A shot in the arm for Charter change?

One of my readers, Sonny Gabiana, e-mailed me last Thursday that Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, chairperson of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments, revision of codes and laws, held the first public hearing on the topic “The Necessity for Charter Change” which was attended by legal luminaries former University of the Philippines (UP) president Jose Abueva, Dean Merlin Magallona, also of UP, Supreme Court Justices Adolfo Azcuna, Vicente Mendoza and Florentino Feliciano, and former Chief Justice Reynato Puno.

Gabiana informed me that these legal luminaries apparently agreed that there was a need to revise the 23-year-old Cory Constitution and even pointed to the fact that under this Constitution, the President has been given “excessive” powers. Excessive powers? Come to think of it… for two decades we’ve been saying that this Constitution was hammered by men and women having a Martial Law hangover… yet the Constitution they made still have excessive powers for the President?

After presenting their various positions on Charter change, all those who attended that public hearing also called for changing the 1987 Constitution especially that President Aquino already declared his intention not to seek any public office after his term expires in 2016. So it is crystal-clear that this country needs Charter change (Cha-cha) because there is a need for it.

Former Chief Justice Reynato Puno even pointed out that the current system is “unhealthy” for democracy and that the excessive powers of the President is a contributing factor for the lack of ideological growth of our political parties. He added that under this Constitution, the President’s excessive powers cause instability and can provoke people power. I fully agree with Puno’s observations; after all, we did have EDSA People Power II that launched the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Years ago, I interviewed then Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. on my Cebu talk show “Straight from the Sky” and I asked him that poignant question about the equal powers of the three branches of the government… and he pointed out that the President’s office had more powers. In a simplistic question, I asked him what his official car was. Davide told me, he had a Toyota Camry. Now if the President had a Mercedes Benz, don’t you think that the official car for the Chief Justice should also be a Mercedes Benz?

I’m glad that my good friend Dr. Jose Abueva, now the president of the Kalaayan College, was also there so he could make a pitch for federalism, something that he and I believe would be in the best interest of our country. Federalism strengthens many local governments, especially those like Metro Cebu, Metro Davao or the Calabarzon. If and when they become federated states, they would grow faster than ever.

From what I gathered, Justice Azcuna favors both Houses in Congress to form into a constituent assembly (con-ass) which is a very unpopular way of revising our Constitution. The more favored one is constitutional convention (con-con), something we did way back in 1971… but was hijacked by the Marcos Dictatorship and became our 1973 Constitution that was thrown out during the 1986 EDSA Revolt.

After that public hearing, Sen. Santiago declared that she would be filing a resolution calling for the creation of a con-con where the delegates would be elected during the 2013 elections. Well, I’m all for this and I hope that finally a con-con would gather steam and make our people realize that we needed Charter change a decade ago.

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A couple of weeks ago, the Aviation Society of the Philippines led by its president Danilo Francia held a simple but significant unveiling and blessing of a life-size replica of the Shriver Skylark, the very first airplane to fly over Philippine skies. That was way back on Feb. 21, 1911 when James “Bud” Mars, a Barnstormer, flew his rickety flying machine over Manila, the location of which continues to remain a mystery. Someday, the Aviation Society would find out where exactly was the airfield that the Skylark used.

Back in the early days of flight, flying machines (as they were called at that time) were considered something of a curious contraption that vaudeville shows often used to amaze their patrons. Indeed, the Wright Brothers never realized that someday, their invention would allow the world to be smaller with the invention of the commercial jetliners and yes, it would also cause massive destruction during wars as they evolved into bombers that bombed major cities like Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

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