Administration opponents while admitting being caught off-guard, hope nonetheless to derail the initiative citing a 1997 Supreme Court ruling that the country's current law: The Initiative and Referendum Act does not cover the right to amend the Constitution. So while the country braces for yet another all-out political slugfest in the coming weeks, there are those who are asking if switching to a Parliamentary system will really make a difference, since the same political operators we have today will also be part of the new system! In the mid-seventies, a befuddled Ferdinand Marcos, running out of options that would perpetuate himself in power, switched the country over to a parliamentary system with Mr. Cesar Virata as its Prime Minister. History has now shown that Marcos did not truly know what he was doing and had only his welfare and those of his close associates in mind during his brief flirtation with the Parliamentary form of government.
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ith the Charter Change signature campaign spearheaded by the group Sigaw Ng Bayan going significantly better than expected, President
Arroyo felt confident enough to warn her foes in Congress to "stand back
because the train has already left the station."
Easily meeting the required number of
signatures, the Malacanang-endorsed Charter Change or "Cha-Cha"
initiative now goes to the Commission on Elections where the signatures
will be cross-referenced and verified.
Will this time be different? The President
has to make her case before the Filipino people. Over fifty years of
self-governance has shown that democracy in the Philippines is still
tenuous at best. If a parliamentary form of government will help
strengthen the country's democratic foundations, then it will succeed.
If however, it will be politics as usual, under a different guise, than
the country will continue adrift, lagging further and further behind its
Asian neighbors to truly become the poor, sick man of Asia. 
