As President Duterte has said repeatedly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the only solution to the spread of the coronavirus is the emergence of an effective vaccine. It seemed that in his view, the more standard protections—frequent hand-washing, wearing masks and face shields, keeping one’s distance from others and quarantining—were but temporary stopgap measures until the miraculous vaccine or vaccines emerged. What the President and many others frequently failed to mention, though, was another
Cha-cha, or Charter change, has always been a controversial subject. A survey conducted in mid-2018 revealed that majority of Filipinos were against amending the Constitution, and this unpopularity may have historical underpinnings. Many Filipinos still recall how former President Ferdinand Marcos passed the 1973 Constitution through a haphazard process that what was widely viewed as an attempt to prolong his stay in power. This move gained even more notoriety as the Supreme Court upheld the document’s validity in the landmark case of Javellana vs Executive Secretary. Marcos was eventually deposed, but the negative perceptions of Cha-cha continued, plaguing many outgoing
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