Don’t touch the Charter
All this noise and fury about amending the 1987 Constitution! How dare these allies of Malacanang say that this is the issue Filipinos are most preoccupied with. These men and women have the gall say that to amend the Constitution is to secure a good future, a stable tomorrow for Filipinos and the coming generations. People are starving, and it’s doubful that while they hear and feel their stomachs rumble, as they twist and crumple from agonizing pangs of hunger they will be whispering "charter change now."
On August 2, 2005, the Social
Weather Station released the result of their survey on charter change: “seven in ten of adult Filipinos believe that there are
no constitutional provisions which need to be changed at the moment.”
The
progressive lawmakers of Anakpawis, Bayan Muna and Gabriela Women’s Party
strongly echo the view of majority of Filipinos there are no
constitutional provisions which urgently need to be changed at the present
time; and that in fact amending the Charter at this juncture will only benefit Macapagal-Arroyo who’s clinging to power by the skin of her formerly beave-like teeth. They oppose Committee Report (CR) No. 1065 on House Concurrent Resolution
(HCR) No. 26, “Concurrent Resolution calling Congress to convene jointly to
propose amendments to, or revision of, the 1987 Constitution,” saying that Charter Change is not at all the solution
to the crises currently faced by the Filipino people, nor it will be a solution
to the “continuing political instability and serious economic difficulties
through the last eighteen (18) years.”
We
should oppose Charter change as pushed by the allies of Malacanang and their CR1065 on the following
grounds:
1. CR 1065 is an amended CR 413. In the 9th committee meeting of
the Committee on Constitutional Amendments (August 16, 2005), Committee Report
No. 413 was reviewed, and upon motion of Rep. Mauricio Domogan, approved
amendment to the committee report by changing the phrase “constitute themselves
as a Constituent Assembly” to “ convene jointly.”
Amending a Committee Report
is a clear
violation of Section 38 (Committee Reports and Orders) paragraph 3 of the Rules
of the House of Representatives (13th Congress), which states:
“Once a committee report is approved, the report and
the corresponding measure it covers shall no longer be subject to any change,
amendment or alteration, except correction (s) of typographical errors."
2.The revision of an already
approved Committee report for the purpose of pushing constitutional amendments
despite Senate’s disapproval is a clear violation of the Constitution, which
provides for Congress as a bicameral legislature, voting separately, for the purposes
of checks and balances.
Senate and the House of
Representatives are co-equal bodies in a bicameral system, each house of
Congress should vote separately, for one Congressman vote is not equal to one
Senator vote.
CR 413 was clearly revised in
response to the Senate’s negative stance to Constitutional Amendment. In the revised resolution, Congress will
convene jointly with the assumption of “voting jointly,” that is, 195
signatures may be enough to push for constitutional change.
3.There is no genuine public
clamor to revise or change the Constitution. At least not now, and certainly not withing the framework of the incumbent illegal executive and her sychopants in Congress . Seven in ten of adult Filipinos believe
that there are no constitutional provisions which need to be changed at the
moment. The percentage notably
increased from 59% in September 1992 to 70% in August of this year.
Besides, the real public clamor for is for an across-the-board wage hike, a stop to the oil price hikes, the junking of the EVAT, and - of course - the removal of the illegal occupant of Malacanang.
4. Changing the highest law
of the land needs genuine public consultations and information
dissemination. Consultations are
supposed to be democratic. The
Committee, however, did not invite anti-charter change resource persons in the
committee deliberations. Moreover, the
committee also approved to conduct massive information campaign on the pros and
cons of the two modes of proposing amendments to the Constitution: Constituent
Assembly and Constitutional Convention. Unfortunately, not one was realized—a clear violation of Section 26
paragraph 2 of the Rules of the House of Representatives:
“…committees shall
establish appropriate systems and procedures to ensure that constituencies,
sectors and groups whose interests are affected by any pending measure are
given sufficient opportunities to be heard, pursue dialogues and consultation
with affected sectors and constituencies, conduct researches and engage the
services and assistance of experts and professionals from the public and
private sectors as may be needed in the performance of their functions.”
5. The
shift from a presidential-unitary to a unicameral-federal system will mean
nothing as long as the same elite families, parties and power brokers rule.
