Saturday, January 12, 2008 Editorials: Charter change noise
DESPITE the failed attempts by some sectors to make the Charter change (Chacha) plan fly, a good number of people actually believe the Constitution should be amended.
Objective, meaning non-partisan, observers think either some provisions of the Charter need to be changed or a new constitution has to be drafted altogether to keep up with the times and to correct flaws in the present political setup.
One can even find sense in President Arroyo’s announced reason in her most recent effort to rekindle the Cha-cha discussion: the creation of a Muslim federal region.
Worries
A shift to a federal form of government has long been pursued by many of the country’s political leaders, especially those from the Visayas and Mindanao.
The logic of Cha-cha, however, has been drowned by mere perception and worries that are fueled by the antics of politicians and the public’s subsequent loss of confidence in their capacity to decide the setup best suited for the country.
The public can be likened to a man on the second floor window of a burning building: he knows he has to jump but hesitates to do it, consumed by questions about the motivation of firemen lining up to catch him as he falls.
Federal region
A Muslim federal region is widely seen as an important step towards ending the Muslim separatist rebellion in Mindanao---although that could be a simplistic solution to a complex problem.
But while that thesis has not been seriously challenged, the means of achieving it, which is to amend the Constitution, is.
Even this early, some opposition senators suspect that Malacañang’s Muslim federal region proposal is but a ploy by Arroyo to stay in power through Cha-cha.
Meaning, Cha-cha is still the catch.
Bound to fail
It is not difficult to see then where the latest Cha-cha effort is headed.
Until the suspicions vanish and the public believes in the sincerity of those pushing for and eventually tasked to hammer out the Charter amendments, the latest Malacañang initiative will fail.
The Cha-cha effort, even if compelling, will never fly.
