Ironically, last week’s damning comments on state-condoned violence by United Nations rapporteur Philip Alston and publication of the Melo report (despite the government’s attempt to suppress it) would probably have had a bigger impact on Gloria if the parliamentary system she is so fond of were already in place.
In a Westminster-type system, the head of the executive branch, the prime minister, also sits in the parliament and is answerable to it. Under such a system, the unflattering UN rapporteur’s report, the government’s misguided efforts to prevent distribution of the Melo report, and the contents of that report when it was published would, at the very least, have led to a sticky parliamentary session for Gloria, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales, and National Security Advisor Norbierto Gonzales.
The implication in both reports that the current government is implicated in the systematic murder of its own citizens would almost certainly have resulted in a “vote of no confidence”, which is when the fun would have started. The current government holds a comfortable majority in the house of representatives—but then all governments that go into this process have a majority (that’s why they are the government), yet not a few fail to come out the other side. This is especially true in issues of conscience such as these killings, when even strong supporters of the president’s economic policies may have found its response to the murders stuck in the throat.
Perhaps Gloria may have cause to be grateful to the supreme court for striking down the “people’s initiative” after all.
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