Monday, November 13, 2006
Charter change dead: opposition senator
MANILA -- Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said Sunday that last-ditch efforts by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. won't save the administration's move to change the Constitution.
Pimentel said that even the Arroyo administration's congressional allies are abandoning the "Charter change train."
The senator said the administration's plan to convene a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) even without the Senate's participation will not take off because it is constitutionally-flawed and lacks time, having been overtaken by preparations for the May 2007 local elections.
Preparing for polls
Pimentel said that even staunch administration allies in the House of Representatives like Representative Abraham Mitra of Palawan and Douglas Cagas of Davao del Sur are now convinced that the proposed Con-Ass is "just a waste of time, money and energy."
Mitra has junked the planned Con-Ass in favor of a Constitutional Convention (Con-con) while Cagas is urging leaders of the ruling Lakas Christian-Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) to shift their attention to forming a strong lineup of senatorial and congressional candidates in the 2007 elections to neutralize the threat of an opposition takeover of Congress.
"With hard-core legislative allies of the Arroyo administration now junking the Con-Ass scheme, there is no way it will move from square one and prosper. Mrs. Arroyo and Mr. de Venecia should admit Charter change is a lost cause," Pimentel said.
The House leadership is reportedly dead set on having a resolution on the convening of a Con-Ass approved Monday. The move is unacceptable to the Senate because de Venecia and other administration allies in the House insist that amendments in the Constitution should be approved by a three-fourths vote of "all the members" of the Senate and House, voting jointly.
Separate voting
The senators have said that all Charter amendments should be approved separately by the Senate and the House.
Pimentel said even senators allied with the administration like Juan Ponce Enrile, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, and Edgardo Angara have taken the position that the two Chambers should vote separately on Charter amendments.
Pimentel said that even if House leaders will succeed in railroading the passage of the Con-Ass resolution, senators and other interested parties will lose no time in questioning its constitutionality before the SC.
He said they are confident that the Supreme court, as in the case of the people's initiative, "will also rule that Palace-backed plan of the House to amend the Charter all by itself is unconstitutional."
Meanwhile, Negros Oriental Representative Herminio Teves, the most senior member of the House, cautioned the leadership against pursuing Charter change without conducting first a plebiscite that would determine if people want the 1987 Constitution to be amended.
Teves, an administration congressman, said efforts by his colleagues to amend the Constitution are bound to fail if they would not heed his proposal to hold a plebiscite. (CPB/DBP/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Manila. (November 13, 2006 issue)
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