Interim parliament to propose Cha-cha — House leader

The chairman of the House committee on constitutional amendments said yesterday that the interim parliament that is expected to be fully operational before the year ends will propose changes in the Constitution, which will be submitted to the people in another referendum next year.

Meanwhile, three of the country’s largest party-list organizations with a total of eight million supporters have joined the people’s initiative campaign for Charter change and pave the way for a shift to a parliamentary system of government.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Constantino Jaraula said the interim parliament — the result of a merger of the Senate and the House of Representatives — will function like a constituent assembly that will tackle amendments to specific provisions of the Constitution aside from its lawmaking function.

"When Congress is converted into interim parliament then it will (make) specific amendments in the Constitution," Jaraula told reporters during the weekly Balitaan sa Rembrandt Hotel forum in Quezon City.

He said the people’s initiative being pursued by the Sigaw ng Bayan Movement is only limited to the proposal to change the form of government from the present presidential system to a unicameral parliamentary system.

He said the people’s initiative has already surpassed its target of getting the signatures of three percent of registered voters for each congressional district and 12 percent of registered voters nationwide to be able to file a petition proposing a shift in the form of government.

Jaraula said the Commission on Elections (Comelec), after verifying the signatures submitted by proponents of the people’s initiative campaign, will next call for a national referendum and the interim parliament could be fully operational by the end of this year.

"But the referendum will only be confined to whether the people agree on the shift to the parliamentary system," he said.

Jaraula said the ongoing move in the House to secure signatures among lawmakers in support of Charter change complements the people’s initiative campaign.

"Whichever comes first will be fully implemented," he said.

STAR columnist and Charter change advocacy group leader Jarius Bondoc said they had begun their own national information drive as early as February this year.

He said there is an urgent need to amend economic provisions to attract foreign investors to the country.

Join the club

Reps. Ernesto Pablo of the Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives (APEC), Ernesto Gidaya of the Veterans Freedom Party (VFP) and Guillermo Cua of COOP-NATCO, which represents the cooperatives sector, said their respective organizations will assist in an ongoing information drive to help people understand the issue of Charter change.

The Provincial Board Members League of the Philippines, the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, and the Liga ng mga Barangay are mounting education drives parallel to that being conducted by the Charter change Advocacy Commission (AdCom).

APEC, the second biggest party-list group in the House, includes 119 rural electric cooperatives and covers some 6.7 million consumers. The VFP, which includes retired generals, promotes the interests of some 213,000 military veterans and retirees while COOP-NATCO has about 1.2 million members.

Gidaya and Cue said the Senate has yet to act on two pro-veteran bills, along with amendments to the Omnibus Cooperatives Code, which were already passed by the House.

Cua said COOP-NATCO has been advocating constitutional reforms for the past three years, and that his group is familiar with the parliamentary system because its mode of electing officers is similar to the setup under this system.

Pablo said a unicameral parliament would speed up the passage of laws that would have otherwise languished in the Senate under the present bicameral system.

He said House Majority Leader Prospero Nograles earlier complained that some 30 bills passed by the House had been gathering dust in the Senate, owing to some senators’ preoccupation with grandstanding and politicking.

Gidaya, a retired general, noted that when he was assigned to Israel as a Philippine ambassador, he observed how the Knesset — the Israeli parliament — was able to proceed smoothly with its legislative functions without unnecessary political interference because the executive and legislative branches of government had been fused into one.