{"id":192610,"date":"2018-12-05T05:42:04","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T10:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=192610"},"modified":"2018-12-05T05:42:04","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T10:42:04","slug":"federal-system-of-govt-can-solve-graft-corruption-puno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/12\/05\/federal-system-of-govt-can-solve-graft-corruption-puno\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal system of gov’t can solve graft, corruption: Puno"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Consultative Committee to Review the 1987 Constitution head Reynato Puno says graft and corruption, poverty and political inequality can be solved under a federal constitution. (Photo courtesy of Simon Borromeo via PNA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The head of the Consultative Committee to review the 1987 Constitution said the special features of the draft federal constitution can put an end to graft and corruption in the country.<\/p>\n

During a public forum on federalism in Quezon City on Monday, former Chief Justice Reynato Puno explained that graft and corruption is a systemic problem that can\u2019t be solved by the current Charter.<\/p>\n

“Isang araw. sinabi ng Presidente gusto ko na mag<\/em>-resign\u00a0kasi hindi ma<\/em>-zero\u00a0ang problema ng<\/em>\u00a0(One day, the president said I want to resign because I\u2019m unable to eradicate the problem of) graft and corruption. Why, because it’s systemic.\u00a0Bago matapos ang\u00a0<\/em>graft case, it takes years because of the police, the judicial system, the case will end but acquitted,” he said.<\/p>\n

Puno said the same is true for crime problems nationwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government agencies, Customs, why can\u2019t we kick out those involved in drugs?\u00a0Meron daw silang<\/em>\u00a0security of tenure,\u00a0ang<\/em>\u00a0(They said they have security of tenure, the) 1987 Constitution, if you remove them, we could start with ground zero, with a new Constitution everybody will be out, the meritorious ones will be left,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Stressing the fact that wealth and power are enjoyed only by few prominent families, Puno said the 1987 Constitution is unable to address worsening economic and political inequalities.<\/p>\n

“Pinapamana na lang ang posisyon sa gobyerno<\/em>\u00a0(Government position is being inherited, it is part of the state planning already. The 1987 Constitution seemingly prohibits political dynasties as may be provided by law but no law prohibiting political dynasties, monopolies, cartels and oligopolies were created since 1987,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Puno remarked that three-fourths of the total number of congressmen and congresswomen might lose their position if the federal government draft will be passed.<\/p>\n

“Itong draft\u00a0namin<\/em>\u00a0strongly prohibits political dynasties\u00a0kaya ayaw ng mga nakaupo sa Kongreso<\/em>\u00a0(Our draft strongly prohibits political dynasties that’s why those in the Congress dislike it),” he said.<\/p>\n

He also told the public that the 1987 Constitution is not entirely bad, but it has limited vision of the changes which happened since it was created up to present time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 1987 Constitution is better than the Constitution during Marcos’s regime and the 1935 Constitution, but it\u2019s limited. There’s no constitution that is immune to change, there’s no perfect constitution, all constitutions have provisions for amendments, revisions to cater to the needs of a specific country, we need to adjust, change the constitution or else we will be the dinosaur of this century,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In connection to this, Puno clarified that the consultative committee he heads is a “non-partisan commission which is not dictated by any politician including the president”. They have submitted the draft in July to the Congress for consideration, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The head of the Consultative Committee to review the 1987 Constitution said the special features of the draft federal …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":192611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ma-teresa-montemayor","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}