Arroyo’s draft charter ‘could be worse than 1935 – Generoso

The draft federal charter of House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and allies is “worse than the 1935 Constitution” and would be a hard sell given its lack of anti-political dynasty and anti-turncoatism provisions.

Conrado “Ding” Generoso, the spokesman of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Consultative Committee (Con-com), raised these red flags on Monday.

“Many people have doubts with regard to any move to revise the Constitution. When you trust it to Congress, (and) they have not been able to make any anti-dynasty law in 30 years what they can come up with?” he said in an interview over ANC.

“This would be very difficult to sell to the public. We believe that the Con-com draft is more acceptable to the public than this draft,” he added.

Generoso also said that the Con-com, led by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno, would stand by its position not to support a draft charter without political reforms.

“The consultative committee has made a position that without the political reforms, without the anti-dynasty provisions, in particular without the anti-turncoatism provisions, the group of CJ Puno will not support such a draft Constitution,” he said.

The spokesman also noted that the term limits for members of Congress have been lifted under the draft charter of the House.

“There will be forever in the terms of some of the members of Congress, the second thing is notably there is no anti-dynasty provision… This could be worse than the 1935 Constitution,” he said.

Last Oct. 2, the House constitutional amendments panel approved and referred to the plenary Resolution of Both Houses of Congress No. 15 under committee report No. 881, which provides for a presidential-bicameral-federal system of government. The resolution was filed on Sept. 19.

This draft is different from Con-com’s draft federal charter which was approved last July 3.

READ: Duterte’s Con-com OKs final draft of federal Constitution

Under the House draft, members of Congress– senators and congressmen– would be elected for a term of four years. There was no term limit provided but Congress members should be college degree holders.

The draft charter also indicated that the President and the Vice President should have the same powers and functions as that of the 1987 Constitution. Both officials should also come from the same political party and a vote for the President would also be a vote for the Vice President.

The two highest-ranking officials should also serve a term of four years with one re-election and should be college degree holders.

The first election under the proposed Constitution would be held on the second Monday of May 2022.

It added that the term of the President and the Vice President, which shall end on June 30, 2022, should not be extended. The incumbent President is also prohibited from running in the 2022 elections.

Read the copy of the House federal charter draft here: