Lakas, Kampi colliding on Cha-cha

The fragile alliance that President Arroyo has struck between her ruling Lakas party and the Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi), the two largest political groups in the House of Representatives, appears to be crumbling.

The Lakas-Kampi partnership, together with the smaller political parties supporting the President, succeeded early last month in killing the opposition initiative to oust her through the House impeachment process.

The next most important goal that Mrs. Arroyo had set for the alliance was the amendment of the Constitution through a constituent assembly (con-ass), which means both the House and the Senate would propose Charter changes (Cha-cha).

Kampi, the political party the President founded in 1997 when she was a senator and which is now led by Antipolo City Rep. Ronaldo Puno, had agreed to support the con-ass mode despite the fact that, like the Senate, it advocated the election of a constitutional convention to do the job of revising the Constitution.

"We lawmakers and politicians should not do it," Puno had told The STAR. "But we agreed to support con-ass for the sake of harmony in the House."

Yesterday, however, Puno said he and his Kampi party mates would not agree to the convening of Congress into a constituent assembly until the Cha-cha consultative commission that the President created two weeks ago has completed its work and submitted its report.

"We will vote against any move to discuss the Charter change issue on the House floor until the commission has made its final recommendations," he said.

He added that his group is making its stand known on the issue because the committee on constitutional amendments, chaired by Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Constantino Jaraula, has already submitted its new report on Cha-cha, and that the report would soon be taken up in plenary session.

If Kampi makes good on its threat, it would mean that Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and his Lakas colleagues who are pushing for Cha-cha would have to wait for at least six months before reviving the initiative again.

The Speaker would have to recall his marching order to Majority Leader Prospero Nograles, whose rules committee decides what measures are taken up in plenary session, to calendar the new Jaraula report at the earliest opportunity.

Unless, of course, De Venecia and his colleagues can ignore Kampi in their Cha-cha initiative.

Puno’s information about the Jaraula recommendations is correct. As of Wednesday, the last session day of the House this week, the report was being circulated among members of the Jaraula committee for signature.

To carry out the directive of his House boss, Nograles had planned to start plenary discussions on Cha-cha that day had the routing for signatures been completed. The majority leader hopes to open the debates any day next week, if there is sufficient attendance.

Some House leaders consider Kampi’s change of heart on Cha-cha as "muscle-flexing" and have linked it to the Puno group’s "request" for at least two seats in the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA) and committee chairmanships.

According to Puno, his Kampi is not begging for the two CA seats. "We are entitled to them. Smaller groups have two seats," he has said.

De Venecia and Nograles do not have even one vacant CA membership that they can give to Kampi.

Besides two representatives in the appointments body, Kampi is asking for several committee chairmanships, including those for defense and accounts.

The defense chairmanship is held in a holdover capacity by Parañaque’s Roilo Golez, who quit when he joined opposition congressmen in their impeach-Arroyo initiative.

The accounts panel is chaired by another pro-impeachment congressman, Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte, who had offered to give it up long before he supported the impeachment move.

The panel is one of the sensitive committees as it handles House finances. Its chairman is traditionally the choice of the Speaker.