Confusion

You know you’re in trouble when both the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and El Shaddai’s Mike Velarde, who never does anything without expecting something else in return, are threatening to rally their faithful against your cause.

The battle over the constituent assembly, however, will have to be settled by the Supreme Court rather than by religious leaders and their followers in the streets. The sooner the high tribunal clarifies the complicated issues involved here – without hysterical screaming from either side – the better for our confused nation.

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. is expending so much political capital on his "final push" for Charter change or Cha-cha.

It is easy to demonize Joe de Venecia. Those who like judging a book by its cover see his perpetually arched eyebrows, his droopy eyelids, and yes, those big ears, and think, here’s a guy who has trouble lifting his eyelids and looking you in the eye. How can he be trusted?

Worse, he is the quintessential traditional Pinoy politician — a "tradpol" or trapo, Tagalog for rag, quick to smile, shake your hand and give you a bear hug.

The trapo tag was used with devastating effect by the camp of Fidel Ramos against Ramon Mitra Jr. during the presidential campaign in 1992. Mitra, who tried to use the House speakership as a springboard for the presidency, never stood a chance.

Politics has become such a dirty word in this country that being the speaker of the House of Representatives can be a curse for anyone aspiring for the nation’s highest position.

And yet if De Venecia had not mastered the art of politics, Philippine style, he would not be an effective Speaker, and nothing would ever get done at the House.

A pragmatist, he knows that the foremost consideration of the typical Pinoy (including certain religious leaders) when presented with a proposal is not whether it will be good for the country, but, "What’s in it for me?" De Venecia makes sure he has a ready answer when that question is popped, in its many euphemistic permutations.

Without a tradpol who has mastered political horse-trading, the House would turn into the Senate, bogged down in endless one-upmanship among its two dozen independent republics, all of whom think they deserve one day to become president.

Considering the cast of characters in the "upper chamber," the abolition of the Senate is a good argument for changing the Constitution and shifting to a unicameral parliamentary system.

De Venecia the politician, of course, wants to emphasize that both the Senate and the House would in fact be abolished to pave the way for a unicameral parliament.

He also wants to emphasize that all senators would get to finish their terms of office, becoming members of an interim parliament together with members of the current House during a transition period.

This is a weak point for advocates of a shift to a parliamentary system. There can’t be much change if the same old faces will be part of the unicameral parliament, whether interim or permanent.

That hasn’t stopped De Venecia from forging ahead with his final push.

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De Venecia does look people in the eye, and if you talk with him long enough, you will find that he makes a lot of sense – certainly more than many of his colleagues in Congress or the paranoid loonies in this administration.

He has long-term objectives, with a timetable and a rough road map for getting there. And he’s not naïve to treachery, even from his closest political allies.

He paints his scenarios from a broad perspective, comparing the country with the rest of the world. For several years now he has been pointing out that the economy needs to grow annually by at least seven percent to keep up with population growth, which this administration has no intention of curbing, if economic benefits are to be felt by the poor.

People who heard this spiel thought he simply plucked the number seven out of thin air, that he shared the late Ferdinand Marcos’ belief that seven is a lucky number. Now recent studies – hotly contested by the administration – show that despite continuous economic growth for the past six years (projected at 5.4 for 2006), the benefits are not trickling down to the grassroots.

De Venecia, despite his image as a snake oil salesman, gets his homework done. He has shepherded into approval some of the most unpopular pieces of legislation, helping Malacañang force bitter pills down the nation’s throat. These include the expanded value-added tax and its tougher version, the revised VAT.

Alas, on the Philippine political stage, you are only as good as your most recent performance. Thus Ferdinand Marcos, instead of being immortalized for his formidable intellect and charm, is remembered for the formidable ruthlessness and venality of his regime.

Now De Venecia is risking everything for the battle of his life: the shift to a parliamentary system, where he is widely believed to be eyeing the top post of prime minister.

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In this battle, all his good points are being overshadowed in the rush to dance the Cha-cha.

So far the battle has been unusually ugly, with lawmakers making TV viewers wonder if they have accidentally tuned in to Taiwan TV. After that Muslim congresswoman, fearing she might be denied entry to the Islamic heaven for accidentally eating pork, slapped the hapless House caterer, her colleagues probably thought they all have a license to display bad manners.

Watching the behavior of lawmakers whose chief claim to fame is the surname of their father or spouse, you sorely miss the likes of Jovito Salonga and Lorenzo Tañada in Congress — people whose opinions, even when they went against yours, elicited respect.

Congress has been dumbed down over the years, and because of the nature of our political system, it can only get worse.

Adding to the confusion in the Cha-cha battle is the blurring of the line between church and state. The next time the CBCP and El Shaddai express support for the Arroyo administration – or at least refuse to back her ouster – we have no one to blame but ourselves, for allowing Church groups to influence politics when we find it convenient.

Further adding to the current confusion is that despite all the controversy, many Filipinos still have not bothered to read the Constitution or find out what’s at stake in Cha-cha. They do have an inkling of what’s at stake for Joe de Venecia.

The denouement of this dispute is going to be messy, with the key issues unresolved.