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Some of the President’s allies are again reviving
their moves to amend the Constitution. Their plans have been
defeated twice, in public and judicial opinion. They should
constrain their zeal for their cause which the thinking segment of
the masses, the leaders of the leading parties, the bishops of
the Catholic Church and the clergy of the Protestant churches
roundly reject.
The president of the Catholic
Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo of
Jaro, reflected the voice of the majority of the members when he
said that “talk”—not moves but only “talk”—to amend the
Constitution should be done after the 2010 election. He told the
ruling politicians that talking about Cha-cha will only be
misinterpreted by the people as a defensive reaction of the Palace
to anti-Arroyo administration agitations being whipped by scandals
and allegations of corruption.
Openly critical of the Arroyo
administration, Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Lingayen spoke less
diplomatically. He said the revival by pro-administration
leaders of the campaign to amend the Charter is an effort to keep
President Macapagal-Arroyo in power and to counter calls for her
resignation. The Archbishop of Lingayen accused the President
and her men of “using all means, sparing none, to keep her immune
from suits for the rest of her mortal life and that is why they will
use Charter change, state of emergency declarations and other ways
to disguise martial law” to stay in power beyond 2010.
A toast to Nograles
Everyone must treat with sobriety
and wisdom the matter of rewriting our 1986 fundamental law, no
matter how imperfect, verbose and prone to disputatious misreadings.
Which is why we raise a glass to
Speaker Prospero Nograles. On Valentine’s Day he called on the
movers of the Cha-cha campaign to desist, saying the time to work on
it is after the 2010 election. Apparently ever-solicitous for
President Arroyo’s comfort and reputation, the Speaker’s primary
reason for rejecting Charter change now is that it only makes the
people suspect that the real objective is to extend Mrs. Arroyo’s
hold on political power and therefore make them trust and like her
even less.
Mr. Nograles also said he prefers
to have constitutional amendments done through a proper
constitutional convention to which delegates are elected by the
people.
His stand against the
People’s Initiative of revising the Charter is something for which
he should be praised.
The local government heads,
especially those in Mindanao, are touted to be his staunch
supporters. The provincial, city, town and barangay officials—as
evidenced by their enthusiasm for Cha-cha through People’s
Initiative in 2006 and 2007—prefer the signature method for it
gives them some dividends. Money is poured into the localities for
the campaign to gather the signatures of qualified voters supporting
the amendments proposed by the ruling parties. The Cha-cha
campaign is therefore an opportunity for LGU officials to freshen
their image before their voters as generous lords bearing gifts and
giving banquets as in an actual election.
It must have been difficult for
Mr. Nograles to speak against his constituency’s wishes. But he
did.
Praise also Malacañang
The Palace, thank God, has also
eschewed the pro-Cha-cha moves of its local government allies. Word
from the government—by Deputy Presidential Spokesman Anthony Golez
but not by Secretary Toting Bunye—was widely circulated by the
Philippine News Agency—that “the Cha-cha roadshow (led by the
President’s close friend and adviser Albay Gov. Jose Salceda) is a
local government matter. We [the President’s office] don’t have
anything to do with that as a matter of fact.”
Another deputy spokesperson
for the President, Lorelei Fajardo, claimed it is baseless to
believe that Salceda’s Charter-change initiative is a diversionary
tactic to make people forget about problems and scandals they blame
the administration for.
And Executive Secretary Eduardo
Ermita himself was quoted in government press releases acknowledging
Archbishop Lagdameo’s warning that pushing for Charter change at
this time could be misinterpreted as a ploy to keep the President in
power amid renewed calls for her resignation. “We should
slow down so that we will not be misinterpreted,” Ermita said in a
press briefing in Malacañang.
We hope and pray Malacañang does
not end up, once more—and for the nth time—saying one thing and
doing another.
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