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Sunday, January 19, 2003
Malilong: May your stay be pleasant
By Frank Malilong, Jr.
The Other Side
Pit Senyor! We‘re putting our best foot forward and we‘re on our best behavior ever. We will put up with the traffic jams, smiling out of them and, for the first time, not cursing anyone. We‘re the hosts and we will play the role as perfectly as we can.
There are a few ground rules. Rule 1: Don’t pick our pockets. You won’t find much; we‘re also reeling from the economic crisis and what little we had we have spent to make your stay comfortable. Rule 2: Don’t rob our jeepneys. The local guys hate competition. Rule 3: Don‘t snatch our necklaces or cell phones. Our policemen are trained to shoot first and ask questions later.
As you can see, the above rules are addressed to the vermin, those who came here with mischief in their minds. To those who came here for pleasure and fun, welcome to this island paradise somewhere in the Pacific. May your stay be most pleasant and may you come visit us again as often as you can.
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President Arroyo’s endorsement of a constitutional convention is a wise move. That should be enough to stop the House of Representatives on its tracks and persuade them to attend to their main function of legislating. Speaker Jose de Venecia and his 126 apostles should by now realize that the idea of Congress transforming itself into a constituent assembly in order to propose changes in the charter is simply not acceptable.
What Congress should do now is to lay the groundwork for the holding of a constitutional convention in 2004. The election of delegates can be held simultaneously with the regular elections to minimize expense.
Unlike the constituent assembly that, according to de Venecia’s original plan, will only have a few months to deliberate on the charter changes, the constitutional convention will have at least one year of sifting various proposals, finishing their work in time for the plebiscite, which shall be held simultaneously with the barangay elections.
All these, of course, will depend on how the people react to the issue of a charter change at this time. It seems that the majority do not think that revising the constitution is an urgent concern. Mrs. Arroyo herself has described the issue as “divisive” and that she would rather devote the remaining months of her term to push her reform agenda than to rewrite the charter. Still, we cannot ignore the fact that some of our problems may be constitutionally rooted and that now, more than ever, may be the best time for us to address them.
What Mrs. Arroyo did was not to clear the path for constitutional change but to show the way to do it if we should decide to do it. She must have been compelled to express her preference as to the mode for effecting changes in the fundamental law because of de Venecia’s insistence to go ahead with the constituent assembly. The idea is anathema, considering the many possible areas of conflict of interest that the congressmen would most likely encounter in the course of reviewing the constitution and their track record in resolving such conflicts.
De Venecia proposed the “most divisive way” of approaching a divisive issue. Mrs. Arroyo showed us the “least divisive way.” The choice is obvious.
(Comments are welcome at fmmjr@skyinet.net)
(January 19, 2003 issue)
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