Ex-CJ Puno: Two-party system ‘best’ for PH

Former Chief Justice Reynato Puno. (File photo by RYAN LEAGOGO / INQUIRER.net)

Former Chief Justice Reynato Puno believes that a two-party political system is the “best” system for the Philippines at its current stage of political development.

In an ambush interview on Wednesday, Puno said that the country had not reached the level of political maturity where more than two parties could participate in politics.

“The study of this Consultative Committee is that at this stage of our political development, it is best to have a two-party political system,” the former chief magistrate told reporters.

“We don’t like a uni-party political system where you have only one party because surely that is not good for democracy. Nor are we sympathetic to the adoption of a multiparty system,” he said.

Puno made the remark after Malacañang’s Consultative Committee, which he chairs, adopted to include provisions in the draft federal charter that would ban political turncoatism.

“The stress in all these reforms is to strengthen our political parties. We want to establish a meaningful two-party system,” Puno said.

While the multiparty system was adopted in other countries such as those in Europe, Puno explained: “We have not reached that level of political maturity yet where we can migrate from a two-party system to a multiparty system.” /atm