A vision that should not fade

TWO years ago, the consultative committee to study the 1987 Constitution completed its task and submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte, as he had requested, a draft Constitution for a federal republic. I was part of that committee that Chief Justice Reynato Puno headed and that had the late former Senate president Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr. and former Supreme Court justice Antonio Nachura as alternate chairmen. The entire Constitution was reviewed - not merely those provisions that had to do with setting in place a federal government. I led the study of Article 1, National Territory, and Article III, the Bill of Rights, besides contributing to the drafting of other articles and sections.

We did not have the comparatively luxurious pace that the Corazon Aquino Constitutional Commission of 1986 had - all of one year! We convened in February and were directed to deliver before the presidential State of the Nations Address in July. But that does not mean that the work was haphazard, that it suffered from want of closer study and thorough debate. The exchanges were many: frank, intelligent and sometimes acrimonious. But we were all determined to do a good job. One guiding principle we had adopted at the outset of our discussions was that where the 1987 Constitution needed no revision, there would be none. It was - and still is - after all a good Constitution penned by very thoughtful people, the likes of Adolf Azcuna, Joaquin Bernas, Regalado Maambong, Hilarion Davide, etc.