The term of office of a congressman is three years, which shall commence, unless otherwise provided by law, at noon on the 30th day of June next following his election. He cannot serve for more than three consecutive terms.
Is it possible for him to extend his term beyond three years without the benefit of reeelection or serve for more than three consecutive years? Yes, in cahoots with the majority of his colleagues and with the cooperation of the majority of the senators. How? By resetting or canceling the date of the elections.
Sadly for us, the constitution says that the elections of congressmen (and senators) shall be held on the second Monday of May, unless otherwise provided by law.
The framers of the constitution were obviously thinking that they were giving the power to postpone the election to a patriotic Congress who would care less for themselves than for the people, who would craft the law that would postpone the elections only for the most urgent reason and affecting only the national interest and not just for the purpose of extending their term.
We will soon know if the charter’s fathers were right in being so trusting in the character of politicians. The House leader, Pantaleon Alvarez, is pushing for (obsessed with, according to Sen. Francis Escudero) no-election or No-el, ostensibly to speed up the revision of the constitution to pave the way for the shift to federalism. Let’s see how his members will react to the dangling of the carrot between them.
That Congress might not have time to study and pass a revised constitution in between their regular legislative duties was one of the issues raised against choosing a constituent assembly over the more traditional and definitely more trustworthy constitutional convention to propose the amendment or revision.
The Congress assured us that not only do they have the time, they were willing to sacrifice by working extra hours so that we would have a new constitution in place in no time. And now they’re telling us that they really do not have time so please, can we just postpone the elections?
Was this the point of the whole exercise, insist on amending the constitution themselves so they could use it later as an excuse to extend their terms? Are we being had?
What’s the point in rushing the amendment, anyway? Will the Republic die if we have not submitted the proposed new charter to the people in a plebiscite by May next year? Again, have they not heard that the same people are overwhelmingly against the idea of charter change?
Congress has more than 200 members. I hope that most of them are imbued with the spirit of selflessness that the 1987 Constitution’s fathers trusted they would, and who would never trade a patriotic duty for personal convenience.
What’s wrong with Globe? Why is it that when I call a number, the phone rings only very briefly and then I get a busy signal? This has been going on for the past two weeks and it seems that I am not the only one with the same experience. I hope that this is just a temporary glitch and not portentous of any further deterioration of the qualify of the service from the phone company.