GMA, lackeys ‘shameless’ in pushing Con-ass

November 21, 2008

Opposition senators yesterday called Malacañang and its alleged lackeys in the House of Representatives “shameless” for pursuing the “devious scheme” to railroad the passage by Congress of amendments to the 1987 Constitution aimed at extending the stay in office of President Arroyo.

Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., along with Senators Pia Cayetano and Francis Pangilinan, blasted the reported move to tinker with the country’s Charter, questioning this early the constitutionality of the plan.

Pangilinan warned proponents against the possibility of the move sparking anew a people uprising in the country since Cha-cha has been proven as highly unpopular to most Filipinos.

“The times are harder than ever, and with the blatant display of personal political ambitions, our people do not trust the national leadership — it shouldn’t test the patience of a deeply disappointed people. The Arroyo government shouldn’t take the people for fools willing to swallow the garbage called Cha-cha it is now dishing out,” Pangilinan said.

Camarines Rep. Luis Villafuerte yesterday confirmed the House is moving to get three-fourths of the congressmen for a Constitutent assembly (Con-ass) to get going, after which, he said the House will be bringing this issue to the high court for a ruling on the voting system, whether it is joint voting with the Senate, or separate voting.

But with the First Couple laying the cornerstone for the latest Cha-cha saga during the birthday bash of a House member in a posh Makati village, members of the House minority Friday vowed to fight at all cost the latest Cha-cha attempt being pushed by administration lawmakers which is highly suspected as another veiled move to perpetuate Mrs. Arroyo in power.

While the suspicion of using Cha-cha as a vehicle to extend the President’s term has always been associated in every attempt to amend the 1987 constitution, this belief has further been bolstered after presidential son and Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo admitted to having signed the resolution which calls for Congress to transform itself into a Con-ass and thereafter asking his lawmaker-friends to do the same.

“Action speaks louder than words,” Bayan Muna partylist Rep. Teddy Casiño said through a text message. “The latest Cha-cha move in the House, initiated by no less than the presidential son and Kampi stalwarts reveals the game plan for GMA’s continue rule via Cha-cha.”

Cibac partylist Rep. Joel Villanueva, for his part, said that as long as suspicions abound that Cha-cha will be used for Mrs. Arroyo’s term extension, the move will not be supported by the people.

Independent lawmaker, Nueva Ecija Rep. Edno Joson said that while he sees the need to amend the Charter, he believes that Constitutional Convention (Con-con) is still the best approach with the delegates elected in 2010 simultaneous with the national and local elections.

Besides Joson said this may not fly as expected. “Anti-Cha-cha proponents would only have to get 64 or 65 votes to block any amendment of the Constitution,” he stressed.

Early Friday, Rep. Matias Defensor admitted that indeed there was a party where some 80 congressmen were present in the home of Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, including the First Couple, but denied that there was any talk of Cha-cha.

But witnesses reconfirmed to the Tribune yesterday that Cha-cha was the “dish of the day.”

Also yesterday, the younger Arroyo, in an interview, admitted he had signed a resolution calling on the House and the Senate to convene as a Con-ass to amend the Constitution.

“Yes, I am one of the around 150 plus congressmen who signed the resolution,” Arroyo said, but claimed that even as he asked some of his colleagues to sign up, he was not leading the signature drive.

“I also asked some of my friends, like Rep. Raul Gonzales Jr, to look into the matter. That is how we are in Congress. We are a collegial body. We try to ask our colleagues who are close to us to look at the issues. There is nothing wrong with that, we are a democracy,” he pointed out.

Arroyo pointed to Kampi president Villafuerte as the originator of the signature campaign.

Interestingly, Arroyo validated the Tribune story Friday that the House resolution would be used to challenge the Supreme court to issue a ruling on the method of voting to be employed by Congress: that is if the House and the Senate would be voting as jointly or separately.

Arroyo admitted that once the House has mustered support from three-fourths or 175 out of the 238 congressmen, they can compel the Supreme Court to decide on whether the Constitution should be amended by joint or separate Congress voting.

Earlier this year, a member of the House filed a motion before the SC to issue a ruling on the issue but his motion was dismissed for being premature.

With the House resolution expected to be rejected by the Senate, the SC has all the reasons to render a decision.

Talk of Charter Change has been circulating after a coup in the Senate last Monday saw the replacement of Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile as the Senate chief.

Amid the change in leadership in the Senate, speculations on the revival of Cha-cha efforts were further triggered after Press Secretary Jesus Dureza led a prayer insinuating the President’s leadership extending beyond 2010.

“Charter Change must be done in the right way and not before 2010 so as to ensure that it will not be used as a tool for term extension and other vested political interests. What we see now are politicians lording it over the nation, when it should be the other way around. We are merely servants to the public, and their plights should be the first of our concerns,” Pangilinan said.

Pimentel cautioned House members on being misled into supporting a Cha-cha scheme that does not conform with the rules and procedures prescribed by the Constitution.

Pimentel said the congressmen will be wasting time and effort if they blindly swallow the line that the Senate and the House can vote jointly on every and all Charter amendments, instead of separately. To do so, he argued, will not be in keeping with the bicameral nature of Congress and the intent of the framers of the l987 Constitution.

“They cannot do that because they know that it is not in accordance with the Constitution. And they will be very foolish if they will try to do it,” he said.

Unlike the scheme for initiating amendments under the House resolution, Pimentel said Joint Senate Resolution 10 on the adoption of a federal system, of which he is the principal author, clearly provides that the two chambers of Congress should vote separately on proposed amend-ments.

Pimentel said the objective of the Palace is to establish a parliamentary system, where Mrs. Arroyo can run as a member of parliament in her home province, Pampanga, and later for prime minister.

Inevitably, the constitutionality of the administration-backed Charter Change plan will be questioned before the Supreme Court. Apparently, Pimentel said they feel cocksure that the high court will rule in their favor this time, especially with the anticipated appointment of more justices in the tribunal to fill the vacancies that will be created with the impending retirement of seven associate justices next year.

Pimentel said that even if the high court is packed with appointees of Mrs. Arroyo, he does not think that the Palace’s game plan will succeed.

“It is very clear even to freshmen law students on constitutional law that this cannot be done. We have two chambers of Congress, and you cannot have one chamber doing things alone by itself,” he said.

“One chamber cannot even pass a new law creating a new barangay or the national budget bill by itself. And more so, it cannot amend the Constitution unilaterally,” he added.

“The latest Cha-cha script purports to be new, but we see the same old characters reprising their roles in their earlier attempts. House Resolution 737 supposedly concerns itself only with introducing changes to economic provisions in the Charter, but it’s not difficult to see through the political scheme behind it,” Sen. Pia Cayetano, for her part, said.

“Like its earlier versions, this new Cha-cha bid deserves to be junked by the people to history’s dustbin, and never recycled again,” she added.

Cayetano assured the public that the new minority bloc in the Senate will frustrate renewed efforts by Malacañang and their allies in Congress to revise the 1987 Constitution in another bid to extend the term of Mrs. Arroyo beyond 2010.

“The public can count on the new minority in the Senate to stand up against renewed efforts to tinker with the Charter to serve the unpatriotic and selfish agenda of a few,” said Cayetano.

“We may just be the minority in the Senate, but we share the sentiments of the overwhelming majority of our people who are opposed to any changes in the Charter before 2010,” she added.

“The timing is very suspicious, coming on the heels of the Senate leadership reorganization. I don’t want to speculate, but should a parallel move is initiated in the Senate from the majority, we in the minority will thwart it.”

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