The issue of the 1987 Constitution is that it's a bandaid solution against the Marcos years dictatorship
Although the late Carlos Celdran was anti-Duterte - he supported having a new constitution. The 1973 Constitution was already bad enough under the Marcos dictatorship. The 1987 Constitution was hurriedly written. Some provisions that made the Marcos Years not the golden years were continued. One of them is continuing Carlos P. Garcia's stupid "Filipino First" policy - that's why the dictator's body deserved to be buried next near to that person. In fact, I'm 100% in the for the idea that Noynoy Aquino should be buried next near to Ferdinand E. Marcos should he croak.
Another was continuing the Imperial Manila system which gave the Marcos Years its power. Just think people had to go to EDSA to gather around and overthrow the dictator. Why was EDSA the focus? It was because EDSA is located in Imperial Manila. That's the very area where Marcos ruled with an iron fist. Why didn't the framers of the new constitution think of decentralizing the powers if they want to avoid another Marcos dictatorship? Adding term limits isn't the issue.
Also, Marcos didn't implement a parliamentary system but a hyper-presidential system. Marcos would've easily been overthrown under a Westminster parliamentary system by a vote of no confidence. EDSA Revolution wouldn't be needed because Marcos himself would've been voted out of office because of his lousy performance. No, the presidential system gave Marcos near-absolute power such as when he declared an immediate snap election. Snap election? What about a vote of no confidence which would've ended the Marcos years? EDSA wouldn't be needed if the Marcos Years were parliamentary. Unfortunately, Ninoy Aquino was right about Marcos' pseudo-parliamentary system even if he wanted to legalize the Communist Party of the Philippines as another voice.
We need to consider how to pay back the money spent for the COVID-19 pandemic. It's stupid how some people keep talking about Duterte's spending habits but fail to talk about how to recover the money. Did they consider themselves how to generate employment or do they believe that the government can magically provide jobs? Did they expect Duterte to magically produce jobs and they get mad because he couldn't? Again, did Noynoy even magically produce jobs? Neither Duterte nor Noynoy ever magically produced jobs! Do they even know anything about job generation is reliant on private sectors? There are too many Filipinos looking for jobs vs. too few Filipinos who are job providers. Crony capitalism during the Marcos years reduced job opportunities and hyped up the OFW phenomenon. Today, we're calling OFWs as the "bagong bayani" or the "new heroes". New heroes? What about the new exploited slaves? OFWs as conquerors of the world? Since when did the Philippines even conquer a single country in the name of conquest? Until now, not one single country is a "new state" of the Philippines.
How constitutional reform can help solve the COVID-19 problem
Rather than focus on Davide's senile mind - may I address all Filipinos start focusing on doing constitutional reform. Yes, constitutional reform is badly needed during the COVID-19 outbreak. The COVID-19 failed response is not just a matter of leadership but also of systems.
First, I'd like to talk about the need for a free-market system. For those who say that Noynoy helped make the economy better - they need to answer how he did it or they miss the point. Asian Correspondent mentions that Joseph Estrada, Gloria Arroyo, and Noynoy all passed important laws to ease excessive foreign restrictions. Noynoy didn't gain the confidence of investors by whatever crusades he had. Remember Lee Kuan Yew inherited Singapore which was even poorer than the Philippines. Noynoy himself was somewhat open to foreign investment by easing certain sectors. I wonder do the Noytards even know that or do they just ignore that? Do they think Noynoy magically produced jobs? If so, they are missing the point that Noynoy didn't magically achieve anything that he achieved. Free trade itself will introduce competition against local businessmen. The only businessmen that die are those who refuse to evolve. Otherwise, foreign investment provides more room to grow the small and medium enterprises of Filipinos. Do I need to keep repeating myself that it's all about that if your customer has competition then doesn't that give you another customer? If your service provider has competition then doesn't that give you another service provider to make your business better?
Second, why pursue a parliamentary system? Check out Singapore. Singapore currently has a high rate of infection but a very low mortality rate. Malaysia is also doing better than in the Philippines. Taiwan and South Korea may be presidential but they have parliamentary features. The problem of the Yellows is not that they criticize Duterte. Rather, it's their failure to give alternatives. The structure of the current opposition isn't defined. Where are the real leader of the opposition and the shadow appointees? One reason why presidential usually fails is a lack of transparency. However, in the parliamentary, both would face off against each other. Can you imagine if Duterte had to face off against the leader of the opposition every week? Can you imagine if his appointees had to be grilled by shadow appointees every week? A lot of mistakes Duterte is making would be corrected. Besides, what #OtsoDiretso should've fought for was a parliamentary system. I mean, #OtsoDiretso would all be block voted and they would have their voice in the minority party. Sadly, #OtsoDiretso got flushed because they would rather focus on theatrics than real performance.
Third, it's all about asymmetric or evolving federalism. One can argue that some unitary countries are progressive such as Indonesia and China. However, try checking out the traffic in both countries' capitals after working hours. I remembered being in China for a vacation and man traffic in Beijing was just as bad (if not worse) than EDSA. China even had the incident of really bad traffic. Federalism is all about having decentralization of authority. Malaysia's constitution is just one and it's a federal country. It's not about empowering warlords and dynasties - that's feudalism.
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Do you still think the 1987 Constitution is the best in the world? If so then why not get infected by COVID-19 and let's see you get cured by it!
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