Lawmakers relieved, but Cha-cha ‘still needed’

Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Some senators are relieved that President Benigno Aquino III will not be pushing for Charter change during the remainder of his term, although one of them insists that the Constitution needs some tweaking.

“I’m relieved it didn’t fly,” said Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, who said it wouldn’t be prudent to be pushing for amendments now in the face of a looming power crisis, possible water shortage, mass transport woes, and the rehabilitation of typhoon-ravaged areas.

Senators Vicente Sotto III and Antonio Trillanes IV said the statement from Malacañang that Mr. Aquino was not advocating constitutional amendments to make it possible for him to seek a second term was not unexpected.

“It was a trial balloon to begin with,” Trillanes said.

Sotto, who expressed confidence that Mr. Aquino would not forsake the legacy of his late mother, President Corazon Aquino, said: “I suspected it all along. I know the President wouldn’t support it.”

The Constitution was promulgated in 1987 during the presidency of Cory Aquino, who was put in power by the first People Power revolution that ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Malacañang clarified on Friday the President was not advocating Charter change during the remaining two years of his term, and was not proposing to curtail the powers of the judiciary.

The President was open to amending the Constitution but only to restore balance among the three branches of government because of what he saw as a “judicial overreach,” the Palace said. But he saw no urgency in carrying this out between now and June 2016, when he steps down, it said.

The President’s comments in the one-and-a-half-hour-long interview with TV5 had been interpreted as advocating Charter change to clip the powers of the judiciary, and possibly, to lift the single-term limit of the president.

Needs amending

The comments had been made in the context of the Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling striking down the administration’s stimulus mechanism, the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

But Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, who advocates a switch to a federal system, maintained that the Constitution needed amending.

“Why wait? If there is really a need to fix something wrong with our economic system, political system, then let’s take advantage of the time available to us. Lost time doesn’t come back. Wasted time, wasted opportunity doesn’t come back,” he said in a phone interview.

Pimentel admitted that he was open to Charter change because his party, the PDP-Laban, was pursuing the adoption of a federal form of government “in the near future.”

“For as long as I belong to PDP-Laban, it’s automatic that our party is for Charter change,” he said. “So if it doesn’t fly during P-Noy’s administration, our call remains the same: Let’s start the debate on a federal form of government.”

After all, the adoption of such a system of government is not an immediate but a long-term objective of the party, he said.

A shift from a unitary to a federal system, whereby power is shared between the central government and individual states or provinces, would require revising the Constitution.

In a February 2011 Senate hearing on Charter change, former Chief Justice Reynato Puno observed that the Spanish-era unitary form of government had not proved effective in delivering services to the countryside while the presidential form had led to an imbalance of power in favor of the executive branch.

Federal solution

That’s why federalism could solve the country’s major problems, including the separatist movement in Mindanao, he said.

Former Supreme Court Justice Florentino Feliciano, however, said this could lead to a “fragmentation of the republic.”

Pimentel said his party was in no rush to push Charter change for the adoption of a federal system given the need for discussion and debate on the matter.

“With the President, we were stepping on the accelerator. Without him calling for Cha-cha, we will proceed on first and second gear. And then if the next President is open to Cha-cha, we will go to third gear and fourth gear. We’re actually indifferent to the excitement or involvement of the occupant of Malacañang regarding Cha-cha,” he said.

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