6.The
“review of basic economic provisions to maximize the benefits and welfare of
the people” means opening grounds for tighter monopoly control over the economy
by foreign multinational corporations and even worse poverty for our people.
7.Charter change could mean the total removal
of what remains of the nationalist provisions in the Constitution that protect
local industries and jobs, and advance the cause of building a self-reliant,
independent and strong national economy. It will be a free-for-all for the TNCs and the MNCs - they’ll be free to put up their factories and businesses in the Philippines with the same rights as local small businesses (but with infinitely bigger perks and support systems from the government).
For
instance, HCR 26 proposes a 60% Filipino, 40% foreign ownership of mass media
from a 100% Filipino ownership in the present Constitution. This would have serious implications on the already backward and colonial culture we have — the impact on values and education too gruesome to contemplate. Of course there are
even worse amendments that could be made, given how pro-foreign business this government is.
And how power hungry. We haven’t even gone to the issue of curtailment of democratic and political rights.
The Arroyo administration supported the US war on Iraq
and continues to allow joint military “trainings” in the country, which the
Filipino people have long opposed since the Estrada administration. Tracing the
history of U.S.intervention in the military affairs of the country reveals that opening the
Constitution to amendments will likely dismantle the provisions on national
sovereignty and Bill of Rights that protect civil liberties and democratic
rights of the people.
Congressmen are breaking their own rules, and spitting on the highest law of the land
just to push for Constitutional amendments subservient to the interests of
traditional politicians, big business groups and foreign capitalists. The people need amendments to the
Constitution of the stripe Jose de Venecia and his ilk want the same way the people would volunteer to have their own heads cut off.
Macapagal-
Arroyo declared that the country is under fiscal crisis and that there is a
need to generate additional revenues through the imposition of Sin Taxes, Tax
Amnesty, Tax Incentives, Value Added Tax (VAT) rate increase, VAT exemption
lifting and other revenue generating measures, all of which are additional
burden to the majority of the Filipino people who are already in deep crisis
due the relentless increases in prices of basic commodities and utilities (16x
increase in oil prices for this year alone, increase in water and electricity rates). The
government however, does not implement or impose any price control on basic
utilities such as water, electricity and oil industries despite their
skyrocketing prices the people can longer afford.
In direct contradiction to
what it should be doing, the government pushes for privatization of all other
basic industries to the detriment of the people. The government even passed laws contrary to
the Constitution, to wit: Electric Power Industry
Reform Act, Oil Deregulation Law of 1998, Mining Act of 1995, Foreign
Investments Act of 1991, and Investors Lease Act of 1995
among others, which violate of Article 12 (National Economy and Patrimony) of
the Constitution.
Aside
from economic crisis, the country is also facing political crisis. The rift between
the Senate and the House of Representatives undeniably affects the quality of
laws passed, and exposes the rotten system of elite-governance in the
country. This year the president faced
an impeachment complaint, but despite junking of the complaint in Congress, a
continuing public clamor for her removal from Malacañang continues in the
streets, in academic institutions, in the business sector, among others.
What
the country needs now are economic and political reforms that will give them jobs, health services, freedom from debt, homelessness, malnutrition and political repression. The six-year old call of the workers for a legislated wage
increase is not yet approved in Congress. The government’s budget allocations for basic social services such as
health, education, housing and agriculture remain low despite the increasing
rate of illiteracy, homelessness, landlessness and people who cannot afford the
high cost of medication and health services.
The
country is in the middle of a serious economic crisis, and under no
circumstances do we want another parity amendment in the Constitution like what
happened in the 1935 Constitution or the Bell Trade Act of 1946, the Laurel
Langley Agreement, among others, which granted American corporations the same
rights as Filipinos in the utilization and appropriation of natural resources.
Every
right has a corresponding responsibility/obligation. At the time the Americans
were enjoying equal rights in the utilization of our resources, however, they
did not take on any responsibility for developing the country’s economy, or
even just ensuring that the Philippine environment is not damaged by their
relentless operations.
Given
the circumstances surrounding the country’s economic and political stability,
aggravated by the declining trust of the people to the government and its
legislators after throwing out the impeachment complaint against the Mrs.
Arroyo, amending the Constitution at this point will only exacerbate the country’s problems than
provide solutions for the country’s recovery.#
