190 Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy presidential power being abused. For instance, at the height of its exercise of its presidential powers, the Arroyo administration, not surprisingly, sought to exempt its executive officials from the investigative and monitoring functions of Congress. Another complementary check to a president with too much power is a party system with enough legitimacy and strength to challenge and provide a broader base of consensus to presidential initiatives. Thus, if a well institutionalized and disciplined party system has emerged, it can provide an expanded venue for policy-making and consensus which otherwise would be overwhelmingly dominated by the president. In exploring further some reform measures to advance the cause of horizontal accountability, Ronas cautions against grand projects designed to amend the constitution for major institutional changes such as the shift to a federal-parliamentary system. He argues that these are inherently divisive measures with potentially more harmful unintended consequences. Instead, he focuses on more pragmatic and doable and yet consequential measures such as restoring to Congress the power over the purse (budgeting process), the strengthening of the rules and powers of LEDAC (Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council) and JELACC (Judicial Executive Legislative Advisory and Consultative Council), and ensuring the fiscal autonomy of the Judiciary. Indeed, these are reform areas where the leadership of a strong president could be tested: not in the exercise of overwhelming power over Congress and the Judiciary but in the exercise of negotiating skills for welfareenhancing distributive reforms. As Boix asserts: … changing the constitutional framework of a country has a small impact on the stability of a democratic regime. . .When a society is sufficiently equal or when capital is sufficiently mobile, democracy prevails regardless of the rules (parliamentarism, plurality rule, and so on) employed. When a society is acutely unequal, no constitutional rule can sustain democracy (2003: 15). However, specific amendments to the existing constitution may be worth exploring to address unique problems such as the possibility of institutionalizing a system of asymmetric federalism for the Muslim dominated provinces of Mindanao. Looking forward to a long-term response to horizontal accountability and the overall problem of democratic consolidation, Ronas advocates a broad coalition of reform encompassing concerned government officials and various civil society organizations. To provide a more focused arena of mobilization and organization, these reform coalitions can be organized along specific issues such as the passage of the Freedom for Information Act, working for just,