Reset

If we are only talking of a computer whose program became all messed up, hitting the reset button will normally fix things quickly. But we are a country of 120 million souls so things are more complicated.

- BOO CHANCO

Getting all the elected officials to resign and be forbidden to run ina snap election may seem like a reset for the sick man of Asia that the doctor prescribed. But it is not that simple.

To begin with, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano who proposed it may have ulterior motives. He may think that having all elected officials resign will wipe out all their sins that have so angered our people. They will insist they don’t have to return their ill-gotten wealth nor go to jail.

That kind of reset doesn’t work. People must go to jail and their ill-gotten wealth confiscated by the state or no one will take us seriously as a nation, not even us. We must restart with a clean slate.

The French Revolution modeled a restart that works. But it was bloody. We will be happy to just send the bastards to jail and confiscate their ill-gotten wealth.

Unfortunately, that seems to be beyond our ability to do as a nation. South Korea routinely sends their presidents to jail. Thailand recently jailed a once very powerful prime minister. In our case, we needed the International Criminal Court to make Duterte accountable for his crimes while in office.

We have a Constitution. But when push comes to shove, we shove it aside and take short cuts. A Cayetano-style reset messes up our reputation as a country that claims to respect the rule of law.

For the moment, the constitutional approach to a reset depends on BBM and his newly appointed Ombudsman, Boying Remulla. If we go by BBM’s established lackadaisical style of leadership, things can go wrong.