GUIDELINES IN CHOOSING SENATORIAL CANDIDATES
QUALIFICATIONS
1. Those who support the immediate lifting of legal restrictions on foreign investments, to strengthen free and open competition, and promote job creation, price reduction and tax generation, subject to safeguards to protect national security, and to reciprocity to promote national interest.
2. Those who support the scheduled shift to a parliamentary form of government, coupled with a council-type LGU, to institute collegial rule (by an assembly of people’s representatives elected from single-member districts), instead of one-man rule (by one chief executive elected at large), and promote political democracy.
3. Those who support the gradual decentralization of the national government to empower the regions, by supporting the growth and enabling the development of regional centers, under either a regional authority, autonomous region or substate.
DISQUALIFICATIONS
1. Those who voted for the impeachment and conviction of the late CJ Renato Corona, amidst charges of bribery by the Aquino administration, using public funds sourced from the unconstitutional DAP, for apparent political considerations; this anomaly shook to the core the entire judicial branch of government, a major pillar of our democracy.2. Those who support, aid and abet the communist rebels of the CPP-NPA-NDF, a declared terrorist organization, like those from KABAG (Kabataan-Anakbayan-Bayan Muna-ACT-Gabriela); they aim to take power through violence, intimidation, deceit, and class war among fellow Filipinos.
3. Those who support religious extremists (like the Abu Sayyaf, Maute, etc.) that terrorize and wage war against peoples of different beliefs; religious intolerance of other beliefs, like those of Christians, moderate Islam, and Animists (i.e. Indigenous People), has no place in our democracy.
4. Those who defend the COMELEC and its technology supplier, SMARTMATIC, in their brazen disablement of techno-legal safeguards, and obstinate refusal to undergo digital forensic examination; the lack of transparency in the counting of the votes casts a dark cloud of doubt over the integrity of automated elections.
5. Those who engage in excessive propaganda using tri-media (i.e. ABS-CBN, GMA7, ABC5, Inquirer, Philstar, etc.) and social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but have nothing show in actual hard projects on the ground.
6. Those who resist constitutional reform, and defend the existing monopolies and oligopolies of the local elite in industries indispensable to national interest (i.e. telecommunication, transportation, power, water, natural resources, mass media, education, etc.), using the law to protect their vested interests, and bar competition from otherwise legitimate industry players.
7. Those who resist constitutional reform, and hold on to the present presidential form, that institutionalizes one-man rule, where a single individual controls the entire executive branch, and appoints all the justices, who cannot be sued, and cannot be removed except by impeachment, without regard to the sentiment of the assembly of people’s representatives.
8. Those who resist constitutional reform, and hold on to the present unitary system, that institutionalizes highly centralized governance, where all the major decision makers (i.e. President & Cabinet Members) are clustered in the national capital region, while the regional offices are given only recommendatory functions.
CONSIDERATIONS
1. Those publicly accused of CRIMES (like Human Rights violations, and Graft & Corruption) are NOT necessarily disqualified. To be fair, we should let the courts decide who are guilty and not guilty, based on evidence.
2. Those publicly accused of being EVIL are NOT necessarily disqualified. To be honest, people in general cannot read into the heart and conscience of an individual, except the very few who are gifted. In the end, only God can make the final judgment on who are good and evil.
Metro Manila, Philippines. 24 January 2022.
