By Erik Espina
I CLEARLY recall the justifications made by certain pillars/personalities of the 1987 Cory Constitution when assuaging my father (Fmr. Senator Rene Espina and then Sec. Gen. of the Unido). “Rene, let us support and pass it, even if it has defects. We can always amend it later on.” Such hopeful and perhaps “innocent” commentary exposes the reality.
We have never amended the errors and weaknesses of this basic document and hence remain captive to this day with, what I previously wrote, political dysfunctions. The effective word is “amend”, not “revise” the structure and system of government. Noticeably, efforts to tinker with every charter from the creation of the 1973 to the 1987 Constitutions has focused on over-hauling the entire form of government.
Certain political leaders, including identifiable voices fail advocating tarrying and taking baby-steps in resolving kinks in said document. The attitude descended into a gung-ho “all or nothing” situation. I marvel at the 1787 US Constitution and how their Congress has managed to introduce timely amendments without experimenting with the stability of government and defacing the founding pillars of the country.
Even a proud and nationalistic country as Japan with a 1947 “MacArthur” inspired/influenced Constitution, finds no fig leaf to revamp their present charter. In both instances, there is underlying wisdom audibly worthy of notice in cautioning our sense of restlessness to always incline to conveniently tamper/junk every system of government we adopt, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, “for light and transient reasons.”
Part of the problem is in the clash of schools, those who perceive the Constitution as the Holy Bible vs. politicized lobbyists who think, the former may be replaced with, let us say, the Analects of Confucius, to justify copying foreign constructs/trends. The answer is in neither. Make the Constitution a breathing and living document without pawning or irretrievable losing the unique political, social, economic values, culture, traditions, historical lessons of the Filipino people reposed in an enduring political/social contract.
