France as model?

President Rodrigo Duterte has urged Congress to push for a federal system that is similar to France's, which follows a federal presidential model.

France is no federation. On the contrary, it is a highly centralized state with perfectly authoritarian structure. All decisions are taken in imperial Paris.

The 12 regions, 96 departements, 327 arrondissements have the sole purpose to make sure that the president's policy is executed in these hierarchically subordinated local entities. They have no autonomy on their own.

In the Philippines, there are the eight major lowland peoples with their own language and culture as are the Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Pampanguenos, Pangasinenses, Bicolanos, Warays, Cebuanos and Ilongos.

In addition, there are the Moros and numerous indigenous peoples. The National Capital Region is also particular.

In order to do justice to their particularities, former senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. has proposed 12 federal states.

I am sure that this island nation will prosper under a federal set-up but I strongly doubt that Filipinos would welcome the authoritarian model of France's regionalization.

In the Philippine federation there should be a federal parliament of 81 members and a federal council of about 30 members as representatives of the states in the capital. These two legislative chambers have to control the federal government headed by a prime minister responsible to them.

In the states, there should be a unicameral state parliament and a state government with a state prime minister at its helm.

All parliamentarians have to make sure that the principle of separation of powers is maintained lest corruption and pork barrelling take place.

The parliamentarians are duly and directly elected representatives of the people. Consequently it is them who shall have the power and after due debate must have the last say on every political issue. They elect the prime minister and depose him or her in a no-trust votum by electing another prime minister. No tedious impeachment, no interregnum!

The president as the head of state has representative and moral functions. He swears in the prime minister and the Cabinet members on proposal of the majority of the parliamentarians.

President Duterte believes that he is the representative of the people. He named Malacañang Palace as house of the people. A good intention but incompatible with the democratic principle of proportional representation of the electorate's will in governance. He might have forgotten that only 38 percent of voters gave him the mandate.

President Duterte wants to be like Charles de Gaulle who has tailored the Constitution of the French Fifth Republic to fit his own authoritarian style.

It is true that at the time he was the only leader of sufficient strength and stature to deal with the perilous situation of his patrimony. In that respect President Duterte quite closely resembles President de Gaulle. Both also are great patriots, anti-American and anti-parliament. The General twice dissolved the National Assembly during his long tenure as president.

President de Gaulle was ousted by the popular uprising of the May 1968 revolts. He retired frustrated on April 28, 1969 and died at age 79 the following year.

The Fifth Republic and its voting system are still in vigor today. Characteristic is the two rounds system of voting.

On April 23, 2017 the French electorate will have the choice between a host of candidates for president of which only 10 have a chance to win because they are nominated by a political party in Presidential Primaries.

Should no candidate win an outright majority in that first round a runoff between the top two will be held two weeks later on May 7. Forcibly one will get more than 50 percent of votes and become president for five years with the possibility of one reelection.

It is said that the French vote with their heart in the first round and with their brain in the second. Many blank votes usually show protest and disdain for politics in the first round.

Legislative elections are held five weeks after the presidential elections in order to allow the newly elected president to have a majority in the National Assembly and to avoid ‘ cohabitation” that sometimes had paralyzed efficient governance before a reform in 2008.

Obviously, President Duterte is dreaming of imitating the French presidency. But his dream has to take three hurdles: the 25 wise men of the Constitutional Commission might propose a parliamentary system, the Congress acting as Constitutional Assembly might show that they are independent of the executive and finally the people of the Philippines might junk in a plebiscite the ambition of a single person who speaks to much of martial law, suspension of writ of habeas corpus and dictatorship.-- by Erich Wannemacher, 70, a national of The Federal Republic of Germany and expat for 23 years in RP, residing in Lapu-Lapu City