Timing is tied to their common advocacy to shift from presidential-unitary to parliamentary-federal form of government. Presidential polls are due in 12 months. Holding simultaneous voting for a Con-con would mean the delegates can take all of six years, the full term of a President, to effect a switch. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth to even think of cutting short a President’s term for the switch. Yet in six years, it could be too late. Perennial deadlocks between the two chambers of Congress, and between the executive and legislative branches, have delayed projects too often to worsen instead of alleviate poverty. The system change to solve this via a unicameral parliamentary form may never come if not done now.
A Consa, by contrast, can do the job in four months. Congress can spend two of five workdays each week on deliberations of amendments, studies of which have been on their desks for years. A plebiscite can be held soon afterwards for the people’s approval of the new provisions. Presidential elections can still be held as scheduled in May 2004, although under a modified parliamentary form that would give the head of state new powers, including to dissolve parliament if need be. Elections for ministers of parliament can be held at the same time.
Then, there’s the matter of economy. The country may save P6 billion by holding simultaneous polls for President and Con-con delegates from each congressional district. But having a Con-con for six long years would be like bankrolling a parallel Congress. And there would be no control over a Con-con’s directions. As a sovereign body, it can open not only the form of government but the entire Constitution as well to revision. Anything can happen. That would run counter to the emerging three-point gentleman’s agreement among senators and congressmen to limit a Consa to a shift to parliamentary-federal form, to not extend any term, and to go on with the 2004 presidential election.
The vow is the legislators’ answer to the resistance to a Consa. With low trust ratings for politicians, voters suspect that a Consa would allow them to lift term limits and insert other self-serving amendments. With a statement up front to not touch anything but the form of government, they can regain the people’s confidence. After all, upon their election, it must be presumed that voters knew they were giving them the authority to change the Constitution by themselves. The present provision on constitutional amendments has Consa as the first way, and Con-con is only second. The US Congress, from which the Philippine legislature was patterned, has had its ups and downs of public trust. All 28 amendments to the US charter in the past two centuries were done by Consa, never by Con-con.
The tougher push is for federal form. Political scientists who have studied the process in other lands estimate seven years to effect the switch from the present over-centralized unitary system. Several steps need to be taken, each involving the electorate or the parliament, to form a federation of states.
The first is the same Consa that would push for parliamentary form, followed by the same plebiscite by early 2004. The crucial amendment would call for the formation of territories, say, of Northern Luzon (the present Regions 1 and 2), Central Luzon (Region 3 and Metro Manila), Southern Luzon (Region 4), Bicol (Region 5), Western Visayas (Region 6), Eastern Visayas (Region 7 and 8), Eastern Mindanao and Western Mindanao. (Other variations are being proposed. The Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao would remain untouched, since the present Charter calls for it and a Consa won’t touch it.)
The territories would have interim governing councils, composed of the provincial governors and mayors who will be elected in 2004. The emerging Prime Minister from the 2004 parliamentary election may appoint from among the governors a temporary administrator with clear-cut powers.
Each territory would have to elect a Con-con, also in May 2004 as the best timing. The territorial Con-cons will draft their respective constitutions and have these approved by the national parliament for uniformity of basic provisions. After which, territorial plebiscites would be held in 2006 for ratification by the citizens of each territory. By May 2007, simultaneous with the local elections, the territories can start forming state governments with the election of state parliaments.
In 2008, a national Con-con would have to be elected to draft a new federal constitution. This charter would also be subject to ratification in a national plebiscite by 2009. At the same time, each state would be applying for membership to the federal republic. By 2010 the national parliamentary election would be for a federal government, again simultaneous with the election of state parliaments. This national parliament would then approve the applications for statehood.
The process will not seem so cumbersome when one considers that, this very moment, advocates of parliamentary-federal form already are drafting state and national constitutions. Groups in Northern Mindanao and Western Mindanao, Panay, Bicol and Cagayan Valley have in fact been meeting for the past three to five years.
Much spade work has been done, in short. Now, all it needs is just one senator to go for Consa here and now - to add to the present 11 - in order to get the seven-year process moving. Yes, just one senator, from among the eight who prefer Con-con. Yet there doesn;t seem to be that one person. And that very situation aptly demonstrates how one man alone, in the present failing system, can deadlock the future of the country.