House eyes 4th Cha-cha mode

Manila, Philippines -  A key leader of the House of Representatives said yesterday the chamber may consider a fourth mode or the “Bernas mode” to introduce amendments to the Constitution.

“It takes the route of the legislative process. We can approve Cha-cha (Charter change) proposals like we approve bills. Then we endorse them to the Senate. If the Senate approves them, the two chambers refer the proposals to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for ratification by the people in a plebiscite,” Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said.

It is called “Bernas mode” because it was former Ateneo law dean Fr. Joaquin Bernas who advocated this process as an alternative to other Cha-cha modes like constitutional convention, the House and the Senate convening into a constituent assembly (con-ass), and a direct effort by the electorate through the so-called people’s initiative.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. earlier expressed preference for a con-ass with the two chambers voting separately.

During the Arroyo administration, con-ass proponents in the House said they could bypass the Senate on Cha-cha for as long as they obtained the required three-fourths vote of all members of Congress.

Gonzales said that unlike in con-ass, congressmen and senators need not meet jointly if the Bernas mode were used. But each chamber must obtain the required three-fourths vote of all its members for approving Cha-cha proposals, he said.

He said the fourth mode could also insulate President Aquino from efforts by his congressional allies to amend the Constitution, specifically its economic provisions. However, he said any Cha-cha campaign won’t succeed without the President’s support.

“Without his support, Cha-cha will crawl. We will be slow in moving and we will take only small steps,” he said.

He also said if Cha-cha fails during the current 15th Congress, whose life expires on June 30, 2013, members of the next Congress – with Aquino’s backing – should work on it on their first year in office.

“If we do it in 2015 or 2016, the enemies of the President and his allies would accuse them of trying to tinker with the Constitution to extend their terms of office, the same suspicions that stymied Cha-cha efforts by previous administrations. Then it will be an endless cycle,” he said.

Belmonte and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile are leading the current initiative to amend the Constitution’s economic provisions. Belmonte has said he is open to allowing 100-percent foreign ownership of businesses in certain sectors of the economy.

In the last days of the Arroyo administration, then Speaker Prospero Nograles tried the Bernas mode by introducing Resolution 737, which called for allowing foreigners and foreign companies to own lands.

Nograles assured his colleagues that if passed by the House, his resolution would be sent to the Senate for its own approval, and then submitted by the Comelec to the people for ratification.

The House, however, failed to tackle the resolution. Critics of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo suspected that if Nograles proposal were taken up, it would be replaced by another resolution drafted by Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte, which called for a con-ass and for bypassing the Senate on Cha-cha.

At Malacañang, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said there’s no sign of the chief executive changing his position that Charter change is not a priority of his administration.

“The executive through the President has already stated as much,” Lacierda said over radio dzRB.

He said he could not tell what fate awaits any Cha-cha initiative without the President’s support but added that Gonzales himself had “stated as much that without the support of the President it will not be feasible.”

“Again, I’m quoting from Congressman Boyet Gonzales,” Lacierda said. “I would defer to the expertise of Congressman Boyet Gonzales. Remember he is speaking – not just an ordinary member of the Liberal Party, not just an ordinary member of the House – he is the majority floor leader, he directs traffic in the House. So he would be in a better position to comment on matters that will proceed in the House.” – With Aurea Calica