Ex-chief justice favors review of Constitution

CEBU, Philippines - The unbalanced powers between the three branches of the government should be one main reason why the Constitution should be reviewed.

This was according to the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, Reynato Puno.

Puno, who was in the city yesterday where he was the resource speaker for the forum “Reforming the Philippine Political System,” said that he has always been one of those who supported the reexamination of the 1987 Constitution.

Puno shared that the distribution of the powers in the branches of the government is one good reason for the Constitution to be reviewed.

“Sometimes it is tilted on the Executive side. There are also those times that it is tilted in favor for the congress,” he said.

But Puno clarified that he is not saying that our Constitution is bad.

 “Indeed it has served us good,” he added saying that there have been a lot of developments for the country especially to how it is affected by the global economy.

However there are factors that need to be reviewed so that it can respond to the fast changes and would serve the Filipinos well.

Puno explained that when the Constitution was created, it was adapted from other countries and it was not customized to the needs of the country and the Filipinos.

According to Puno, there have been a number of attempts already to review the Constitution from the previous administrations including former president Joseph Estrada’s action in forming a special commission for this main purpose. But all the attempts failed to succeed, said Puno.

In the current administration, Puno said that this is not a priority of the President. 

Rowel Candelaria, forum organizer and assistant project manager of the Coalition for Citizens Constitution, supported this saying that President Benigno Aquino is sentimental about the 1987 Constitution because it is his mother’s Constitution.

Aside from the review of the powers of the three branches, Puno said that there are other factors that need to be re-examined like the relationship of the national government to the local government.

The forum which was held at the Gansewinkel AVR of the University of San Carlos-Main Campus was intended to provide deeper understanding of existing political processes and structures of the country to better analyze proposed reforms in the system.

This was organized by the Centrist Democratic Movement, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Kaabag sa Sugbo, Coalition for Citizen’s Constitution and USC. – (FREEMAN)