Shifting position on the Cha-Cha

I believe that it is not the system but the people running the system that must undergo a change if we really want to have good governance and to lift our country out of the quagmire of poverty. But I still favored charter change initially because I thought that expecting our public officials to mend their ways is like asking for the moon. Besides, some of the provisions in our constitution really need revisions in keeping with the fast changing pace of globalization. Furthermore, I realized that after so many years of trying to make a go of the present system of government, public service in our country has even turned for the worse and has become more venal and corrupt. So there is no harm in trying another system. Desperate situations sometimes call for desperate solutions.

But now I am having second thoughts. It all started with the creation of that consultative constitutional commission (Con Com). I am sure the President has the noblest of intentions in putting up that body. It is obviously a follow through of her state of the nation address calling for a charter change. The problem however is that the Presidency or the Executive Department has no authority at all to propose revisions or amendments to the constitution. The inevitable public perception of such a move is that it was created to advance her personal agenda. Such perception gained more credence because the Palace shouldered the expenses for its operation. The sum of P10 million was allocated for this purpose but with all those consultations conducted all over the country, much more could have been spent especially with the subsequent proliferation of full page ads defending its reason for being. Some of its members even proudly proclaimed that they are a conglomeration of men and women of proven competence, integrity and probity so the first thing they should have done was to render a public accounting of how they spent the people’s money. But up to now, no such accounting has been presented. With the recent action of the Lower House junking all their proposals and deciding to put up its own draft, with more reason should they render an accounting of their expenses so the people will know how much of their money was squandered. But the more damaging perception is that with exception of a few, most of its members have palace connections. Some of them are even holding public office thereby making their appointments to this body constitutionally questionable.

To be sure there are many desirable and beneficial proposed changes in the Con Com draft which any Constituent Body could have adopted. But after that no election in 2007 ("no-el") proposal was inserted in the transitory provision, self serving politics once more reared its ugly head thereby rendering the whole exercise look very much like the politicians’ tool to stay in power beyond the expiration of their terms of office. Concededly elections entail billions of pesos in expenses but if that is the main reason for the "no-el" then it should not only be in 2007 since all elections are expensive. Saving on huge election expenses is a shallow excuse for a "no-el".

The clincher in my shift in position is the national directorate meeting of the ruling Lakas CMD party which adopted a seven point agenda in the cha-cha. The seven proposed changes are ok with me but when I saw the familiar faces of the traditional politicians (more notoriously called "trapos’) calling the shots and deciding the fate of our Constitution and the future of our country, I thought that now is not the time to cha-cha. The mere fact that they are the very cause of our country’s present dire predicaments made me recoil in my seat as I heard the announcement of a charter change that will be submitted to a plebiscite by June 2006. The scenario that comes to mind is the familiar political juggernaut aided and abetted by tyranny of numbers to advance their own political agenda unmindful of the real peoples’ pulse. The juggernaut is even a two pronged movement consisting of a Constituent Assembly in Congress and a Peoples’ Initiative at the local grassroots level. As a sweetener, the "trapos" even had the gall to proclaim that they will let the people decide the question of term extension of some elective officials or the shortening of the President’s term. There is just something sneaky here. These are the same faces advocating a no-el precisely because of the unreliability of our electoral commission to conduct a credible poll yet they are the same ones now audaciously announcing that the people will decide at the polls conducted by the same electoral body with a sunken credibility as low as the oceans’ depths. They are asking the people to decide under a process which they themselves have branded as unreliable. The same is true with their move to push their own suggestions or proposals at the local level and call them instead as the peoples’ initiative. In both cases, our politicians are using the "people" as a tool to advance their own agenda.

I am now more convinced than ever that for as long as we have "trapos" around we can not have real, credible charter changes that will promote national interest.

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