The big news the other day was the impending cancellation of the barangay election. The enabling bill is already a done deal in the Lower House and it will go smoothly in the Senate to be signed into law in the coming weeks by the President.
The reason given was the fear of the President that drug money will be used to finance the victory of lackeys of drug lords.
Admittedly, there are sitting barangay captains under the beck and call of drug syndicates but is it that extensive to tamper with the established selection of barangay leaders? Which brings us to the other side of the coin. There is a well-grounded fear the real reason is for the President and his group to have almost total control over officials of the country, all the way down to the grassroots.
While a strong control might be desirable if the leadership is benevolent, it can be easily abused if temptation gets the better of them. More so when they start thinking they are like gods who can do everything they want to do.
So far there appears a modicum of respect to the system. At least the administration is still following the process of having a legal justification for their move—to be accomplished by the passing of the said bill into law.
They can however easily go overboard. When will the next act be to subvert the system? One thing can lead to another and then we will wake up one day that the whole system has been tampered with beyond recognition and we are under the total control of those in power—with no individual rights to speak of.
For the process can take a life of its own and could end up beyond the control of the President who thinks he is benevolent enough to do whatever he thinks is right. Even assuming that, what will happen if something happens to him? It would be chaos and it is often the military in such a situation who will end up controlling the country. God forbid.**