The Late Noynoy Aquino Would've Achieved More As A Prime Minister Than As A President

It's very easy to praise Noynoy Aquino because Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong from Singapore gave a compliment to the late leader. No, this isn't a bit of being ex-DDS or going Dilawan. It's all about giving credit where credit is due. There have been lapses during the rule of Noynoy such as appointees like Joseph Pabaya, Butcher Abad, Etta Rosales, Chito Gascon, Liela Dilemma, and Stinky Soliman (who could be very ill now). However, the negative side of the Noynoying Years can't be lumped and mountained entirely on Noynoy - it would be best to blame it more ON THE SYSTEM. Yup, President Rodrigo R. Duterte, who called for a national period of mourning, is RIGHT to say that the system was designed to fail.

Some keep saying that we've tried the parliamentary system but failed. Please, the Marcos Years weren't a real parliamentary. Noynoy's late father Ninoy revealed that the Marcos Years were a mock parliamentary. The late Lee Kuan Yew even mentioned that Cesar Virata as a lame duck in his book From Third to First. Virata was a prime minister in name only. A REAL parliamentary system would make, as Ninoy said, a symbolic head of state. Noynoy's late mother Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino was more fit for the duties as the head of state while Fidel V. Ramos was more fit as the head of government or Prime Minister. The Marcos Years was nothing more than a mock parliamentary. A parliamentary without a parliament is a mockery. If the late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. was truly a prime minister - there should've been an opposition. Ninoy could've led that opposition and called for a vote of no confidence against Marcos himself.

So let's just imagine we had a 1987 Parliamentary Constitution. This would be called the Parliamentary Republic of the Philippines. Let's say that Cory herself served as the symbolic head of State while Ramos served as the Head of Government. Cory was the unifying figure in the throwing out Marcos - no questions asked. Cory could've served better as a unifying figure to Filipinos, accepting credentials, opening the door, and being someone for Filipinos to look up to. Meanwhile, Ramos was more fit as the Head of Government. Even Lee's statements in his book From Third World to First seem to suggest Cory was indeed more fit as a representative than the actual ruler of the Filipino people. Years later, Cory would probably step down or no longer desire re-election then maybe we can have another symbolic president. We would have Noynoy as a member of the Philippine parliament trying to prove himself throughout his years in parliament. 

Let's just assume the next step is that Noynoy himself finally gets voted as the prime minister of the Philippines. This would mean that the Liberal Party would be the Government. I blame the downfall of the Liberal Party on the presidential system. I think they would've not gotten down this far if they were scrutinized and scrutinizing depending on which side they were on. Instead, brilliant minds all went down the drain such as Mar Roxas, Florin Hilbay, and Bam Aquino to name a few. A parliamentary system would've probably kept their minds intact due to having weekly discussions between the Government and the Opposition. If Noynoy were prime minister - he would be subjected to the weekly question hour rather than just the once-a-year SONA. Noynoy and his party would be facing their critics (the opposition) on a weekly basis. Can you imagine how Noynoy would've been careful with his statements? Also, maybe Noynoy would've have the honor to resign after the Mamasapano Incident since a botched military operation is no joke. Noynoy would've probably announced his resignation on-air. Then again, chances are Noynoy's Mamasapano failure would've not been that huge if there was scrutiny from the opposition on how to capture the late Marwan.

The parliamentary system's mechanics works this way. The prime minister determines the generation direction of the government. However, the opposition leader questions the government and holds them accountable. The prime minister has his own cabinet. The opposition leader has his shadow cabinet. Every minister has a corresponding shadow minister during the debate. For example, if Dilemma were the Minister of Justice then maybe we'd have Menardo Guevarra as the Shadow Minister of Justice if Duterte were the Opposition Leader. That means Noynoy's plans are questioned not to put him down but to bring him up. The opposition serves to criticize certain moves. It's like Noynoy wants to cancel then-deposed prime minister Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's anti-flood project due to some corruption issues. However, Duterte says, "True, Gloria was voted out during her term for corruption. However, we need the anti-flood mechanism. We can simply get the corruption out and proceed to work on it due to its necessity." Unfortunately, Noynoy ended up canceling some good projects because of a lack of real scrutiny. 

It's a waste really. Ramos could've been the Philippines' own version of Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia. Maybe, Noynoy could've been our version of Lee Kuan Yew. Unfortunately, the presidential system holds everyone in politics back. I mean, think of the lost potential. A lot of misinformation about constitutional reform still goes a long way. Sure, Marcos has been long overthrown yet some people are still whining about "Only if Marcos never rose!" I'm not here to shoot down JC Punongbayad's credentials - I'm here to point out that he should use his mind to focus on fixing the damages instead. Crying over the Marcos Years is like crying over spilled milk. What we need now is to really look at what could've been and put it into action to what should've been. Hopefully, history itself will highlight one thing - it's been the SYSTEM that's the problem!