GMA: RP shifting to parliament

BEIJING (via PLDT) — President Arroyo told Asian political leaders yesterday that she would work for the Philippines’ shift from the current presidential system to a federal-parliamentary form of government.

Addressing 350 delegates who attended the third International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) at the Beijing Hotel here, Mrs. Arroyo presented her political vision for the Philippines under her administration’s ruling party, the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats.

"I hope to learn from the experience of political parties in Asia as I advocate for the transition of our country to a federal parliamentary state," she said in her 30-minute keynote address a few hours before ending her state visit to China.

"As we envisioned it — but I have to learn so much from all of you — federalism is not merely a political form. It will have substantive implications on the political economy of the nation," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo exhorted the ICAPP delegates to address the issue of eventual economic viability of federal states and called for a "wider distribution of economic zones" in the country.

The economic zones helped fuel China’s emergence as an economic powerhouse and spearheaded the transition of more than 400 million Chinese from poverty to the middle class.

Mrs. Arroyo said her administration has started on the prerequisites to ensure a seamless transition from the presidential system.

"It must be spearheaded, I believe — and again, I have to learn from this assembly — by meaningful political reforms," she said.

The President earlier agreed to a "one-year moratorium" on discussing proposed Charter changes in Congress, and instead have lawmakers attend to urgent fiscal measures to address the government’s budget deficit problems.

She has consistently cited Charter change as the tool to institute the reforms needed to correct existing economic and political systems, which she said were the root causes of the country’s problems.

"A parliamentary government improves the political interface between the executive and the legislature, and thereby could galvanize reforms more efficiently and effectively," Mrs. Arroyo said.

She added that "it would also enable our country to keep in step with our Asian neighbors in terms of political and economic modernization and consolidation."

The President mentioned in her speech that among these political reforms is "a law on political parties that would spur the rehabilitation of societal organizations in mass movements."

She also pushed for the "cleaning up of electoral processes, which includes measures to subsidize political parties in the margins of competition so as to diminish the influence of moneyed power-brokers in the electoral process."

"This should also assist the parties in advocating public issues and offering reasonable options for the nation’s future," the President said.

She told ICAPP delegates she has consistently espoused "often enough" to Filipinos her own advocacy to change the character of politics in the country "in order to create the fertile grounds for true reforms."

Mrs. Arroyo said her vision is to be able to remove the "politics of patronage" in the Philippines "to give way to a new system of politics of party programs and a process of institutionalized consultations with the people."

She said this "party-to-party, state-to-state, people-to-people" system is the way to build the ramparts of regional cooperation aside from exchange and development, the theme of this year’s ICAPP conference.

The President reaffirmed her administration’s policy of "mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s affairs" before ICAPP delegates — from 83 political parties representing 34 countries — who espouse different political ideologies.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra spoke after Mrs. Arroyo, who was the conference’s keynote speaker. She was accompanied by Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., the chief advocate of the shift to a parliamentary system, as the official representatives of Lakas.

The President credited De Venecia as the brains behind the formation of ICAPP, which had its first conference in Manila three years ago. She and De Venecia co-chair Lakas, the biggest political party under the administration coalition ticket that helped her win in the May presidential elections.

JDV re-elected ICAPP chairman

De Venecia was elected to a third successive two-year term as chairman of the ICAPP’s standing committee on the eve of the ICAPP opening. He was nominated by the Communist Party of China, Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai of Thailand’s Rak Thai party and Prince Norodom Ranariddh of Cambodia’s Funcinpec party.

During the standing committee meeting, De Venecia proposed that the third ICAPP highlight the major tasks of political parties.

Among these are the creation of an Asian middle class, an expanded debt-relief strategy to help debt-saddled nations, a strengthened fight against Islamist extremism, and the creation of an Asian Parliament and an Asian Anti-Poverty Fund that would provide microfinancing to Asia’s small entrepreneurs, he said.

De Venecia reiterated his proposal that governments subsidize their respective political parties to modernize them and reduce political corruption.

He also asked the region’s political parties to be catalysts in bringing about a global dialogue among civilizations and religions.

De Venecia said political parties from China, the Philippines and other nations that have claims over the Spratly Islands should work to develop a strategy to "convert an area of conflict into an area of cooperation" in the South China Sea. If oil and natural gas are discovered in the region, this will minimize Asian countries’ dependence on oil from the Middle East, he said.

At the opening of the conference, the Communist Party of China trumpeted China’s economic transformation over the past two decades, calling it a "historic leap of nearly 1.3 billion people from subsistence living to having a moderately well-off standard of living."

Vice President Zeng Qinghong said the history of aggression and wars in Asia has taught the region "the value of peace and the importance of development."

Asians may differ in social systems, history and culture and enjoy different levels and models of economic development but "these are not obstacles to increasing exchanges, and building and strengthening consensus," he said.

Zeng said the ICAPP has become a platform for furthering exchanges and cooperation among Asian political parties and promoting regional development.

Political microcosm

Pro-administration Senators Manuel Villar and Ralph Recto of the Nacionalista Party were also at the conference, as was Sen. Joker Arroyo, who was registered as a representative of the People Power Coalition.

Also at the conference were Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. of the PDP-Laban and Sen. Edgardo Angara, president of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, who is scheduled to deliver a speech today.

Mrs. Arroyo described the Filipino delegates as "a microcosm of the parties that make up this conference. Philippine politics is a descendant of the same ideological lines that divided Asia decades ago."

She also cited that "in the same way that other nations have done, we have grown the extreme points of ideological conflicts in the center," noting the participation in mainstream politics by former military rebels as well as leftist leaders as party-list congressmen in the House of Representatives.

"Politics is indeed the art of the possible," the President said.

Arroyo, however, told The STAR that Mrs. Arroyo’s discussion of the proposed shift in the form of government was not appropriate since Charter change "is a domestic issue. It has no relevance in an international conference."

After attending the ICAPP opening rites, Shinawatra and Mrs. Arroyo had 30-minute closed-door talks at the State Guesthouse where the President and her official party were billeted during the state visit.

Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay, for his part, said the President’s fruitful trip to China should encourage the Department of Foreign Affairs to foster closer cooperation with other Asian countries and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to generate more investments and forge a united front against restrictive trade agreements, terrorism, transnational crimes and environmental degradation.

"There is a need to build a united regional front to address these issues. On the World Trade Organization for instance, our government will push for people-centered and development-oriented provisions in the WTO when it resumes this month the Doha Round of trade negotiations," he said.

Pichay also expressed hope that the state visit, which yielded five bilateral agreements, would pave the way for a diplomatic solution to the territorial dispute over the Spratly Islands and perhaps lead to shared use of resources such as oil, since the visit also generated an agreement for joint oil exploration by China and the Philippines.

Bukidnon Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri said the Mindanao contingent "is elated to hear the President’s push for political reform toward a federal-parliamentary government and the economic autonomy of federal states."

Reps. Hermilando Mandanas of Batangas and Rodolfo Bacani of Manila said they were "fully endorsing the President’s call for reforms" as a prelude to a transition to a federal parliamentary government.