THE stubbornness of proponents in justifying the holding of a Constituent Assembly in effecting changes in the Constitution because it is the ‘cheaper’ mode does not seem to click as a box office top grosser despite those ‘sweeteners’. On the other hand, THE REVENGER SQUAD of Vice Ganda did. Which only shows that not all marketing gimmicks based on bargain prices attract consumers patronage.
For notwithstanding the weakness of some fellowmen to bargain their dignity, particularly during elections, when the issue concerns a proposal to amend/revise the Highest Law of the Land, the Filipino people exhibit pristine patriotism in real time.
Indeed, they never fail to rise to the occasion to protect and defend that quintessential inheritance called Philippine Constitution in the face of self-serving representation to tamper with the same.
That is to say—without their direct and exhaustive participation from beginning to end. In fine, if the journey is of a thousand miles, they want to be certain that the first step is theirs.
And rightly so, because the Constitution is not only the custodian of their cultural heritage and solidarity: it is also the covenant that entitles them common ownership to the God-given bounty of our nation.
And they want to be sure that such entitlement and the fruits therefrom, to remain undiminished and not alienated for the common enjoyment of the present and coming generation of Filipinos.
This is the reason why, assuming there is an abiding justification for it, any attempt to modify the Constitution must be carried out through the mechanism of a Constitutional Convention to be approved by both chambers of a bi-cameral Legislature that institutionalizes the doctrine of separate voting.
Admittedly, a Constitutional Convention necessitates bigger budgetary allocations than the holding of a Constituent Assembly. But obviously the Filipino people is setting aside such higher cost factor as their clear preference is for a full-brown participation in the re-making of the Constitution that a Constitutional Convention affords.
Which means that Filipinos want to choose the delegates who will flesh out the much-needed principles/provisions that will adorn a New Constitution designed to bring about a: just and equitable distribution of the fruits of the factors of production, namely: Land, Labor, Capital and Entrepreneur. Right now, the present imbalance is unconscionably pro-capital.
Hopefully, the establishment of the Overseas Filipino Workers Bank will blaze the trail, not the Train, to correct this socio-economic unfairness in favor of the working class, e.g., establishment and operation of shopping malls to promote competition in the marketing of consumer goods, courtesy of OFWB.
Indeed, the OFWB is an authentic proof of that Duterte Political Will to eradicate poverty and upgrade the living standards of the Filipinos.
Anyway, the issue of trustworthiness on those strident voices espousing Constituent Assembly primarily arises from the failure of the legislature to enact enabling law to implement the Anti-Dynasty provision of the present three-decade old Constitution.
For it is correctly perceived that the envisaged Anti-Dynasty Law, upon which the success of the Federal System of Government is anchored, will never see the light of day.
The self-explanatory fact is that Congress is a den of dynasties extending all the way down to the local Politburo. And the interest to protect and perpetuate is mind-boggling. It is hoped that the Season of Licking Asses will soon fade.