Arroyo resumes push for federal Charter

REVIVING A ‘DEAD HORSE’ Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo says the House of Representatives is ready to work on the last unfulfilled agenda in President Duterte’s Sona starting next week, a prospect that is expected to be met with renewed protest actions by Charter change opponents. —PHOTOS BY JOAN BONDOC AND MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Barely two weeks before going on a Christmas break, the House of Representatives would continue the plenary debates on the proposed measure that would amend the 1987 Constitution, Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said on Friday.

Arroyo is pushing for the debates despite repeated warnings from several senators that any Charter change initiative coming from the House will be “dead on arrival” in the Senate.

Arroyo and 21 other lawmakers filed Resolution of Both Houses No. 15 on Sept. 19 to convene the House and the Senate to change the 31-year-old Charter, as directed by President Rodrigo Duterte, to replace the current presidential form of government with a federal system.

“It’s the last of President Duterte’s Sona (State of the Nation Address) agenda. Everything else has already passed,” the Speaker told reporters in Porac, Pampanga province, on Thursday.

Roundly criticized

“I guess we’ll be concentrating on that next week,” she added. “Of course, we know that there will still be many steps. But the thing is, we will bring it as far as we can bring it in the hope that the next Congress can continue the work.”

The Charter change proposal of the former President and her colleagues was roundly criticized by the political opposition as it removed the term limits for elected officials.

It also excluded Vice President Leni Robredo as the constitutional successor of Mr. Duterte during the period of transition to the federal system.

Electoral protest

Hounded by the brickbats, the Speaker quickly directed Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso, chair of the House committee on constitutional amendments, to drop the controversial proposal and reinstate the Vice President as the President’s lawful successor.

Veloso had claimed that the transitory provision was only meant to address the “uncertainty” on the vice presidency due to the electoral protest of former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. against Robredo’s victory in the 2016 elections.

Interestingly, the Charter change proposal did not adopt the recommendations of the consultative committee tasked by the President with proposing changes to the Constitution to usher in a new federal government.

Worse than 1935 Charter

On Oct. 2, about two weeks after Resolution No. 15 was filed, Veloso’s committee approved and referred to the plenary the draft Charter, which provided for a presidential-bicameral federal system of government.

Conrado “Ding” Generoso, spokesperson for the consultative committee, has branded the House draft Charter as worse than the 1935 Constitution.

Aside from removing the Vice President as successor to the President, the House draft also requires members of Congress to be college graduates who would serve for four years but would not have term limits, meaning they could be reelected indefinitely.

The 1987 Constitution sets a maximum of three successive three-year terms for district and party-list representatives.

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