Aquino allies revive Cha-cha

NO EFFORT TO AMEND CONSTITUTION WITHOUT NOY BACKING — JOKER

Efforts to tinker with the Constitution have been resurrected and a meeting between Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte has been scheduled to discuss possible changes that can be introduced in the 1987 Charter, Sen. Joker Arroyo said.

Arroyo added the move is gaining ground in the Senate, with him acceding to proposals to introduce changes in Constitution.

Arroyo also perceives Malacañang as being behind the revived discussions on the possibility of initiating moves for Charter change (Cha-cha) to take off when Congress reopens its third regular session this month.

The senator, however, appeared amenable in revisiting not only the economic provisions but also the present structure of government “where the President is more powerful now than (under) the previous constitutions.”

“For 25 years, this 1987 Constitution, we have not touched it. By every reasoning, we should change it. The Constitution (was amended) in 1986 (because) it was in response to the difficulties we had during the martial law,” Arroyo said.

“(But) the fact is, if this will not be supported by (Aquino), it will not materialize. It’s about time that we also amend it or modify it because some of the provisions are already outmoded. We should have a Constitution to meet the problems of the country, particularly the structure (of government),” he said.

Enrile and Belmonte are set to hold a meeting soon to discuss whatever supposed progress the two chambers have made with respect to the issue on Cha-cha.

Belmonte announced the holding of a meeting with the Senate leader, yet, Malacañang claimed Cha-cha is not a priority of the Aquino administration.
Arroyo expressed belief that the two House leaders would not have initiated talks on the possibility of taking up Cha-cha if they do not have the support of the Chief Executive.

The meeting, he said, could be an indication that Malacañang may have already given the green light for the resumption of Cha-cha deliberations in the legislature.

“I’m not saying (it has the approval ) of Malacanang, it may have, because the Speaker of the House and the Senate President will talk about Cha-cha and the President does not know about it.

The fact is: without the President’s support,
Cha-cha is doomed from the start,” he pointed out.
Although Arroyo said he was amenable to revisiting the Charter, he insisted that Congress should also initiate a thorough study first to identify which of the provisions needed to be amended.

“We should study this carefully. To open the Charter, many will try to introduce several amendments. It will be a free-for-all (situation),” the senator said.

The current Constitution, he said, was designed by the Constitutional Commission (Concom) to weaken the presidency by diminishing the powers of the chief executive.

Yet, despite the said effort, the President remains powerful because he has a very centralized government.

He hastened to clarify, however, that he was not advocating abolition of the presidential system in favor of a shift to a parliamentary set-up.

Among the structural defects that needed to be addressed was the system being used by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) in choosing the next chief justice and the political party set-up.

“The JBC system should be changed. The present structure took away the role of Congress in choosing members of the judiciary, which was given to JBC. JBC will choose from the nominations, and submit a short list to the President. Look at it now, it’s chaotic,” Arroyo said.

“But whether there is JBC, in reality whoever the President wanted to be the chief justice, he can be the chief justice,” he added.

Arroyo, former executive secretary under then President Corazon Aquino, said even the ongoing efforts of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. would not help without the blessings of Aquino.

”We should determine first why we will amend this or that provision. For example, the 60-40 percent ownership of foreign investments. The Supreme Court has already relaxed the restrictions on 60-40,” Arroyo said.

”The truth of the matter is that the SC has already been deciding cases which enabled actually to modify that constitutional provision,” he added. –Angie M. Rosales, Daily Tribune