Is it the system or the people to blame? By: Jeremiah Eleazer G.

Sotto IR 356

It was another meeting in our Phil. Economic and Socio-cultural Communications class. Discussion on the current events had been open. It was started and now better participated in my own judgment. One of the most noted points of discussion was about the educational attainment of our government officials. It started by raising a point wherein Senators Lapid, Revilla, and others do not participate much, or even do not at all, in debates in the Senate because of their lack of communication skills in the English language. It was even shared by our Professor that Sen. Lapid even drafted a bill to make Filipino or Tagalog the official language in the plenary, but of course, this draft did not come with weighty points. There are a lot of reasons why it cannot be passed. It is somehow a common sense. Then it all boiled down to adding an educational attainment for government officials. It was already drafted by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago a few years ago. The must of having an educational attainment rather than being able to read and write as what the present Philippine Constitution states gives way for these not apt persons to run for office because of their popularity and being loved by the masses. Therefore, they are not functioning as how the position must function, so contributing to the chains that delay the development of our country. Vague but true. It is really understandable if our Constitution will state an educational attainment in law, public administration and the like to all of our public officials to ensure their credibility in leading our nation. It can be great, but in my own humble opinion, it would degrade the sense of democracy we have in our country. If the Constitution will oblige an educational attainment for all public officials or even to those holding national positions, our democracy will now be aristocracy or a government in which power is vested in a minority consisting of those believed to be best qualified. (Merriam-Webster Online) What would be the best yet hardest decision is to educate the electorate in choosing the right leaders for our country. We are now living in the technological century and the social media can be used to educate the voters on who to vote for. A lot would say that this would take a long time to happen. It is irking for fellow Fiipinos to always disregard a best plan because it will take a long time to be achieved. We always tend to plan short-term goals and regret the long-term which provides greater results. I leave it there. I am not against providing educational attainment for national officials. If our nationalist lawmakers would push through this, I would take part. However, let us not keep some of our electorate as stupid as what we they are now. Let us help them be wiser and not relying much on their compassion and popular nothings. We may have educated officials elected. They may function far better than those now. However, would they be the only instruments for our countrys development? Let us remember that we are a democratic-republican nation. The power is vested on the people. Let us not let this power be vested on a majority of fragile people. Now my question is, is it the system or the people to blame? Which or who should we change? So far, my answer would be change must start from us.