Lawmakers becoming lawbreakers for pushing Charter change - Pia

MANILA, Philippines – Lawmakers pushing for Charter change are becoming the country’s top lawbreakers because they are insisting on something that is “unconstitutional,” Sen. Pia Cayetano said yesterday.

In a statement, Cayetano said House members pushing for Resolution 1109 seeking to unilaterally convene a constituent assembly to amend the 1987 Constitution were engaging in a “useless and dangerous political experiment” and neglecting the more urgent needs of the people.

“The ringleaders of this group personify the callousness of the Arroyo administration. We are facing an acute economic crisis and experts have warned of a flat economic growth rate this year and severe joblessness in the coming months, but what are they doing? Still trying to come up with their concocted schemes of amending the Constitution for the purpose of term extension,” Cayetano said.

Cayetano also criticized Resolution 737 containing Speaker Prospero Nograles’ “fourth mode” of Cha-cha, which the House started taking up in plenary debates. Using the regular legislative process of passing bills and laws, the resolution seeks to amend Article XII Sections 2 and 3 of the Constitution to allow full foreign participation in the exploitation of natural resources, as well as ownership of agricultural lands.

“The Constitution clearly provides for only three modes for amending the Constitution. There is no fourth,” Cayetano, a lawyer, said.

“How do we expect our people to obey the law when their lawmakers are the ones trying to circumvent it? We teach our children that the Constitution is the fundamental law of the land, but how can the House simply disregard this? They are setting a bad example for our people and the youth,” she added.

Cayetano cited a warning from Socio-economic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto that the Philippines would be delayed in achieving its Millennium Development Goals because of the current global financial crisis.

“If we do not pool our resources and focus on our real problems and instead insist on this useless exercise in Cha-cha, then we might as well give up on achieving our MDGs,” Cayetano said.

Sen. Loren Legarda said that with the House majority’s persistent effort to change the Constitution, “it’s as if we have returned to the martial law days when dictator henchmen were the ones taking command the Batasang Pambansa, and leaving the then opposition eating dust.”

“The House cannot just impose the tyranny of numbers in Congress, especially since the Constitution provides that the Senate and the House should vote separately on all issues presented to them for legislation,” Legarda said.

From the very start, Legarda said she had always opposed such a move to amend the Constitution because, “it is not urgent, considering that what we need is to get down to work and attend to more pressing needs such as unemployment, peace and order, rising prices of basic commodities and environmental problems.”

“Worse, the House wants to do the amendments all by itself – that is to convene itself into constituent assembly – and leaving the Senate out of the picture,” she said.

“Majority of the people, surveys show, are not in favor of changing the Constitution for so many reasons, foremost of which is that changing it is not a guarantee that the economy will change for the better,” she pointed out.

“People are convinced that the House move is meant not to spur change in our economy but to perpetuate our incumbent officials in office by amending the constitutional provisions on terms of office. This is dangerous,” Legarda said.

“Sad to say there is here a sense of lack of priorities,” she added.