Is the Con-com draft really dead in the water?

The group Save our Languages through Federalism (Solfed) held its Executive Conference the whole day Friday at the Mango Park Hotel in Cebu City to discuss issues pertaining to Charter changes (Cha-cha). It was a small, but well-represented working group headed by Atty. Lino Faelnar, Prof. Fred S. Cabuang of the De La Salle University in Manila, Dr. Jose Dacudao, representing Butuan and Bacolod, and Bentong Isles and dyRF radio commentator Ricky Rama Poca, representing Cebu. Five others could not make it due to various reasons.

What was interesting for me was the report given to us by Prof. Cabuang, Solfed’s liaison in Congress, who revealed that the work of the Presidential Consultative Commission (Con-com) chaired by Dr. Jose "Pepe" Abueva was virtually thrown out of the House committee on constitutional amendments chaired by Rep. Constantino Jaraula. Rep. Roilo Golez filed resolution HR01067 dated Jan. 16, 2006, entitled, "Resolution to reject outright the report of the consultative commission, because of its immoral, anti-democracy provisions, which assault the integrity of the Members of the House and insult the intelligence of the Filipino people."

Prof. Cabuang explained that the committee members believed that only Congress can conduct public hearings or citizen’s consultations and only Congress is authorized and empowered to amend the Constitution. Therefore, this resolution filed by Rep. Golez practically throws out all the work done by Dr. Abueva et al. What a waste of public funds if you ask me.

I can only pity Dr. Abueva that he was somehow "had" by his fellow Con-com members because as chairman of the Con-com, he had no choice but to sign his name on the finished product, despite the fact that it practically junked a federal system of government and only favored a parliamentary system. Abueva has been a consistent advocate of a federalized Philippines with his group, Citizen’s Movement for a Federal Philippines (CMFD).

If I were Abueva, I would have tendered my resignation, not because he’s a sore loser in a democracy where we have to accept that the majority is supposed to rule, but because the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Filipino people Con-com consulted wanted a federal system in place was totally ignored by the Con-com in its draft Constitution. In short, the Con-com failed to give in to the will of the majority of the people whom they had consulted… by refusing to recognize the people’s desire to adopt a federal system of government.

But while the Con-com draft is, for all intents and purposes, dead in the water, it doesn’t mean to say that the House committee on constitutional amendments has gone bankrupt… of ideas to purse the goal of Speaker Jose de Venecia. Prof. Cabuang said the committee still has an approved draft under HCR0004 which was submitted last Dec. 12 to the House committee on rules entitled, "Concurrent resolution calling for the convening of Congress as a Constituent Assembly to propose revision to the 1987 Constitution, providing for a Unicameral Parliamentary and Federal System of Government as defined and specified in the proposed amendments appended hereto."

But while that’s the good news, Prof. Cabuang said the attachment for a federal system has somehow disappeared from this report as ventilated by the opposition group within the committee on constitutional amendments. So that report is wrongly titled without the provisions for the establishment of a federal system. We can only hope that the provisions for a federal system can be found and returned to be debated upon in Congress.

Meanwhile, we invited no less than Deputy Speaker Raul del Mar to the Solfed roundtable discussion and he came and sat down with the group for an hour and a half. Solfed presented to him a proposal asking Congress to drop the word "auxiliary" from Section 7 of Article XIV in the 1987 Constitution… in order to prevent the other spoken languages in the Philippines from becoming extinct. I expect some heated arguments from the so-called Tagalog nationalists to stop this from happening.

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Last Thursday evening, Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia and Vice Gov. Greg Sanchez gave retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. a testimonial dinner and a Lifetime Achievement Award to a very deserving Cebuano, who in his speech, said he never dreamed that he’d make something of himself, coming from the hinterlands of Argao, Cebu.

In accepting the challenge to be the Presidential Adviser on Electoral Reform, Davide stressed that he often is wrongly accused of kowtowing to the appointing powers that put him in his positions. First of all, he refused to accept any salary for this position and made it very clear, "I will do my work for the good of the people for whatever good people do to the least of my brothers, we do it for God and in the service of God."

Actually, Davide was chastised by former Sen. Rene Saguisag who believed that Davide’s accepting this post "demeaned" the Supreme Court. Truth to tell, no one believes in Saguisag anymore… he’s a "has-been" and clear proof that when the opposition grabs hold of power, they are just as bad in delivering the basic needs to the people just like the people they wanted out of power.

In honoring the former Chief Justice, Gov. Gwen Garcia spruced up the Capitol Social Hall so elegantly you’d think that they were having a party inside a five-star hotel. She also brought dancers and performers, who in their own right won awards and considered "Garbo sa Sugbo," like the 2004 National Music Competition for Young Artists’ grand prize… the Mandaue School for the Arts Children’s Choir and Arts Dance Troupe and the Knapsack Dancers, who aside from giving the former Chief Justice a harana with the great Cebuano songs Usahay and Matud Nila, also performed a lively and exciting song and dance number like Mabuhi ang Sugbuanaon, which Cebuanos should know by heart next to their most requested Cebuano songs.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.