Legislated Cha-cha the American way

It was not the first time I came across doing Charter change (Cha-cha) through legislation. This was long before Sen.Richard "Dick" Gordon suggested last week legislated Cha-cha as an alternative mode to amend the country’s Constitution. Over a cup of coffee and sandwiches that I relished a few months back with then Presidential adviser for jobs generation Arthur C.Yap, he was telling me there could be a way out of the fractious talks even among Cha-cha proponents on what mode to do this.

As early as that time, Yap was saying that a possible mode of amending of the Constitution can be done like an ordinary legislation by Congress in the same way that the US Congress have amended their two centuries-old Constitution. Philippine democracy can draw legal grounds out of this American experience since we have patterned much of our presidential system of government from the US.

I’m not saying this new tack in pushing Cha-cha was a brainchild of Malacañang Palace just because Yap was the first person to whom I’ve first heard about a possible legislated Cha-cha. Yap, also a former economics student of President Arroyo at the Ateneo de Manila, is a Cabinet member who would rather stay at the background and work quietly than be like a shoot-from-the-hip defender of the cause.

Yap knows what he is talking about. An Ateneo law graduate (Class 1991), Yap’s idea of a more acceptable mode to amend our 1987 Constitution jibed with the proposal of Gordon, an Atenean like him. So when I called Yap last weekend to remind him about our coffee conversations about his idea, the new chief of the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) begged off from further commenting on the issue. Now that he has a new assignment at the Palace, he explained that whatever he says might be misconstrued as speaking for the President. Moreover, he says, there are concerned Cabinet officials who are in charge to handle Cha-cha matters who can speak in behalf of the Palace on this particular issue.

The 40-year old Arroyo Cabinet official, though, cheerfully agreed with my observations that he and Gordon have obviously the same brain wave-length on the matter. "I’m an admirer of the head of the Blue Bubble Battalion!" Yap chirped. Since I don’t know anything about it, Yap volunteered the information that Gordon used to head the Ateneo cheering squad for their basketball team during games with their arch rivals from De La Salle University. "He (Gordon) is also legendary in the debating team," Yap added in a sincere admiration of the Senator.

As a student of law, Yap learned the American Constitution has been amended for more than 20 times todate and all done through this mode by the US Congress. Following the US model, Yap said, the Filipino lawmakers can perhaps work together on specific amendments of the Constitution in the same manner like the US pass upon a proposed legislation.

Gordon, Chairman of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and revisions, aired this similar proposal a day after the President convened the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting at the Palace Tuesday last week. The Senate and the House leaderships agreed to a sit-down discussion sometime this week. Gordon and his House counterpart, Cagayan de Oro City Rep.Constantino G.Jaraula are set to meet first to talk about how to streamline their differences in going about the Cha-cha.

Actually, majority of the Senators are in favor of Cha-cha but they differ on the mode to implement it. The Senators in favor of Cha-cha like Senate president Franklin Drilon prefer a separate body of elected officials to a Constitutional Convention to draft the proposed amendments. On the other hand, Congressmen led by Speaker Jose De Venecia insist on both chambers of Congress to convene as Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) which they say is the most cost-effective and speedy mode to do it.

As suggested by Gordon, a proposed amendment of a specific provision of the Constitution will go through the legislative mills of both chambers of Congress from filing the bill, first reading and referral to the concerned committee, scheduled for public hearing, etc., down the line of the legislative process. The proposed Cha-cha bill will be voted for second and third reading and finally submitted for bicameral conference committee to consolidate the differing versions of the Senate and House measures. It goes back to both chambers and voted upon separately.

But unlike an ordinary approved bill that goes to the President for approval and signing into law, the legislated amendment will be submitted to the people in a plebiscite for their approval or rejection. The amendment through legislated Cha-cha can be done without having to turn the Senate and the House of Representatives to a Con-Ass and yet the two chambers of Congress can continue holding their regular separate sessions and conduct their respective legislative order of business.

While it is obviously a long-drawn process, Gordon’s proposal appears like a Con-Ass to me but under a different name. At least though, it gives me a sort of comfort zone to know there will be no railroading of the Cha-cha as long as the Senators and Congressmen vote separately on specific proposed amendments.

From the US experience, despite this country being known as the bastion of democracy, each of these amendments in the US Constitution was preceded by socio-political upheavals as recorded in American history books. But we were talking about the US, academically of one amendment at a time that was approved in various points in American history in a span of more than 200 years of the US Constitution.

Here, our chief Cha-cha proponents insist on a wholesale revision of our Constitution. That is why the Gordon proposal readily got such negative reactions from hard-core Cha-cha pushers. The Palace and Arroyo allies want a shift from presidential to parliamentary system of government that would necessarily amend also terms of office of elected officials, lift restrictions to foreign ownerships of certain protected economic sectors, among other things in the wish-list of Cha-cha advocates.

Gordon is no amateur to Cha-cha. He was at one time, one of the youngest members of the Constitutional Convention that drafted the 1972 Philippine Constitution until this was totally overhauled in 1987. Opponents to Gordon’s legislated Cha-cha argue there is no such animal because it is not even provided for in the Philippine Constitution to allow this. So the Gordon-Jaraula committees will start their debate on Cha-cha on this sour note.

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