The Philippine Elections Show Proof That The Country Needs To Shift To The Competency-Based Parliamentary System

Here's my favorite music video called "Dumb Ways to Vote" and this is the truth of the popularity-based Philippine politics. Let us really get serious with how the Philippine elections prove that the system is still riddled in impunity. Let's go back to the 2016 elections and some elections BEFORE it in order to understand how this impunity-driven system still exists.

Let's consider some of the candidates for president and vice president in the last 2016 elections. You could consider these people who have criminal charges yet they were allowed to run for office in the 2016 anyway. This is not just limited to the Liberal Party but also to other parties. You could consider the people above. Marbobo Roxas is from the Liberal Party. Jejomar Binay is from United Nationalist Alliance. Antonio Trollanes is from I'm Not a Democrat I'm Nacionalista. You could think that all three have their corruption charges. Marbobo was also involved with the Yolanda fund scam. Binay has robbed and plundered Makati for many years and has a lot to answer for during his vice presidency. Trollanes is a waste of taxpayers' money and a convicted mutineer. Should we also mention Leni Loud Robredo's candidacy rode on the late Jesse Robredo's coffin or how Gary Alejano a convicted mutineer becoming Congressman is proof of stupidity?

Think about it, the 2016 elections already had a surefire recipe for disaster in place. Only two ingredients could have destroyed the Philippines. You can think what if a President Marbobo x Vice President Trollanes tandem happened this year. You have a corrupt Department of Internal Labor and Government head and a convicted mutineer with almost no common sense running the Philippines. You may end up having the whole Philippines together with its neighboring countries destroyed should they foul up their peace talks with China.

One could also think about the situation of Noynoy Aquino and Binay when they won the 2010 elections. These guys weren't even in office because of credibility. Noynoy won the presidency even if he has achieved NOTHING as a Senator for nine years. He only won because the late Cory Aquino died before the elections. As for Binay he already has a LOT of corruption charges in Makati yet he won over Marbobo for the vice presidency. One has to consider that not everything may be Noynoy's fault. Perhaps Binay was also involved with the DAP and PDAF scams even if both he and Noynoy didn't belong to the same political party. You could consider the fact that Binay, Bum Aquino and Trollanes all showed up during the late Kian Delos Santos' wake. In short, why allow a clown of a Senator and a corrupt mayor to even run for president and vice president?

What can be considered to be VERY LAUGHABLE is how often they say #endimpunity and pin the blame on President Rodrigo R. Duterte and should be Vice President Bongbong Marcos as well as the Marcoses is this. The Dilawan politicians were too inattentive without thinking things through. Dilemma had all the time during the time she was in the Commission on Human Rights and the Department of Justice to raise up issues against President Duterte. Why wait until he becomes president? Shouldn't Bongbong becoming Senator and the fact that the COMELEC even allowed him to run for vice president make the Dilawans contradict themselves? Hmmm... talk about their talk  about #NeverAgain yet Bongbong who's a Marcos was still allowed to run. If Bongbong was really guilty of corruption during his term as Senator why wasn't anything done to even hold his application for candidacy for vice president? If President Duterte is indeed a murder then why didn't the Dilawans even prevent him from running for president? Worse, their own negligence allowed the late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. to be buried at the already laughable Libingan Ng Mga Bayani. 

Not to mention, shouldn't we also question the Ombudsman? I'm even wondering whether or not Conchita Carpio-Morales deserved her Ramon Magsaysay award. The Ombudsman should have stopped corrupt politicians from even running. Yet, you ended up a lot of corrupt people running for their seats in the legislative position. Shouldn't they have motioned with COMELEC to ban those candidates from even running for office? Not to mention, COMELEC is a big joke. Why did they even allow the late Ferdando Poe Jr. even run for president when he knows NOTHING about politics? 

That's why the Philippines should shift away from the popularity driven presidential system for the competency-based parliamentary system. As long as a popularity-based system is done then corrupt politicians will keep getting away as long as they're popular. What one should notice is that Marbobo only lost not because of his lack of credibility but his lack of popularity. President Duterte only won because of his popularity and it looks like people won't give him constructive advice whenever it's needed. I support Duterte but I won't hesitate to still point out his mistakes. A competency based system would ensure that there's more competence and less incompetence. This would stop stupid people from running into office and let the smart but unpopular ones have a better chance.