Drilon to mayors: What PH needs now is food, jobs not Charter change

MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Sunday slammed the proposal of constitutional reform by over a thousand municipality mayors while the country is facing a public health crisis.

“Ang kailangan natin ngayon, pagkain, hindi sayaw. Hindi Cha-cha ang kailangan natin. Walang hanapbuhay ang ating mga kababayan, ‘yun ang malaking problema,” he said in an interview with Dobol B sa News TV on Sunday.

The senator was optimistic that the proposal will not prosper in the Senate.

“Ako ay may tiwala sa aking mga kasamahan na makikita nila na hindi para sa kapakanan ng bayan itong gagawin nila. At ako ay naniniwala na haharangin ito sa Senado, hindi makakalusot,” he said.

“Si Senate President Sotto sinasabi niya na iba ang priority namin. The chance of it being passed in the Senate is very small,” he added.

Drilon believes that the motion of the administration’s allies was only meant to ensure that there will be no elections in May 2022.

“Sa akin, ang intention ay para hindi matuloy ang halalan sa 2022 at kung matuloy man, alisin yung term limit. Hindi po tama iyan,” he said.

Narvacan, Ilocos Sur Mayor Luis “Chavit” Singson, the chairman of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, said that more than a thousand of municipality mayors are in favor of Duterte’s call for constitutional reform.

He said that the mayors wanted “to institutionalize the so-called Mandanas ruling of the Supreme Court in the Constitution and the lifting of restrictions on foreign investment in industries currently limited to Filipinos.”

Singson said that this will be “a big help to poor regions.”

In the Mandanas ruling, the Supreme Court said the source of the internal revenue allotments for local governments include all national taxes and not only those collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

This would “ensure that regions will have a continuous fair share in the taxes collected by the national government.”

But Drilon said Congress cannot pass a law disregarding the interpretation of the Supreme Court on the provisions of the Constitution.

“Hindi kami puwedeng magpasa ng batas na sinasabi na dapat ang koleksiyon lang ng BIR at hindi ng Customs ang isali sa IRA,” he said.

“Hindi puwede ‘yan dahil sabi sa Constitution, ang ibig sabihin ng ating Saligang Batas kapag sinasabing national taxes, ang ibig sabihin niyan ay lahat, BIR, Bureau of Customs at kung anu-ano pang ahensiya ang nagkokolekta ng buwis,” he added.

“Yung sinasabi nila na i-institutionalize ang Mandanas decion at alisin ang restriction on foreign ownership – unang-una, walang basehan iyan, dahilan sa maliwanag naman na institutionalized na ang Mandanas decision at yung pag-alis ng restriction sa foreign ownership ginagawa na iyan sa Senado,” Drilon said.

/MUF