Two senators vs amendments after 2010

Two members of the current Senate majority blew down the optimistic prediction of House leaders behind their proposal for a Constitutional Convention of both House of Congress to amend the Constitution.

But Sen. Edgardo Angara and Sen. Jose Miguel Zubiri last weekend shot it down as a side comment during the Renewable Energy Congress in Iloilo City sponsored by the Regional Development Council 6.

Angara said while he said there is need to amend some provisions of the Constitution, he will support these only if they take effect after 2010.

Majority leader Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, on the other hand, said the chances of the proposal hurdling the Senate is virtually nil.

He pointed out that there are six presidentiables in the upper chamber and that they would be the first to torpedo the move for a Senate okay of the constituent assembly measures.

He also doused cold water on speculations that Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile favors Charter change, pointing out the five presidentiables will leave the majority and change the political complexion of the upper chamber.

Angara, on the other hand, also said that the Senate will throw out the proposal or Charter change if it would push for a federal-unicameral government.

In short, what Angara wants is that the checks and balance in Congress is retained.

And the only way, both senators look at it, the Charter change can only come about when the House acknowledges that voting for amendments should be done separately by either chamber voting separately and not by counting the collective votes of both houses.

Well, for the moment that puts the issue on hold.

Death rides Negros hinterland

Senior Superintendent Manuel Felix took over the Negros provincial command from Senior Superintendent Franco over the weekend. But he immediately found himself confronted by the sight of death wielding its scythe in Negros Occidental. It is a challenging task with the New People’s Army perpetrating their deadly harvest of cadavers in the province.

The latest was the killing by suspected New People’s Army hitman of sugar planter Jose Gumban and Kagawad Basilio de la Torre of Barangay San Isidro, in Toboso town, of Northern Negros Occidental.

Indications were that it was a premeditated hit with three gunmen believed to be NPA sparrow members.

Gumban was riding tandem with De la Torre aboard a Honda XRM when they were flagged down by three suspected hitman about 6:20 a.m. at Stop Aguinaldo in Barangay San Isidro. Stop Aguinaldo is just beside the national highway of Northern Negros Occidental.

Gumban was immediately hit on the head. De la Torre was hit in the leg. He managed to run to a nearby coffee shop but was met by another trio who shot him in the head.

This was the latest in a series of alleged liquidation of government men by suspected rebel hitmen.

The trio were reportedly young, ranging in ages from 17 to 20 years old. So the possibility is that it was a test run for them to determine whether they can join the sparrow unit.

But the three who gunned down De la Torre appeared to have been a separate team who were in the house of San Isidro Barangay Captain Mario Muñoz while the shooting of Gumban and the barangay kagawad was taking place.

There were suspicion that they may have mistaken Gumban for a policeman. The reason they were shouting in Visayan “Don’t be afraid we are killing a policeman.”

On Nov. 1, the NPA Roselyn “Ka Gene” Pelle Colemand also admitted the shooting and disarming of militiaman Eduardo Suico at a cockpit in Barangay Bug-ang, Toboso.

Four days later, suspected rebels also shot to death Barangay Captain Ildefonso Senora in Paitan Escalante City. This was done in front of his wife and daughter, police said.

The NPA also admitted having disarmed PO2 Louie Maluya whom they tagged as an abusive policeman. They grabbed his M-14 rifle and a .45 caliber pistol right at the Escalante public market.

These incidents increased shortly after the pullout of the 15th Infantry Battalion from Northern Negros Occidental.

In Bacolod, meanwhile, Superintendent Leo Irwin Agpangan, acting police chief, noted an increase incidence of car theft, especially in malls.

Suspects in such incidents and several other burglaries in Bacolod have not been arrested. In most instances, minors were allegedly used to break into vehicles to check if there are valuables in them.

But the more worrisome is that the toll in the insurgency situation keeps on rising despite the claims by the military that the rebel movement has ebbed.

In short, Christmas may not be as enjoyable as it had been in the past with the insurgents cutting down people the way they had been doing the past few weeks.