Devolution, not revolution

INTROSPECTIVE VICTOR S. LIMLINGAN

- 

Queen Elizabeth I is supposed to have remarked that she did not like wars as th®yhave uncertain outcomes. Likewise, I do not like revolutions as they not only have uncertain outcomes but even catastrophic outcomes.

And yet so many of our country men, despairing of the numerous scandals plaguing our country, are advocating revolution and installinga revolutionary government.

They may not realize that we already had one, a revolution and a revolutionary government. Corazon C. Aquino did not become president constitutionally. The Batasan Pambansa proclaimed Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. the winner in the presidential election. The people power movement and the hastily crafted Freedom Constitution installed her as our president.

Like President Marcos before her, she exercised both executive and legislative powers. Her presidential decrees had the force of law. Her dictatorship ended when the 1987 Constitution was ratified and the 1 Congress convened.

Weare fortunate that President Cory Aquino wielded and then yielded power peacefully. We may notbe so fortunate the next time.

The revolutionary government of President Aquino declared two political reforms aimed at converting the Philippines into a real democracy: term limits and party list.

The term limits law puts limits to how many times an elected official can hold an elected office.

The aim was to give others a chance to serve the people. The term limits worked in the sense that others were given the opportunity to serve. Unfortunately, these others were the wives and siblings of the departing official. Thus, we had the spectacle of political revolving doors where two brothers alternate being mayor and congressman.