Draft federal charter will allow authoritarianism – Monsod

Lawyer Christian Monsod. (File photo from Radyo Inquirer)

The draft federal charter produced by President Rodrigo Duterte’s Consultative Commission (Con-Com) on charter change will allow and provide for authoritarianism, a framer of the 1987 Constitution said Tuesday.

Lawyer Christian Monsod expressed belief that the Philippines was already moving towards authoritarianism and that allowing charter change to proceed would further endanger democracy.

“I believe that we are already in the slippery slope of authoritarianism,” he said during the Senate hearing on charter change.

A new constitution that allows authoritarianism, he said, would be “the ultimate betrayal to the Filipino people who brought out us from the darkness of dictatorship.”

According to Monsod, the constitution being drafted by the Con-Com, which is led by former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, forgets or ignores the situation of the country and the context of charter change.

He earlier said that President Rodrigo Duterte could be tinkering with the 1987 Constitution to stay in power beyond 2022.

“In reading the Puno constitution, I am [under] the impression that the sweeping proposal to overhaul of the constitution is more an act of faith than a product of reason,” Monsod said.

He said the transition period would allow dictatorship to flourish for three years as he doubted that an election could be conducted under such a condition.

He stressed the need for “real independent thinking” by all those who would participate in the process of changing the charter. /atm