Ex-SC justice advises President Duterte to direct Congress to move for federalism

TACLOBAN CITY – If President Duterte wants Congress to tackle Charter change to kick off the shift to federalism, all he has to do is to say so.

This was the advice of former Supreme Court justice Antonio Nachura, a member of the Consultative Commission.

During a forum on federalism on Wednesday, Nachura said congressmen would immediately move to amend the Constitution and pave the way to federalism if there was a directive from the President.

“We just hope that the President will again … issue a marching order to the congressmen,” said Nachura, who also served as congressman of Samar.

He said he met with some congressmen, including Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso, who heads the House committee on constitutional amendments, and expressed their sentiments for Mr. Duterte to ask them to focus on federalism.

After all, he added, it was the President who broached the idea of shifting the form of government from presidential to federal.

When he ran for president in 2016, Mr. Duterte promised to change the form of government to federalism.

Nachura said one of the stumbling blocs in the campaign was the strong opposition of the senators, including those who belong to the administration.

But he said their stance might change if the President would talk to them.

Nachura said some senators were opposing the move just for the sake of opposing it.

“They don’t want to amend just the (1987) Constitution and necessarily on the provisions of the Constitution,” he said.

He admitted that there was no guarantee that Congress would change the constitutional provisions pertaining only to federalism.

“There is no guarantee. I’m sure they will institute their own changes. But we just hope that they will invite us during their debates so we can explain why we have these provisions,” Nachura said.

One of the provisions of the proposed constitution is the prohibition on political dynasty, which was opposed by several lawmakers.

Nachura also said that if federalism would not be taken up due to the 2019 midterms, he hoped it would become an election issue.

“This should be considered as an election issue and let’s see what will be the (reaction of the people. And if the people will oppose it, then we cannot do anything but accept it. The decision of the people should be followed,” he said.