GMA to Congress: Focus on priorities, not Cha-cha

Due to more pressing national concerns, Charter change will have to sit on the back burner a bit longer.

President Arroyo has asked Congress to pass the Palace’s priority bills — a list that does not include proposed measures to amend the 1987 Constitution.

Mrs. Arroyo and leaders of Congress yesterday agreed to give priority to the passage into law of at least 14 Palace-certified bills during the remaining 16 session days before both the Senate and House of Representatives adjourn on June 6.

Notably excluded from the agreed-upon legislative agenda of both the Palace and Congress is controversial House Resolution 16, which calls for the conversion of Congress into a constituent assembly for the purpose of Charter change earlier approved by the administration-controlled House.

Among the first seven bills the President and leaders of Congress put on the priority list are the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act, the Quarantine Program to Prevent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and the Farmland as Collateral bill.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye announced the forging of this agreement between the President and the leaders of the legislature during the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) convened by Mrs. Arroyo at Malacañang yesterday.

"Because Congress will be adjourning sine die on June 6 and that this (means they have) only 16 days, that’s the target."

Briefing Palace reporters while the LEDAC meeting was in progress, Bunye said there was no mention of Charter change during the first two hours of the meeting.

Present at the meeting were Senate President Franklin Drilon, Speaker and Charter change proponent Jose de Venecia Jr., other key leaders of both chambers and several Cabinet officials.

"The proposed agenda was submitted and the proposed agenda was approved and (Charter change) was not included in the list of items to be discussed, although, as you will note, the President has made known her (neutral) stand on the issue," Bunye said.

"This is something left to both houses of Congress," he said of proposals to amend the 1987 Constitution via constituent assembly.

"What we are reporting is the agreement as to the prioritization of bills that are pending. So (the LEDAC has) agreed that there are the first priority bills and second priority bills," he said.

In a press statement she issued before the LEDAC meeting, Mrs. Arroyo again said she will not involve herself in the debate over constitutional amendments now raging between the nation’s senators and congressmen.

"We are not involved in the debate," the Chief Executive said. "The executive branch has its hands full on vital issues needing attention."

"But one thing is sure as the sun rises in the morning. There will be elections in 2004 under a cleaner, modernized electoral process that is part of the legacy of this administration," she said.

"The President has made her decision, she is neutral on this matter and the decision of the President is there will be elections," Bunye said.

Both his statement and the President’s were issued in apparent rebuttal of an earlier statement made by Sen. Joker Arroyo, who said the President’s "neutral" stand on the Charter change issue was actually an admission that she favors the House-led initiative.

Arroyo also said initiatives to amend the Constitution could lead to the postponement of the May 2004 national elections.

During the LEDAC meeting, Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda was able to include in the priority list the proposed Water Act. Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., who chairs the Senate finance committee, inserted the Debt Cap bill.

Bunye said Drilon noted with concern that the proposed Dual Citizenship Law was merely listed as a second-priority measure, when it is a partner measure of the Absentee Voting Law that has already been enacted to give overseas Filipinos the right to cast their votes from their host countries.

Drilon, Bunye said, "stressed the urgency of passing (the Dual Citizenship bill) at this time, considering that the bill has been approved on third reading by the Senate and it is still undergoing the period of interpellation in the House."

Bunye paraphrased Drilon’s sentiments on the passage of the proposed dual citizenship measure, which "could be timed" for the President’s state visit to the US later this month.

Other priority measures include the bills rationalizing the excise tax on automobiles, documentary stamp taxes and the pay scale of the judiciary, among others.

Legarda, meanwhile, said she is keeping an open mind on the Charter change issue. "I now have an open mind on this and on the manner of effecting constitutional reforms."

While there is a consensus among senators and congressmen that there is a need to rewrite certain provisions of the Constitution, they differ widely over the best mode for Charter amendment.