Saturday, October 11, 2008 Carvajal: Warning: Cha-cha gaining ground By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
A FEW days ago, I read in a national paper the news of House Speaker Prospero Nograles’ optimism that Charter change (Cha-cha) was achievable before President Arroyo’s term expires. The other day in another paper was a news item about Cha-cha gaining ground. Speaker Nograles needs 37 more votes to get the two thirds needed to form a constituent assembly.
The news should ring alarm bells. It seems that our lawmakers are quietly working to make Charter change happen before 2010 and through a constituent assembly in utter disregard of what many consider to be the two essential conditions for Charter change to be transparent and hence genuine, namely, that Cha-cha must not happen before 2010 and it must not be through a constituent assembly.
Cha-cha is too critical a national political exercise to be rushed. A rushed Cha-cha cannot be of any help to the country since the only reason for rushing it, that we can suspect under the circumstances, is to keep PGMA in power while essentially maintaining the status quo. Moreover, the most expedient way (read: with minimal discussion) of doing this is through a constituent assembly.
Congress is simply not my idea of a change agent. No Congress in our history has really convincingly shown it has the best interests of the nation in its sights. Instead our lawmakers in both houses have consistently rendered loyal service to the vested interests of the wealthy and powerful that they perennially represent. A constituent assembly, therefore, cannot be trusted to give us a constitution that is responsive to the needs of the majority.
Congress could have gained credibility working for the common good if it had done two critical things. One is enact a law effectively implementing the constitutional prohibition on political dynasties. And two, abolish the pork barrel, the mother of all corruption. Yet, there was never even an attempt to take these two drastic but critical steps because these would jeopardize the patronage and vested interest politics which a constituent assembly would be sure to perpetuate.
How can we now expect our lawmakers to commit political hara-kiri with a constitution that would dismantle their dynasties and give way to a genuinely representative form of government instead of the mockery of democracy that it is today? How, when all they do is maneuver to stay in power and hang on to their privileged and cash-rich positions?
We just cannot allow Speaker Nograles to pay his political debts at the expense of the people. We just cannot believe and trust that our lawmakers are rushing the Cha-cha for the good of the people. If they are rushing it and doing it themselves, it must be for their own good and nobody else’s.
