AdCom: Everyone’s for Cha-cha after all

Surprising discoveries elate. Charter Change Advocacy Commission chair Lito Lorenzana thus enthuses: "Our aim of spurring public debates has taken off. Not only that, it appears from our talks with various sectors, including seeming opponents, that they all want some sort of constitutional amending or wholesale revising."

So, everyone is for Charter change after all. Lorenzana cites chiefly a STOP Cha-Cha movement of opposition figures who are for amendments, but are critical of the manner of amending or transitory provisions. "Their STOP means sa tamang oras at paraan (right time and manner)," he explains, "which means they want reforms just the same.

Distinctions are hazy at first, but clear up on review of events. For one, ex-senator Vicente Paterno, who was at STOP Cha-Cha’s launch last week, had headed the economic group of the old Consultative Commission on Constitutional Amendments. In Dec. he steered the 55-man body to unanimously endorse deletion of economic restrictions in the 1987 Charter. On top of freer economy, he also is for parliamentary-federal form, and so voted for the Con-Com draft. But the draft includes transitory provisos like naughty No-El (no election in 2007, plus term extensions to 2010), thus Paterno’s presence in STOP. Fortunately for him there was public uproar against No-El, prompting the House committee on constitutional revisions to junk it. Speaker Jose de Venecia said it would be immoral and illegal for legislators, in amending the Charter by constituent assembly, to extend their own terms.

"Other commissioners had sponsored the economic liberalization," Lorenzana recalls, "but are now criticizing Charter change only because they are against a switch from presidential to parliamentary form, or from centralized to federal structure."

Other faces at the STOP Cha-Cha launch were former Arroyo cabinet members who left her at the height of the Hello-Garci scandal. Mindanao federalists recall that three of the Hyatt-10, led by Dinky Soliman, had persuaded them in 2004 to back Gloria Arroyo’s presidential campaign on the promise of constitutional revisions.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines meanwhile has clarified that it is not against Charter Change per se, but only the seemingly hasty manner. Too, El Shaddai leader Mike Velarde, in warning followers against signing anything they don’t understand, opposed people’s initiative but endorsed constituent assembly by Congress to pass his personal liking for parliamentary form.

The AdCom promotes not the hows but the whys of Charter change. Lorenzana stresses, though, that economic liberationists, parliamentarists and federalists have been pushing their causes since 1992, "so there is no haste." Lifting economic restrictions would lure investors to create jobs and increase incomes, and thus lick poverty. He quotes economist Bernardo Villegas: "One of every three Filipinos, 31 percent of our people, who are poor cannot wait any longer." Villegas was one of the 50 framers of the 1987 Constitution, yet he too wants liberation and parliamentary.

Labor groups like the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, and religious groups like the Philippine Council of Ecumenical Churches are all out for Charter reform. So are business groups like the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and the Confederation of Philippine Exporters. "I would think even the Makati Business Club is for reform," Lorenzana says. "Some of its leaders were in a 1999 version of the Con-Com, the Preparatory Commission for Constitutional Review. They advocated the same lifting of economic restrictions under their version of the AdCom, called the Concord or Constitutional Correction for Reform and Development."

He recalled that Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, as executive secretary in 1999, and Sen. Mar Roxas, then-House majority leader, had pushed for Concord and political changes. Assisting them were Congress "Bright Boys": Francis Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano, Edmund Reyes Jr., and other members of the opposition today. In the ’80s Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel and Lorenzana co-founded the PDP-Laban party, with federalism among the main aims.

Recently Rep. Jacinto Paras, one of Arroyo’s bitterest critics, exhorted opposition colleagues to not betray their cause of political-economic reform just because the administration is pushing it. If at all, they should join the switch to parliamentary but use it to oust Arroyo, he said. A survey in Dec. revealed that 65 percent of Filipinos prefer instant Charter change, more so if it would mean cutting short Arroyo’s term.

More and more organizations of youth, women, urban poor, farmers and fishermen are crying reform as well, Lorenzana notes, same with most local officials and congressmen, and at least half of the Senate. "At the very least, people’s organizations and politicians want electoral improvements, he says. "Half of the reforms recommended by retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide, as presidential adviser on electoral reforms, need constitutional amending, such as the return to a two-party system and curbs on excessive campaign spending."

Lorenzana says the various points of view on Charter change "make it look like there are many opponents." He summarizes the situation: "We are undergoing a process, we are identifying the defects and weaknesses of our Constitution which have dampened economic progress and gridlocked our politics. Amidst the seeming confusion, at the end of the day, everyone would need Charter change."

* * *

E-mail: [email protected]