Not so sick after all

Many are wondering why former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was released on bail  last week when she is facing an election sabotage case  in court.

Wonder of all wonders, she was  walking and smiling as she  left the hospital contrary to what her camp has been telling us that she is very ill and needs treatment abroad. Soon after her release, she immediately went home to her La Vista residence in Quezon City  and not a  hospital.

So  Justice Secretary de Lima was correct to stop the former president from leaving the country. It was  clear to her that GMA wanted to leave the country not to seek medical assistance but to escape  the cases she had to face.

With news reported that Arroyo is seeking another term in Congress to represent  the 2nd district of Pampanga, this again belies the attempt to present her as a  very sick person who  needs medical experts abroad to look into her ailment.

But I think she will eventually return to jail or hospital arrest with the filing of a  graft case against her by the Office of the Ombudsman before the Sandiganbayan.

As President Aquino said in his State of the Nation Address, Arroyo can be forgiven but what she did could not be forgotten.

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In his SONA last Monday, President Aquino listed the achievements of his administration so far   and the many things that still need to be done in his three remaining years.

Without a doubt, the Aquino administration has done a lot for Filipinos.  Yet  there are still so many problems the people want him to  attend to and solve that are  humanly impossible to finish. What is clear is that we have an honest president whose commitment to cleanse the government of graft and corruption has succeeded with the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

I think  Filipinos should be happy and proud to have  an honest president.  He  can’t solve all the problems alone, especially those brought about natural and man-made calamities.

To contribute to the solution, we can do our part as  citizens by being responsible parents.  We can  plan  and pepare for the number of children that we can nurture, feed and send to school. The country should also start opening its eyes  to changing the system of government that would allow more leaders to be responsible in providing solutions.

I propose that the administration seriously look into amending the Constitution to shift from the present unitary system of government to a federal system where  local government units are given the opportunity to directly attend to  peculiar problems of their localities.

With this proposal we bring the government closest to the people and make government more  relevant.  This setup  would give  local governments  sole responsibility to solve local problems and fund local infrastructure projects instead of always looking for the president for help and direction.

It’s time to seriously look into this change given the present  100-million population, which is ten times bigger than the 10 million Filipinos around when the presidential  system of government was conceived.

Time and again we have seen the present system of government fail to respond effectively to problems of the country especially those in far flung areas simply because we are  hindered by bureaucracy.