Malacañang mulls Charter amendments

Malacañang on Friday said that President Benigno Aquino 3rd was considering proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution.

“That [mulling of such changes in the Constitution] was the same and consistent stand [taken by then Sen. Aquino] during his campaign [for the presidency in the May 10 elections],” President Aquino’s spokesman Edwin Lacierda clarified during an interview at the Palace.

“It’s not a new promise. However, we still have to study the proposals,” Lacierda said.

He revealed that the President would set up a commission to study whether there would be a need for Charter change, or Cha-cha.

Lacierda declined to give a deadline on when the commission would be created.

“We’ll form a commission to study the need for it [Cha-cha] and whether the people are requesting it. Sa ngayon, mas maraming problemang dapat bigyang-pansin [Right now, there are more problems that need urgent attention],” the Malacañang spokesman said.

On Thursday, former President and now Rep. Gloria Arroyo of Pampanga (Second District) was to file in the Fifteenth Congress House Resolution (HR) 8, which proposes amendments to or revisions of the 1987 Constitution through a Constitutional Convention, or Con-Con.

She and her co-author and son Rep. Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo of Camarines Sur were to push approval of the controversial proposal on the first day of filing of bills and resolutions at the House of Representatives.

Earlier, Lacierda said that the former president would have a hard time passing the bill, saying she did not have the support in the House of Representatives to succeed.

He added that they were not ruling out the possibility that Mr. Aquino would intervene and mobilize his allies in the House to block the passage of the Arroyos’ resolution.

“If we are able to convince the members of the House that this is not a valid or a good time to amend the Constitution, then that [HR 8] will be dead in the water,” Lacierda said. –James Konstantin Galvez, Reporter, Manila Times