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Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Maxey: De Venecia gang threatens senators on Charter Change
By Ram Maxey
Bar None
"The De Venecia gang of Con-Assers may have shut the door to a reconciliation with the Senate on the issue of Charter Change by calling the senators 'selfish' and without conscience."
PROPONENTS of the move to amend the country's 1987 Constitution before the year ends through a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) of both houses of Congress, instead of through a Constitutional Convention (Con-Con) next year, are on the warpath after Senate President Franklin Drilon said the Upper House would not endorse a Con-Ass but would opt for a Con-Con.
Time is running out on the Lower House headed by Speaker Jose de Venecia who is the prime mover for a Con-Ass ASAP. De Venecia is an old man in a hurry to become prime minister of his country, and the stiff resistance his pet idea is facing in the Senate has forced the Con-Assers to come out with a full page advertisement in the October 12 issue of The Philippine Inquirer with the screaming caption "Amend the Constitution Now!" which ended with a threat.
The threat: "If this call is not heeded by our senators, our people are ready to strike back. We are ready to lead the campaign against the re-election of those who oppose it. We are ready to launch a campaign to boycott senators opposing Charter change."
With that sword of Damocles the Con-Assers have poised over the heads of the uncooperative senators (even implying the senate's abolition), I expect the senators to strike back and deliver a swift kick where it will hurt most - the Con-Assers fat asses. Wanna bet?
De Venecia blames the country's ills on what he calls "Presidential politics". He blames the presidential form of government for the "incredible poverty of our people", and that "personality politics has replaced leadership based on party platform".
I cannot see the connection between the presidential form of government and the "incredible poverty" of our people. We were not incredibly poor during the terms of such presidents as Ramon Magsaysay, Elpidio Quirino and Diosdado Macapagal. Our incredible poverty started with the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos and their corrupt regime. But that was not due to our presidential form of government but because of the Marcose's incredible and insatiable greed.
They perfected the art of corruption to the nth degree and we are stuck with it to this day. But to say that the presidential form of government is the reason for the country's poverty - 26.5 million Filipinos exist under the poverty line - is without basis. The United States of America is a presidential system but is it wallowing in "incredible poverty"?
The De Venecia gang of Con-Assers may have shut the door to a reconciliation with the Senate on the issue of Charter change by calling the senators "selfish" and without conscience.
The Con-Assers even indulged in a bit of hallucination by claiming that there is a national consensus for Charter change through a Constituent Assembly and not through a Constitutional Convention. That's a kind of daydreaming of course, but that is understandable because their boss-man, De Vnecia, is an incorrigible daydreamer himself. He daydreams that one day, when this country has adopted a Federal form of government, its first Prime Minister will be a certain Jose de Venecia.
I believe that the day will come when our country shall have become a Federal Republic, but I also firmly believe that its first Prime Minister will not be named Jose de Venecia (or I'll eat okra for the first time in my life. I hate the darn slimy thing, arrrggghhh!
(October 15, 2003 issue)
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