The Parliamentary System Will Give Rise To A Better Opposition Leader That Doesn't Hate The Government

I remembered reading through Benign0's articles. I can't get over how he still opposes constitutional reform or that he believes Filipinos must first self-industrialize before opening up the economy to foreign investments. Sadly, Benign0 is dead wrong. Now, one of his latest articles talks about having an opposition that doesn't hate President Rodrigo R. Duterte. However, can that even be done under the current presidential system where popularity-based politics is the key to winning? The current opposition right now is a REAL JOKE. Adding vertical layers didn't help in the check and balance. Having a bicameral only slowed down the need for constitutional reform. However, having a unicameral system would make it easier to monitor everyone INCLUDING the members of the executive. 

Sadly, Get Real Philippines might have been very much against the shift to parliamentary. One such article had Benign0 call the parliamentary system in the Philippines as a match made in Hell. Ironically, Benign0 lives in Australia which is a parliamentary country. I'm amazed at how the guy would rather feed trolls in his blog (such as Darth Moron the Wuss) than really talk about badly-needed reform. Benign0 even allowed that sore loser calling himself "Aeta" (of the now-deleted Fliptards blog) to write an article there. I really am amazed at how the site is losing credibility by focusing too much on Yellowtardism rather than the root of it. The Yellowtards may have lost relevance but think corruption is still THAT RAMPANT. The problem is really systemic in nature.

So how would the parliamentary system give rise to a better opposition?

The whole issue with the presidential vs. parliamentary opposition is how they're arranged. Do we really have an arranged opposition? The answer is the opposition today is ANYTHING but organized. There's no real role nor real function. However, that's not the case with the parliamentary system's opposition. It's because the parliamentary system respects the voice of the minority better than the presidential system. It's because democracies are meant to respect minorities and majorities. 

Let's imagine the system where you have Team DDS (Government) vs. Team Sundalong Kanin (Opposition). Let's pretend that Rodrigo R. Duterte is the Prime Minister and Antonio Trillanes IV is the Opposition Leader. The parliamentary system defines the Opposition better as a Shadow Government. Trillanes as the Opposition Leader must have his own set of shadow ministers. We can see that Duterte isn't the only one answerable to Trillanes. Duterte's set of appointees must answer to Trillanes' set of appointees. Each Minister has a corresponding Shadow Minister. The Opposition is given the task of providing alternatives aside from questioning the government's actions. 

The better feature that gets the Opposition ready is the weekly question hour. Let's just imagine that we have Duterte vs. Trillanes every week. Everybody is limited to a 7.5 minute round in the weekly question hour. That means Trillanes can't rant all he wants and he must be respectful of the time limit. Duterte must also watch his language because it's a formal debate. It would really encourage both sides to think of solutions rather than derail each other. Each side must present themselves in a formal debate moderated by the Speaker of the House. Every debate is televised and the local media must present both sides of the coin. Can you imagine how humiliating it will be if the Opposition ends up failing to do its job? Can you imagine if Trillanes gets voted out as the Opposition Leader (by both the Government and the Opposition) if all he does is talk and talk? Trillanes would have to change his attitude if he expects to remain in Parliament. Otherwise, Trillanes may consider getting suspended from even being part of politics due to his attitude. 

Besides, a lot of the brain drain in the current system is because of the presidential system. I don't think Leni Loud Robredo, Mar Roxas, and Bum Aquino (to name a few) would've lost their brilliant minds IF we were in parliamentary. It's because they would be put in a system that would encourage them to speak out good ideas and long-term solutions EVERY WEEK. I think Leni Loud's current brain drain is a result of her being a spare tire rather than a member of the Parliament. If Leni Loud were Deputy Prime Minister (assuming PDP-Laban and Liberal Party end up becoming a coalition government) or Deputy Opposition Leader (if Roxas became the Opposition Leader with Liberal Party as the Opposition) then I think she'd be encouraged to really study. Instead, the brain drain has even caused Leni Loud to forget basic protocol such as the need for safe containers for her food or practice social distancing. Roxas ends up uttering nonsense instead due to the brain drain. Bum ends up doing theatrics than maintaining his status quo as a businessman. These three guys are but casualties of a bad system that could've made use of their abilities regardless of which side the Liberal Party would've ended up in. Instead, they ended up becoming clowns because the presidential system is a CIRCUS. 

That's why the Philippines needs to badly shift to the parliamentary system. It's because the parliamentary system defines the roles better. True, the parliamentary system will allow term renewals but only IF you deserve it. Term limits should be defined not by the number of times a person can hold office but by one's PERFORMANCE as an official.