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By Sammy Martin, Reporter
Members of the majority bloc in the House of Representatives want
the Supreme Court to play into their hands in their push for Charter
change or “Cha-cha.”
Rep. Arthur Defensor of Quezon City on Monday
said the main objective behind fresh attempts of the House majority
to pitch for “Cha-cha” is to force the High Tribunal into ruling
in favor of either Constituent assembly (“Con-ass”) or
Constitutional convention (“Con-con”) as the mode for effecting
amendments to the 1987 Constitution.
“We are only looking for a trigger mechanism,
to force the Supreme Court to make a decision [on how amendments to
the Constitution should be done],” said Defensor, also the House
majority floor leader.
Under the Con-ass, the Senate and the House will
vote jointly. Congressmen outnumber senators. Under the Con-con, the
two chambers vote separately.
What the House majority specifically wants,
according to Defensor, is for the Supreme Court to make the ruling
immediately so that amending the Constitution could be done right
after the 2010 elections or during the Fifteenth Congress, which
begins in mid-2009.
He explained that a resolution filed by House
Speaker Prospero Nograles Jr. and that by Rep. Luis Villafuerte of
Camarines Sur that had not been filed yet would only serve as their
guide in pushing Charter change.
The two resolutions, Defensor said, do not
propose a term extension for elective officials.
Since they do not, he added, Caloocan Bishop
Deogracias Yñiguez should stop saying that these two and other
resolutions are only meant to extend the term of President Gloria
Arroyo. Yñiguez joined a protest action against “Cha-cha” at
Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila on Sunday
“And even if the congressmen push for term
extension, do you think the senators will approve it?” Defensor
asked. President Arroyo’s term ends in 2010.
Earlier, Nograles filed House Resolution 737
with the support of 163 lawmakers to amend the 1987 Constitution.
Also specifically, the resolution aims to amend only Sections 2 and
3, Article 12 of the 1987 Constitution or the economic provisions to
allow 100-percent foreign ownership of lands.
The still unnumbered Villafuerte resolution
signed by 167 lawmakers calls on the Senate and the House to convene
into a Constituent assembly.
Against ‘Cha-cha’
On Thursday, at least 23 lawmakers, including
former House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. crossed party lines in
filing House Resolution 888 expressing vehement opposition to all
moves to amend the Constitution before June 2010.
One of the signatories, Rep. Teofisto Guingona
3rd of Bukidnon, said he and other members of the House minority
would counter the signature campaign of the congressmen behind
Cha-cha.
“It is easy to get 65 signatures to kill [the
resolution] proposing ‘Cha-cha’ even after several Malacañang
allies had already signified their intention to support the
measure,” Guingona added, apparently referring to the Villafuerte
resolution.
“All we need is 60 warm bodies in the actual
count in the plenary, and we can get the magic number to finally
bury Cha-cha before the year ends,” he said.
Guingona expressed belief that the
administration congressmen, through the Nograles and Villafuerte
resolutions, want to test the waters if they can push through with
the lifting of term limits and avoid the scheduled 2010 elections by
postponing them for 2011 to have enough time to cook “Cha-cha.”
Stop speculations
Nograles said antigovernment groups should stop
feeding the people with speculations and innuendos in their effort
to thwart constitutional reforms.
“The Cha-cha moves will always remain
controversial in any administration, past, present or future, and
won’t get any unanimity,” Nograles said in a statement.
“That’s the reason why as leader of the House, I would like to
push for an open, public and transparent debate with no hidden
agenda and with cards on the table.”
“Constitutional reform is larger than partisan
interests,” he added. “It involves correcting the defects of the
Constitution. It underscores our ability to embrace or reject
change.”
Bernas warning
A known constitutionalist disagreed, warning
that pushing for constitutional amendments at this time would only
add more fuel to the people’s supposed dissatisfaction with the
Arroyo administration.
Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ, made the warning a day
after Yñiguez and several advocacy groups held a protest rally
against Charter change in Manila.
Bernas, in a report posted on the website of the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), urged
“Cha-cha” proponents in Congress to pursue their plans after the
2010 elections to remove doubts that they are only after extending
the President’s term beyond 2010.
“I think we will have to make some changes
there, in our Constitution . . . but I think it should be [done]
after 2010 so we can remove the suspicions,” he said, echoing the
stand of the bishops.
The bishops’ group also proposed that
amendments to the Constitution should me made through the Con-con,
not the Con-ass.
Used to protests
Malacañang also on Monday said it is not
alarmed at the protest actions against “Cha-cha” since such
moves are part of democracy.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the
public should not worry about the initiatives in Congress seeking
amendments to the Constitution because it is the people who will
have the final say on the matter through a plebiscite.
“There is no cause for concern [over the
protest actions] because our lawmakers are following the process
based on the Constitution in pursuing amendments to the Charter,”
Ermita added.
-- With Anthony Vargas And Angelo S. Samonte
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