167 signatures for 'con-ass'--solon
By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:06:00 11/30/2008
Filed Under: Charter change
MANILA, Philippines— (UPDATE) President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s political party is close to getting 197 signatures of members of the House of Representatives on a resolution seeking to amend the Constitution though a constituent assembly (Con-ass), the party president, Rep. Luis Villafuerte, said Sunday.
The Camarines Sur congressman and head of Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) told radio dzRH that 167 congressmen had signed the initiative. He expressed confidence that more would jump on the bandwagon in the coming weeks.
The signature drive has gathered momentum since the President’s son, Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez joined Villafuerte in actively soliciting signatures at the resumption of Congress last month.
Ms Arroyo and her husband were reportedly present during the informal launching of the Charter change (Cha-cha) initiative at a birthday party held at Romualdez’s residence a few weeks ago.
The younger Arroyo has confirmed asking his “collegial” peers in Congress to sign the resolution, but he denied being its leader.
“Our goal is not just to get the majority of the House but the three-fourths of Congress immediately and to end the controversy on what is the right interpretation,” Villafuerte said.
“We have to bring it to the Supreme Court to clear up the ground rules,” he added.
Kampi plans to gather up to 197 signatures of congressmen that would represent three-fourths of the combined number (262) of the House (238) and Senate (24) and force the Supreme Court to rule on whether the 1987 Constitution had intended that Congress vote either as one or separately in amending the Charter through a constituent assembly.
But the minority bloc has launched a countermove to gather at least 66 signatures to ensure that the Kampi initiative does not push through, said Deputy Minority Leader Roilo Golez.
The minority action, launched on Thursday, has 23 signatures so far, including those from parties allied with the administration—the Nationalist People’s Coalition and the Liberal Party.
But Golez said that even if the Kampi initiative got 99 percent of the entire House vote, it was “still a dead deal because the Senate will never vote for it.”
“It would be an insult to the members of the Supreme Court, present and future, to hope and pray and even second guess, that they would declare constitutional a one-chamber approval of Cha-cha,” Golez said.
Senate unlikely to agree
Although he agreed with the House move, Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor also doubted that the Senate would agree to the constituent assembly initiative.
Defensor said the Supreme Court would have its hands full interpreting the provision in the 1987 Constitution, which he described as vague, on the manner of voting on a mode of making amendments through a constituent assembly.
He noted that the framers of the 1987 Constitution had intended to come up with a unitary form of government but this lost by one vote to maintain the presidential form of government while the rest of the Charter was not amended to reflect the change in direction.
Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño said that while the “situation was ripe to talk about the Cha-cha debate,” the government has to address the public’s lingering suspicions that the move to railroad the resolution was a subterfuge to the ultimate goal of extending the term of office of President Arroyo.
“I think these debates can wait until after 2010 because there is just too much doubts on the real motives of the administration,” Casiño said.
They will sign toilet paper
But Villafuerte said that the voting issue would have to be resolved now because it could crop up even after 2010. To appease the doubters, he offered that he and other lawmakers would sign a document guaranteeing no extension to the term of any incumbent official and that there would be elections in 2010.
Casiño retorted that his peers would affix their signatures on any document, “even a toilet paper.”
In a radio interview, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago Sunday urged a suspension of all actions by the House in pushing for Charter change, warning that the country might end up in turmoil similar to what was happening in Thailand.
On the possibility that the Supreme Court may end up deciding whether a constituent assembly should vote jointly or separately, Santiago said that it was her view that the Senate and House should vote separately.
She said records of the Constitutional Commission on the 1987 Constitution showed that members omitted the term “voting separately” because they thought that the country would have a unicameral legislature.
Protests on Bonifacio Day
Also Sunday, several hundred protesters marking the 145th birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio at Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila vowed to fight Charter change.
“This is a useless and divisive exercise that serves no other purpose but to extend the term of a moribund government,” said Daniel Edralin, chair of the Alliance of Progressive Labor. With a report from Christine O. Avendaño, Jeannette Andrade and Nancy Carvajal
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