Monday, October 30, 2006 Mindanao autonomy gone with Cha-cha defeat
MINDANAO'S quest to gain autonomy has reportedly gone down the drain after the Supreme Court (SC) ruled to dismiss the initiative petition as a mode to amend the Constitution, a member of the government-backed Charter change Advocacy Commission said.
Commissioner Joji Ilagan-Bian said she was deeply saddened by the SC's decision as it denied Mindanawons "the chance to have a true autonomy from a very centralized system of governance."
"We are the biggest losers in that decision," she told reporters.
Voting 8-7, the SC dismissed the petition to amend the Constitution to allow a shift from the current presidential form of government to unicameral-parliamentary system through the people's initiative approach.
The Court rebuffed the claimed 6.5 million signatures gathered by the proponent Sigaw ng Bayan Movement saying no amount of signatures can change the Constitution that is contrary to specified modes.
"An initiative that gathers signatures from the people without first showing to the people the full text of the proposed amendments is most likely a deception, and can operate as a gigantic fraud on the people," the Court stressed.
Bian however said Mindanawons lost their bid to pursue a federal system of government and implement various economic reforms.
Bian said most of the people failed to grasp such reality saying the public's level of awareness regarding the proposed Charter change was limited to the proposed shift to the parliamentary system and the political issues tossed by its critics.
Bian viewed the Court's decision as the closure to the current moves to amend the Constitution.
"This is the end of Cha-cha. I don't think a ConAss (Constituent Assembly) will ever progress," she said.
Bian said the proposed convening of Congress into a Constituent Assembly to amend the Constitution has many legal loopholes and will only end up later on at the SC.
She claimed the existing laws are not clear about the roles of the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, especially regarding the composition of the assembly that requires at least 2/3 of the members of Congress. (Allen V. Estabillo)
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