Ever heard of the statement or the product called mock meat? Well, it's not real meat and it's actually made from different types of plant proteins. Mock meat isn't real meat - it's "meat" for those who are undergoing a vegetarian diet or serves as a meat extender for some omnivores who love vegetarian food. Vegetarian chicken is not real chicken since it wasn't the meat from the animal. Well, the same can be said when the Marcos Years was NOT a real parliamentary but a MOCK parliamentary. A mock parliamentary is NOT a real parliamentary.
This part of his speech from Los Angeles intrigues me to reveal that Marcos DID NOT have a real parliamentary but a MOCK ONE:
And so my friends, we started with an American-type constitution, we move to a British-type constitution. We had a parliamentary form of government without a parliament. Until 1978, we did not have a parliament. And yet, we were supposed to be a parliamentary from of government. And Mr. Marcos said, “I declared martial law to save democracy.” But by saving democracy, he killed it.
And so my friends, it was not until 1978 that the Batasan was convened. Now, what do we hear? Mr. Marcos once again, is up again to his new tricks. He said, “I lifted martial law but I think we should now elect a president by direct vote.” But there is not such thing. Under the new constitution now, the president is purely ceremonial. Tagabukas lang ng pinto, tagatanggap lamang ng credential ng ambassador. Purely ceremonial elected by parliament, he is not elected by the people. The power of the government under a parliamentary system lies within the Prime Minister. And the Prime Minister must be elected by parliament, and this prime minister may be removed from office, if there is a vote of no confidence. That is the British type. So what did Mr. Marcos do in 1976? He amended the constitution and said, “I, Ferdinand Marcos, as Prime Minister/President, may dissolve parliament, but parliament cannot dissolve me.” And then he said, “Parliament may legislate, but if I think they’re not doing their job, I will also legislate.” So now we have two parliaments, Mr. Marcos and parliament. And it’s costing us 300 million to have that tuta parliament, what’s the use? If Mr. Marcos is doing all the legislation, why keep these 200 guys? So what do they do? They change the name of the street of Divisoria. They change the name of a school. But when it comes to public decrees, like Public Order Code 1737, only Mr. Marcos signs it. And so we have a situation, where we have a man who can dissolve parliament, but parliament cannot dissolve him. And under the Amendment No. 6 of the 1973 constitution, Mr. Marcos is a president-for-life. And now, all of a sudden, two weeks ago, sabi niya, “I have lifted martial law but I now want to go to the Filipino people, and I want their mandate of 8 years. I will defend martial law. Anybody who oppose it can oppose me. I want to go to the people and get their mandate.” But how can you get the mandate? There’s no such thing in the constitution. Sagot ni Marcos, “Let us amend it.” So now, we are going to amend again the constitution. And so we ask Mr. Marcos, but what form of government will we have? “Ahh,” sabi niya, “I want a president with powers.” What happened to the parliamentary British? Forget it. Let us now go to France. Let us have a French model. And so my friends, it is like the odyssey of Jules Verne “80 Days Around the World”. We started with America. We went to England. Now we are going to France. Under the new proposal of Mr. Marcos, we will now have a president and a prime minister. But the prime minister will be appointed by the president. And this president now will be all powerful. It will not be the American type; it will be the French type. And I suppose two years from now, when he gets tired of that, he will go to the Russian type, whatever that is.
If you noticed the points emphasized in BOLD then you will realize the following things that made Marcos' parliamentary a mock parliamentary:
- Marcos' parliamentary was trying to make himself both president AND prime minister. As Ninoy stated that the president is CEREMONIAL in a real parliamentary system. A real parliamentary would divide the functions of the Head of State and the Head of Government.
- A real parliamentary would have voted anyone (including Marcos) out of office. Marcos' parliamentary was a mockery because he can dissolve parliament but the parliament can't dissolve him. A REAL parliamentary would've voted Marcos out by a VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE. EDSA-1 wouldn't be necessary because Marcos would be voted out and escorted out of the Parliament as an incompetent prime minister.
- Marcos' reforms of the constitution were inconsistent and he went from British to France to Russia. Ninoy was RIGHT to compare it to 80 Days Around the World because of how stupid the amendments were.
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