Angara: Constituent assembly preferred in Cha-cha

Convening Congress into a constituent assembly (Consa) to propose constitutional amendments is looming as the preferred mode for Cha-cha (Charter change).

Sen. Edgardo Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and electoral reforms, said yesterday Congress would most likely adopt Consa as the method for effecting constitutional reforms.

He said such likelihood emerged from the meeting last week of senators and congressmen in which the two sides agreed that there would no postponement of the 2004 elections, the terms of office of incumbent officials won’t be extended and that there would be a shift to the parliamentary form of government.

He said with those agreements, the people should no longer fear that Cha-cha would promote the selfish interests of politicians.

There would also be no need for a constitutional convention that would cost taxpayers at least P6 billion to elect and maintain, he added.

Angara pointed out that a convention would also mean that constitutional reforms would take effect in 2010 yet.

"Amendments would be a lot faster under Consa because there is no need to overhaul the Constitution. Only the provision on the form of government and the restrictive economic provisions need to be changed so that the country could fully pursue its goals of growth and development," he stressed.

Angara said under a parliamentary system, Congress "would be unified so that there would be no need to file and deliberate on two separate bills for a single measure, and there would be no need for a bicameral conference to reconcile the differences between two bills."

"Legislation would move faster," he said.

Angara and Sen. Robert Barbers have authored a bill urging Congress to convene itself into a constituent assembly to propose Charter changes. Angara stopped short of saying that his committee would recommend Consa as the mode of Cha-cha.