Oratorical Piece for Migue

A Brazen Assault
For Mark Gil Joyce Dondoyano

Filipinos tend to think of change as something to be achieved rather than something to be recognized. We talk of effecting changes in our values system, look into the ills of the society and criticize the structure of the government less discerning that the seeds of these changes have already been sown…that is if we begin to realize that.

Speech lecturer, Mrs. Velita Buhian, fellow classmates, in an immortal cry of Themistocles to Eurybiades, strike but hear me first!

In an epoch of political commotion, another attempt to deceive and subvert the interest of the Filipinos is on stake. This folly that has gained prominence is the alluded charter change, believed to benefit every desperate huts and hovels in the country. But as a young gentleman with a young heart, it is of strong conviction that the shift to the federal-parliamentary form of government is a treachery.

It is no less than a center stage for more dirty and apprehensive game plan where the majority many of whom are social and economic elites shall heed not the battle cry of the minority even if Juan de La Cruz’s cause is on the risk.

People are stressing that with the shift to a federal form of government, it will focus on functions as social justice and equality before the law. But hey! Aren’t these the main concerns of the government that is sought to be done even at the present structure? For goodness sake! We are simply reinvigorating into the proposed system the same old stories with same adjectives and adverbs!

There has been no clear and empirical evidence supporting Speaker Jose De Venecia’s claim that a shift of government can bring salvation to our country. We want to address the issue on graft and corruption, then the answer lies not on the change of government but rather on going after these criminals tooth and nail sending them the message that the cost of being corrupt is greater than the benefit.

We want to prevent the election frauds and excessive electoral spending, then overhaul the Commission on Elections and veer them from partisan politics to avoid another “I am Sorry…It was a lapse in judgment” from a bogus president. We want to create a climate of long term investments, then the answer lies not on the charter but by stopping all the political bickering and going back to out home works.

We want to have democracy at the grassroots, then the answer dwells not on changing the government but by exercising our inherent rights to vote and to proper implementation and administration of the law.

Our government may indeed be a child of dysfunctional and obsolete political system. But this system is dysfunctional not in the sense that it blocks governance but in the sense that it serves the interests of those who monopolizes the totem pole of economy and politics. And it is obsolete not because it lags behind its counterparts in Asia or lags an imagined economic take-off but in the sense that it cannot contain the new political consciousness that is emerging among our people.

In its truest sense, ours is a country pigmented with political colors but let us not be delighted by the deceiving sparks of persuasions. A change in the system will not ever address issues plaguing and hounding the country. The present constitution has its defects we can see it and perhaps it is time and fair to correct parts of them. But let us not overhaul the basic structure pf government because to begin with, it isn’t really broken. To borrow a much repeated phrase, the problem lies upon all of us.

In the end, this attempt to change the charter is nothing but a brazen assault to our ability to distinguish which is genuine and which is not. (padm_bangkong)