Experts favor move to revisit 1987 Charter

The debates on whether to amend the 1987 Constitution are expected to start in the Senate soon, after majority of constitutional law experts supported a revived move for Charter change (Cha-cha).

Retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno said before a Senate committee yesterday that with all the problems confronting the country, it is timely to revisit the 24-year-old Constitution.

“I honestly believe that it is time to discuss again constitutional change,” he stressed.

Puno is also open to the concept of federalism broached by former Sen. Aquilino

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Pimentel Jr. and former University of the Philippines (UP) president Jose Abueva, pointing out that the unitary government which has been in place for more than four centuries has not proved effective in delivering services and in ending the peace and order problem in Mindanao.

“I submit that it is time to resolve the merits of the proposal. To my mind, it holds the key to the solution of some of our major problems including the imperative need to put closure to the separatist movement in Mindanao,” he stressed.

Retired SC Associate Justices Vicente Mendoza and Isagani Cruz were also in favor of revisiting the Charter while former SC Justice Adolf Azcuna and UP Law Dean Merlin Magallona expressed neutrality on the issue.

Retired SC Justice Florentino Feliciano was not convinced on the position aired by the Presidential Commission on Constitutional Reform (PCCR) on the provisions needing amendments.

“The PCCR recommendations would, if accepted, place very heavy burdens upon our policy-making and administrative institutions and require very substantial improvements in the prevailing average levels of competency and commitment to inclusive goals.

“I respectfully submit that we should not casually disregard the lessons that our constitutional history teaches us. The 1935 Constitution is only 75 years old and the pertinent provisions there were maintained in the 1987 Constitution which is only 23 years old. Constitutions are meant to serve structural purposes and seek enduring goals. Only changes of compelling need or stark requirements of survival should be considered,” he explained.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments, revision of codes and laws and proponent of the resolution in the Senate seeking to determine the need for Cha-cha, said she will not waste time in presenting on the floor the recommendations elicited by her panel.

“As chairman of the Senate committee I will certainly sponsor the resolution that is consented to by my colleagues. Once I can find a majority vote, I will immediately sponsor it,” she said.

Regardless of the Cha-cha moves taking off without the support of President Aquino, the senator stressed it will be dependent not on the Executive but Congress leaders.

“That will be determined by certain Senate officials,” Santiago said, referring to the measure on Cha-cha being a priority agenda, at least in the upper chamber.

“He’s with Executive branch. He doesn’t speak for all the branches of government. He only speaks for his Executive branch. It could be a priority in the legislative branch if it’s really the wish of our counterparts from the House of Representatives because the senators always try to be sensitive to what our colleagues in the Lower House want,” she said.

Any change in the country’s leadership and form of government will likely take place in the next administration, given the tedious procedure that it will have to go through, she said.

“We’ll probably finish it if that is the consensus of the Senate. The House has a very big contingent here, and they are very interested in Charter change, and we will probably finish and then start the initiative if it is accepted by the majority of both the Houses. We’ll probably start it by the election of the members of the constitutional convention that should coincide with the 2013 elections because it’s too expensive to hold a separate election. And then after that we have to give them a deadline for writing a new constitution, then we can have a plebiscite.

“Probably, by the time we elect the new president, whether he will be a prime minister eventually or still a president, it will come after the term of President Aquino,” she said.

Although Cha-cha, as providing the needed solution country’s problem is yet to be proven, Santiago said she’s willing to take the risk.

“If the people do not internalize our Constitution, we will always have a culture of corruption like we do now because people think that the Constitution is far away and is apart from their everyday lives. It should be internalized in our hearts and in our minds,” she said. Angie M. Rosales, Daily Tribune