‘No turning back for House on Cha-cha’

There is apparently no turning back for the House of Representatives on its Charter change (Cha-cha) initiative.

"It’s the single most important item on our agenda this year," a leader of the chamber said yesterday.

The two chambers of Congress resume their session today after a three-week holiday break.

The congressman, who did not want to be identified, said, "Since our party boss, President Arroyo, is neutral on Cha-cha and has not stopped us from pursuing it, we will not back out of this initiative."

He said the House now has time for the resolution asking Congress to convert itself into a constituent assembly to consider constitutional amendments because it had already passed the proposed P804-billion budget for 2003, which is pending in the Senate.

The resolution was endorsed by the committee on constitutional amendments chaired by Western Samar Rep. Antonio Eduardo Nachura. In a report, the panel claimed that based on nationwide consultations it had conducted, 80 percent of Filipinos favor Charter amendments.

Only a few members of the House are expected to block the measure. Among them are opposition congressmen led by Minority Leader Carlos Padilla, Rep. Imee Marcos of Ilocos Norte and Rep. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III of Tarlac.

The opposition bloc is against Cha-cha because it suspects that the President’s Lakas allies are pushing for it so they can scrap the 2004 presidential elections and extend the terms of office of Mrs. Arroyo and other officials to 2007, when voting would be held for a parliamentary-type of government.

As for Marcos and Aquino, like their opposition colleagues, they want the next presidential elections to be held as scheduled.

The eldest daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos said the Cha-cha issue should better be left to the next set of leaders of the nation to be elected in 2004.

However, she said the Lakas-dominated House is bent on pursuing its constitutional amendments initiative.

"They have marching orders to approve that (Nachura) resolution as fast as possible," she said.

Aquino’s stand on Cha-cha is similar to that of his mother, former President Corazon Aquino, who is for discussing constitutional changes after the 2004 elections.

However, for the Tarlac congressman, fundamental change in the people running the systems is more important than changing the system itself.

"If we have the same people running a new system, if we have the same attitudes, outlooks, values, nothing will change," he said.