Star Matter

The 1987 Philippine Constitution, though crafted by people who were still celebrating their freshly recovered freedom from 20 years of tyrannical rule, has not succeeded in re-distributing power from the center, which people in Mindanao, even non-Muslims, still refer to as “Imperial Manila.” Immense amount of power, including supervision over the autonomous regions and other local governments units in the country, was vested upon the president. Somehow it has entrenched even more deeply a patronage political set-up where the periphery is beholden to the center, waiting for graces from Manila to rain upon them as dogs do for scraps from their masters. And like dogs, some local chief executives sit when the president says so.