Cha-cha provincial summits start

Mayors, governors and other local government executives have started the information drive on constitutional reforms and the proposed shift to a parliamentary government in Luzon and the Visayas. Simultaneous province-wide assemblies and consultations will be held today.

Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado, president of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, will host the opening Visayan leg of the ULAP Provincial Summit on Constitutional Reforms in Tagbilaran City while Gov. Josephine Sato of Mindoro Occidental will do the same in the capital town of Mamburao to kick off the Luzon phase.

"We will vigorously undertake this role of directly consulting with the people on this very important issue because we believe that we are in the best position to find out how they want genuine, sweeping reforms via the shift to a parliamentary system of government to be carried out and adopted," Aumentado said.

The information drive will educate the public on constitutional reforms, which proponents say will result in political stability and pave the way for a liberalized economy conducive to growth. The campaign also aims to find out what powers people are willing to grant President Arroyo and the prime minister of an interim parliament.

The initial batch of 50 ULAP executives, with support from the Sigaw ng Bayan Movement (SBM), will man the frontlines of the consultative meetings that will be attended by local government officials and employees and representatives from the private sector, including religious organizations and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).

Aumentado said a separate batch of spokesmen who will be deployed in Mindanao will undergo a training program similar to the one held last week for the first batch of resource people in Quezon City under the tutelage of former Constitutional Commission members Romela Bengzon, Alex Magno and Raul Lambino.

"This is participatory democracy in actual practice," Aumentado said. "We will take advantage of our multi-level information drives from the provincial down to the barangay level to consult with our constituencies to find out what type of parliamentary system they want."

Meanwhile, more local executives took up the cudgels for the people’s initiative as they challenged critics to go directly to the people to see for themselves the widespread clamor for sweeping reforms in the country’s political structure instead of vilifying the process through lies and disinformation.

Aumentado said Charter change critics have gave up their chance to determine the public pulse when they scuttled their information drive in favor of a hatchet job against the grassroots-driven people’s initiative to amend the Constitution to shift to a parliamentary system of government.

For his part, ULAP secretary-general and Mandaue City Councilor Carlo Fortuna slammed the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) report alleging that the same people helping President Arroyo push Charter change were the same personalities who helped President Ferdinand Marcos perpetuate himself in power.

Fortuna cited the example of Mayor Gerardo Espina Sr., a member of the 2005 presidential consultative commission on constitutional amendments, whom he said voted against the final con-com report, which was submitted to President Arroyo on Dec. 16, 2005.

"So how can the PCIJ correctly claim that Espina was also helping President Arroyo perpetuate herself in power when he was among the more vocal dissenters (against) the final report submitted by con-com last year and had even voted against it?"

Agusan del Sur Gov. Adolf Edward Plaza said that the PCIJ should have adhered to the basic journalistic tenet of checking and rechecking its facts before coming out with its "wild conclusion" of a fabricated people’s initiative, especially when it had partly based its observations on interviews with persons whose motives are suspect.

"Instead of peddling lies and disinformation to destroy the people’s initiative, critics of Charter change should go out and talk directly to the people to find out if they really support amendments to the (1987) Constitution paving the way for a parliamentary form of government," Plaza said.

In a related development, Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) president Donald Dee said they will not be affected by the move to change the form of government from presidential to parliamentary.

"The issue now is focus on the form of government and the provision on business and on economy is not yet tackled," Dee said.

Meanwhile, the Charter change initiative in the House of Representatives could open up the entire economy — including media and public utilities — to foreign investors.

The congressmen’s version of the revised Constitution seeks to lift citizenship restrictions in such sectors of the economy as media, public utilities and natural resources, which, under the present Charter and the country’s laws, are restricted to Filipinos or where foreign investment is allowed up to a maximum of only 40 percent.

The congressmen would thus allow full foreign ownership of business entities in these sectors.

At the same time, they would permit 100 percent foreign ownership of residential, agricultural, commercial or reclaimed lands and of franchises.

However, in the case of franchises granted to corporations involving public utilities "of large scale," parliament shall provide for limited foreign ownership.

Presumably, it is also parliament, the envisioned unicameral or one-chamber legislature that would replace the present two-chamber Congress, which would define which public utilities are "of large scale."

The congressmen’s version of the rewritten Constitution declares advertising as an industry "impressed with public interest."

As such, it would mandate parliament to regulate it "for the protection of consumers and the promotion of the general welfare."

"The participation of foreign investors in the governing body of entities in such industry shall be limited to their proportionate share in the capital thereof," states a section in the new draft Charter.

The congressmen’s version of the revised basic law was put together principally by the constitutional amendments committee chaired by Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Constantino Jaraula and endorsed by 172 House members.

That number is 23 short of the 195 that Cha-cha proponents need in their plan to railroad Charter change by bypassing the Senate. The number 195 represents three-fourths of all members of Congress.

According to Jaraula, the Constitution requires that proposed amendments be approved by "three-fourths of all members of Congress," even if all of them are members of the House of Representatives.

He said the House intends to approve the draft Charter in its 10 remaining session days.

Congress will resume session on May 15 before adjourning again on June 9. It is currently on its extended Lenten break.

Jaraula said that once their version of the revised Constitution is approved, they will send it to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) with a request that a plebiscite be conducted as soon as possible for the ratification of the draft Charter.

Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos earlier said that if they get such a request from the House together with the necessary funds, they will hold a plebiscite "unless stopped by the Supreme Court."

Representatives Edcel Lagman of Albay and Arnulfo Fuentebella of Camarines Sur, two of those who had endorsed Jaraula’s draft Charter, disagreed with their colleagues that they can bypass the Senate on Cha-cha.

Senate participation and concurrence is a must, Lagman said. He added that the Senate and the House must also vote on Charter change separately.

Senators earlier passed a resolution expressing their collective sense that congressmen cannot ignore them on Charter change. They vowed to go to the Supreme Court, as they did in the case of controversial Executive Order 464, if they were bypassed.