Senate gears to debate Cha-cha bill

Sen. Edgardo Angara submitted yesterday for plenary debate the proposal to amend the 1987 Constitution through a constitutional convention.

Angara, who chairs the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and revision of codes and laws, said the Charter is a faulty document "that exists in a time warp."

"We have right now a structurally faulty Constitution that has become the refuge of the ambitious and the scoundrels, and has failed to act as a stabilizing force a Constitution purports to provide," Angara said in his sponsorship speech.

Under Senate committee report No. 233, delegates to the constitutional convention (Concon) will be elected simultaneously with those seeking public office in the May 2004 elections.

"The delegates will start their work on or before July 2004 and will only have one year to amend the Charter. There will be one delegate from each of the legislative districts and (they) will only receive traveling expenses and a modest per diem whenever he attends convention sessions or committee hearings," Angara said.

The delegates’ offices, he said, will be honorary and they shall receive no salaries.

He said there are four major constitutional amendments, drawn from expert opinion and testimonies in public hearings conducted by his committee, that the Concon delegates will address.

Amendments to the Charter will focus on the following areas, he said: "(The) shift in the form of government, from presidential to parliamentary; shift from a unitary to a federal form of government; amending the economic provisions in land ownership and operation of public utilities, ownership and operation of media and advertising institutions and the exploration and development of natural resources; and firming up the supremacy of civilian rule over the military.

"The convention shall commence its works not later than 30 days from the inauguration of the President-elect on June 30, 2004. The Senate president and the Speaker of the House will jointly preside at its opening," Angara said.

Angara said the 1987 Constitution, which was framed in 1986 and ratified in 1987, "a period of liberation and great euphoria and, ironically, it drew (many) of its vital provisions from the 1935 Constitution. It approved a presidential form of government, with all its demonstrative gridlock and its imperial trappings."

He said the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government breeds conflict and stalemates in policy-making processes rather than cooperation and harmony.

The Supreme Court, he said, the final arbiter that invalidates the acts of a coordinate body, has become increasingly "intrusive, going beyond its domain and has encroached upon policy-making."

"The present Constitution’s economic provision were better suited for a long-gone mercantilist era, in which economic powers were basically exploiters of natural resources and raw materials," Angara said.

"The provision that sets a cap on foreign investments is so obsolete that it has been modified in the country that had launched the Long March and the Cultural Revolution (China)," he added.

Angara said the presidency has become like an elected monarchy that can run roughshod over the traditional and sacred principles of check and balance and public accountability.

"Weak and (unresponsive public) institutions," he added, "have only spawned and abetted bad leaders and unsound policies. The time is ripe to look this rigid constitutional arrangement in the eye and stand it on its head."

The parliamentary form of government, he said, will not be prone to the vicious gridlock and paralysis inherent in a presidential system.

"With its underlying principle of mutual dependence, a parliamentary form of government will give a greater degree of freedom to the various institutions of government in facilitating actions critical for economic and social advancement," he said.

"A unitary setup promotes excessive centralization of power and resources in the central government," Angara said.

Angara blamed the inequitable setup in government as the main reason for the lingering conflict in Mindanao and the resentment felt by local government units towards Manila.

"It is believed that a federal system will weave together our fractious society and break the culture of mendicancy that underpins the relationship between central and local governments," he added.

"It seems that federalism is an integral component in the advocacy for a parliamentary system," Angara said.