A simple constitutional amendment
THE LAST post gave me another wild thought:
What if instead of trying to ram the GI (government initiative) masquerading as PI (people's initiative) down our throats, we submit this simple amendment to Section 2 of Article 7 the 1987 Constitution as a rider in the 2007 elections:
No person may be elected President unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, a registered voter, able to read and write, NOT MORE THAN (instead of AT LEAST) forty years of age on the day of the election, and a resident of the Philippines for at least ten years immediately preceding such election.Numerically, it makes sense. In the 2000 population and housing census, more than 3 of every 4 Filipinos are below 40 years old. So that in one fell swoop, it will bridge the gulf between the leadership and the public, fix the generational short-end of the stick, and restore the youthful dynamism that characterized the Philippine Revolution a century ago.
6 comments:
mabalos manoy willy. ipagrokyaw ta sadiri tang literatura
let us exchange links!!! nice blog.
the problem is that we also do not have a shortage of young trapos. matutuwa niyan sina defensor at mikey arroyo
Don't know Nagueno, this sounds like you think the problem is old folks. But puzzle me this. Registration rates among persons under 30 are far lower than those above 30. The "young" in other words don't participate in elections very much, even if they seem to have strong opinions about everything. The old...well, they're just old, but remember, we all get there, sooner or later (hopefully).
Kristian: Siempre. Am thinking of putting up a blog in Bikol somewhere down the line.:)
Mikmik: As Rizalist told me when I made the same request, my bandwidth is your bandwidth.:)
Mong: You've got a point there. The tweak in age qualification will not guarantee that trapos will go away. But I think it will deepen the pool, and enhance the quality of our choices.
Rizalist: Been googling for data on voter registration rates broken down into age groups, to no avail thus far. But come to think of it: can it be possible that the young hardly participate precisely because the possible choices hardly inspire?
Have nothing against the old; with a grayed mane, I in fact largely consider myself an old dog trying to learn new tricks.:)
But the following lines I saw from Iloilo City Boy's tie up nicely with Manolo's point about the idealism that seem to get jaded with age:
"When I was in my 20s I wanted to change the world. When I was 30 I wanted to change my country. In my 40s I decided I only wanted to change my city. When I was 50 I found myself wanting to change only my community. Now that I am in my 60s, I realize that I only need to change myself and that if I started sooner, things would have been better for everyone all around."
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