Nograles on Cha-cha: Under my watch, I will bite the bullet

MANILA, Philippines – Speaker Prospero Nograles vowed to carry out whatever the House of Representatives’ committee on constitutional amendments decides on the issue of Charter change.

“Under my watch, I will bite the bullet,” he said during the Manila Overseas Press Club Congress Night at the Hotel Inter-Continental in Makati Wednesday night, adding that if the panel headed by La Union Rep. Victor Ortega moves for Charter change, then the House will move for Cha-cha now.

“If his committee says that let’s move for Charter change after 2010, then we move for Charter change in 2010,” he said.

“We will discuss the Charter change initiative today up to 2010. We have to discuss it now because postponing discussions on this matter will not help the country.”

Nograles said the 240 House members will discuss the issue “in public in a transparent manner, with no surprises, with cards on the table.”

“I am Speaker of the House, but I have only one vote,” he said.

“I will support the decision of the committee where it is assigned. Let us discuss it now. There is no better time than now, so that at least, if we discuss it now, the people who are running for president in 2010 know that their terms may be cut short. At least they know what they are facing.”

Ortega reported last month that 118 members of the House of Representatives, or 91.4 percent, want to amend the Constitution while 11, or .08 percent, were opposed to it.

This is based on the “informal survey” they had conducted.

Of those polled, 64 wanted the constitutional assembly mode, 49 were for constitutional convention, while six were pushing for a people’s initiative, which the Supreme Court had struck down as unconstitutional.

Seventy-three lawmakers want Charter change done before the May 2010 elections, 26 others insisted this should only be implemented after the presidential polls while 23 suggested this should “coincide” or could be synchronized with the elections.

Eighty-eight House members are open to a shift from the presidential to a parliamentary form of government, while 60 are in favor of federalism, which Nograles and even Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. have endorsed.

GMA extension not probable

Nograles said speculations that President Arroyo wanted to extend her term beyond 2010 are misplaced.

“That is possible, but not probable because there is nothing, no bill or resolution or piece of paper that seeks to extend the term of PGMA,” he said.

“Since there is nothing to that effect, that issue will never be discussed in that committee. So, I don’t know why that issue keeps coming out and from what planet it came from because it is not in our records.”

However, Nograles said once a parliamentary system is set up former Presidents Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada, or any other Filipino, can seek public office.

“Any Filipino citizen with no disqualification and all the qualifications can run,” he said.

After the May 2010 presidential elections, “you cannot be sure who will be the Prime Minister or who will be the President under a parliamentary form of government,” Nograles said.       – Delon Porcalla