Thursday, January 18, 2018

Episode 15: The question of Philippine federalism (Part 3)

Now that congress has formally started hearings on charter revisions to shift to a federal structure of government, some legislators are asking: Well, what’s the benefit to the public? Is federalism worth the trouble? The same goes for the proposed adoption of a semi-parliamentary form of government. And is it appropriate for the Philippines, a country of over 100 million people, dispersed over 7,000 islands? In this third and final installment to this series, we seek to supply the answer to these questions, as well as offer a critique of the proposed revisions of the ruling PDP-Laban.

Listen to the podcast here.

Read the transcripts here.

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Episode 14: Twelve constitutional fixes needed for the Philippines


There are things within our present charter that need fixing. Twelve to be exact. These revisions won’t require any term extensions or postponement of elections. This episode will be devoted to discussing each of them. Hopefully the need to fix them will be self-evident, and may result in some kind of consensus, across party-lines [image credit: filipiknow.net].


Monday, January 1, 2018

Episode 13: How does change come about?

The more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems. Corruption reigns, political families reign, now drugs and criminality, secession and rebellion persist. Much of our society is still mired in poverty. How do we achieve real, lasting change? We look at the context, prospects and pace of change in the Philippines in this episode. Erratum: Tocqueville's Democracy in America was published in 1835, not in the late 1700s as mentioned in the piece.
Listen to the podcast here.
Read the transcript here.