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Friday, July 07, 2006
Chacha’s prospect dim: Pabling
By Jeanette P. Malinao
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Ideas clashed between the country’s two well-known constitutionalists in what was supposed to be the last leg of summits for Charter change advocacy yesterday.
Prof. Jose Abueva, chairman of the Consultative Commission (Concom) that Malacañang had formed, defended the people’s initiative as “the only game in town” to push for much-needed change in the 1987 Constitution, and as an exercise of people’s sovereignty.
“It may not be the best but it’s the only thing allowed under the circumstances…. If Rizal were alive he would have said maayo ning people’s initiative,” Abueva said before Cebu’s mayors, councilors and other officials who gathered at the Capitol social hall.
“If the Supreme Court legitimated the people’s power to oust Marcos and made Aquino president, if the Supreme Court validated the assumption of then vice president Arroyo to the presidency after Erap was forced out by people’s power, why can’t and why won’t it say the same for the 10 million people who signed the people’s initiative? Is that not people power?” he also said.
Furthermore, Abueva said he is hoping that the High Court will rule that people’s initiative is a valid exercise of sovereignty. “But that’s just a dream, a hope.”
Former Cebu governor Pablo Garcia, also a member of Concom, retorted: “I disagree that the people can change the Constitution through people power. We must remember that public officials, from highest to lowest in the land, have taken a solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution and bear true allegiance to it.”
Citing “very serious insurmountable obstacles” to people’s initiative, Garcia said, “If we liken it to a road in Cebu City, people’s initiative is a closed road. No entry. You will be arrested by Citom if musod ka.”
“I do not wish to hide from my fellow Cebuanos the truth. Chacha is a bridge too far away,” he said.
In citing sovereignty to defend people’s initiative, Garcia said Abueva may have forgotten that the Philippines is a “democratic, republican state” so the people don’t just gather and make laws like what happened in Athens before.
By republican, people govern through chosen representatives, so the Filipinos govern through government officials, Garcia said.
He reiterated that the Supreme Court ruled that the enabling law for people’s initiative is insufficient. He again cited the permanent injunction for Comelec not to entertain any moves for people’s initiative.
To this, Abueva had said that people hope the Supreme Court will change its mind. He cited the stand of former members of the High Court asking themselves who are they to rule on the sufficiency of a law when they are not members of the legislative branch.
But even if the law on people’s initiative can be used, said Garcia, this process can only be applied to amendments.
And changing presidential to parliamentary and bicameral to unicameral, among many other current proposals, could not be labeled as mere amendments, he said.
Lawyers from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines in Cebu already brought the matter of signatures gathered for a people’s initiative to the court.
The Department of Interior and Local Government earlier got criticisms for distributing questionnaires to the people, making it look like an initiative of the Arroyo administration instead of coming from the citizens.
In the end, Garcia rallied local leaders to face what he believes is the truth: that there can never be a charter change within this year or the next.
“Prepare yourselves for the next elections,” Garcia said.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 7, 2006 issue)
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