Con-com: Public perception of federalism will change

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The Consultative Committee (Con-com) reviewing the 1987 Constitution is confident that public perception on the bid to shift to a federal form of government will change.

The Con-com made the remark in a statement issued on Wednesday in response to the latest Pulse Asia survey that showed 64% of Filipinos were not in favor of Charter change.

“The survey was taken at a time when the Consultative Committee was still formulating the proposed revisions. Once we are done and the proposed revisions are presented to the public, we are confident that the public perception will change,” the Con-com said in a statement.

The survey field work, Pulse Asia said, was conducted on March 23 to 28, 2018 using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 respondents.

The poll showed that 32% were open to Charter change in the future, 32% were opposed to any amendments, 23% were in support of amending the Charter while 13% were undecided.

READ: 64% of Filipinos do not want Charter change — Pulse Asia

But the Con-com pointed out that “in reality, those in favor of amending the Constitution now—23%—and in favor of doing it in the future—32%—constitute a majority of 55%.”

“Those who say they are not in favor of amending the constitution now but at some time in the future are in reality in favor of amending the constitution, only that it should be done sometime in the future,” the Con-com stressed.

“To their mind the future could be next year or it could be in 2019 — when the proposed revisions may be ready for submission to them in a plebiscite,” it said.

The committee also pointed out that “it is inaccurate to compare the results of the July 2016 survey with the results of the March 2018 survey because they asked a different question.”

In the July 2016 survey, Pulse Asia only asked respondents if they were “in favor,” “undecided” and “not in favor” of Charter change, while in the March 2018 survey, it asked if the respondents were in favor of shifting to federalism “now,” “not now but in the future,” “not at any time” or “don’t know.”

If the same interpretation of the July 2016 survey was applied on the March 2018 survey, the Con-com stressed that those in favor of Charter change would be comprised of a “majority” 55% of Filipinos.

The Con-com, however, said it was unlikely that the public would readily approve of Charter change since most of them have shown “limited knowledge” of the Constitution.

“In all surveys, the people have — understandably — shown limited knowledge of the Constitution. Given that condition, it is not likely that they would readily approve of changing something that they need to understand first,” the committee said.

“Ultimately, the true pulse of the people will be felt and shown when the plebiscite is held for the people to decide whether or not they want a new constitution and a new system of government,” it also said. /cbb