal election-related activities are prevented by law from doing so. In addition, fine tuning of the systems are being done periodically to immediately fix any of the flaws they can find to make the systems foolproof as much as possible. They change those that are needed to be changed without so much ado.

If there is a need to amend or change the charter to suit the needs of Canadians, they will surely not hesitate to do it. Cheating during election can be easily detected. Any election protest can be easily solved. If the election result is very close, automatic recount is done right away and results are known in no time.

Canadians are not overworked and overwhelmed with unnecessary problems and false allegations. Thanks to the systems used. Canada is a bicameral, federal Parliamentary system of government.

Because of the simplicity of a parliamentary system, people can be easily self-educated of the electoral process. They can become intelligent voters in no time to replace politicians with somebody who can serve them better. You do not need to be millionaire to be elected as Member of the Parliament (MP) or Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA).

In fact, there are already some Filipinos who were successfully elected Members of the Canadian Parliament and Legislative Assembly. Laws here are enforceable. If there are loopholes, they are immediately fixed to make circumventing the law very difficult. In comparison, some people in the Philippines are having a good time taking advantage of the many loopholes of the law of the land.

I think, there are even some laws that are not enforceable like the Philippine dynasty law or the people’s initiative to change the charter. There is even a possibility that millions of Filipinos cannot Cha-Cha if few senators will not allow it to protect their own or their allies’ interests.

No wonder law enforcers, prosecutors and judges are having hard times doing their jobs. In addition, temptation is high for them to go against the law. Many will not hesitate to risk everything just to get rich quickly, especially those who have nothing to risk.

To them, the tune of millions or even billions of pesos or dollars is very encouraging to sacrifice anything. Some are not even ashamed or affected to be jailed or dishonored which is highly in contrast to those who committed hara-kiri when disgraced. Political hara-kiri can even work to their advantages by conditioning the minds of the public.