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Sunday, June 18, 2006
Speaker woos Cebu’s support for abolishing Senate
House Speaker Jose de Venecia urged political and business leaders in Cebu to support Charter change so the Senate, which he said has ceased to be productive, can be abolished.
In a luncheon meeting with Cebu’s manufacturers, traders and politicians organized by Norberto Quisumbing Jr. of the Norkis Group of Companies, de Venecia said it is time the Philippines shifted to a parliamentary form of government with only one lawmaking body.
Talks between the Senate and the House of Representatives on amending the 1987 Constitution have bogged down.
The House wants both chambers of Congress to vote as one on constitutional amendments. This would allow the 236 congressmen to overcome a veto by 23 senators. But the Senate rejects this approach and insists that the two chambers vote separately.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. rejected the claim of officials and allies of the Arroyo administration that former president Fidel Ramos’ support for a people’s initiative will be a big plus factor in pursuing Charter change.
In a press statement, Pimentel said Ramos may even prove a liability to this political process.
“Ramos’ support for Charter change is no plus for Cha-cha. On the contrary, it may even be bad for Cha-cha because of his motives. Among them is his belated attempt to rectify the error he had made in granting privileges to locators of Clark and Baguio special economic zone, so that the Supreme Court is deprived of jurisdiction over economic decisions made by the executive,” Pimentel said.
Pimentel pointed out that the President, under the 1987 Constitution, cannot extend tax incentives without the authority of Congress.
Hindrance
However, de Venecia said the House of Representatives and the Senate under a bicameral system have become a hindrance to progress. He reported that the House of Representatives passed more than 200 bills since 2004, mostly of national applications, but only two were approved by the Senate.
He also said that the Senate, with 23 legislators, has an annual budget of P1.8 billion, compared with the House with 236 congressmen and a P2.8-billion budget.
Relations have worsened between the Senate and the House, after the bicameral conference committee failed to pass the bill on the 2006 national budget before going on a recess starting last week.
This means the National Government will have to operate using its 2005 budget, which programmed government expenditures at only P918.62 billion. Malacañang has proposed a P1.053-trillion budget.
Mangled budget
De Venecia accused the Senate of mangling the proposed 2006 annual budget by cutting P64 billion for the construction of hospitals, school buildings and roads in the rural areas.
“A small hospital in a town may be of no importance to the senators, but it could be a matter of life and death to the people in this municipality,” de Venecia said.
“If the parliamentary system moves and is approved in two or three months, we will talk immediately about a federal system that the Cebuanos have been pushing for many years,” he said.
“You (Cebuanos) have little time left. You have to start planning now. You need perhaps not just 300 or 400 hectares of reclamation areas, but probably 5,000 hectares of reclamation areas to enlarge the City of Cebu,” he said
Robert Go, vice president for the Visayas of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that de Venecia’s speech was convincing and that he favors a parliamentary federal form of government.
“While the European nations are under a parliamentary unicameral system, why is the Philippine system of government bicameral? The present system has resulted to a waste of money,” Go said. (EOB)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 18, 2006 issue)
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