Aquino will see the light on Charter change–Drilon

Senator Franklin Drilon

Senator Franklin Drilon believes that once plenary debates on amending the Constitution begin in Congress, President Benigno Aquino III will be convinced of the validity of Charter change.

“The President has not closed his mind at this point. The latest information from Malacañang is that he is listening,” said Drilon, a Liberal Party colleague of Mr. Aquino who is leading fresh Charter change efforts.

Congressional leaders plan to “exert every effort” to convince the President of the necessity to amend the Constitution and provide a better business climate in the country, he told the Kapihan sa Senado Thursday.

“We do realize that without the political support of the President, (the Charter change campaign) will not succeed,” he said.

Lukewarm

Mr. Aquino is said to be lukewarm to the idea of amending the 1987 Constitution that was ratified during the administration of his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino.

He remains unconvinced by arguments that the changes would be limited only to the economic provisions, not the political ones such as those that would lift term limits or extend the terms of elected officials.

But Drilon believes that once plenary debates on the legislative resolutions proposing various amendments begin, “the pros and cons of each particular proposal will be exposed and we can convince the President of the validity of these substantive proposals.”

If the President were to throw his political support behind the fresh attempts to amend the Charter, changes in the economic provisions would be in place before his term is over in 2016, said Drilon.

Criticized

Even then, Drilon’s proposal to convene a bicameral constituent assembly as the best mode to effect the amendments has been met with criticism from the House.

Minority Leader Edcel Lagman (Albay)  said the idea of a bicameral constituent assembly does not exist in the current Charter.

Questions were also raised about the idea of the two chambers voting separately on proposed revisions and later reconciling the conflicting provisions of their versions.

Drilon argued that granted that there was nothing in the Constitution that allows a bicameral constituent assembly, there was also nothing in the Charter that prohibits it.

The Constitution provides for three modes to amend the Charter.  One is through a constitutional convention where delegates are elected; another is by convening Congress into a constituent assembly; a third is via a people’s initiative where signatures of 5 percent of all voters in all congressional districts are gathered to indicate support for a proposed amendment.

Drilon said more meetings are being scheduled between the House and the Senate to determine which specific economic provisions would be lined up for alterations.

He said the choices would be discussed to determine whether amending them is urgent.

Drilon earlier said that the plan is to pass separate Senate and House resolutions indicating the amendments. This is to make sure that the votes of the 23 senators are not mixed in with those of the House legislators.

“If you cannot hurdle a particular proposal in both houses, it would never succeed,” he noted.

Economic provisions

“The commitment of legislative leaders is limited to economic provisions. I myself will oppose any proposal to amend the political provisions.  Besides, the way the Senate works, we can stall till kingdom come if one senator is against (a measure),” Drilon said.

Militant party-list House members earlier warned that the constitutional provision limiting foreign ownership in Filipino companies to 40 percent would be a likely target.

They claimed that the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. is interested to promote this amendment following a recent Supreme Court decision questioning its ownership ratio.