Reviving Cha-cha

While we are distracted by the financial crisis in the United States and the latest food safety disaster in China, both of which have global repercussions, the House of Representatives is busy with the latest effort to amend the Constitution.

Like the Chinese who see opportunity in adversity, the House has found in the US financial mess another excuse to amend the 1987 Constitution. Ostensibly the amendments will focus on economic provisions that have turned away foreign investors.

Speaker Prospero Nograles, who has filed a resolution to amend the Constitution, counts 160 of the 240 House members as supporters so far of his proposal.

Among the staunch supporters are members of the President’s party, the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino or KAMPI.

If the Senate is sufficiently distracted by budget insertions and the so-called road to nowhere, it may fail to notice that the House may soon be set to convene a constituent assembly, which will exclude senators, ostensibly to amend or delete certain protectionist economic provisions in the Constitution.

Pro-administration congressmen argue that the Constitution does not stipulate a joint vote by the two chambers of Congress to convene a constituent assembly to amend specific provisions of the Charter. “Congress,” according to this interpretation, can refer simply to the House.

This interpretation of the Constitution is expected to be challenged by senators before the Supreme Court, where the Senate has suffered several defeats in recent battles with the administration.

Supreme Court sentiment could further tilt in favor of the administration as six justices retire in the coming months, giving President Arroyo the chance to pack the tribunal with appointees who will owe her big-time. As it is this Supreme Court is starting to show signs of following in the footsteps of the Marcos-era compromised tribunal headed by Imeldific’s “umbrella man,” the late Enrique Fernando.

With an even more pro-administration Supreme Court, there’s a good chance that Nograles and his peers will be able to swing not only a constituent assembly without the Senate, but also an assembly to revise the Constitution and shift to a new system of government.

Critics fear that a constitutional revision changing the system of government will lift the term limits of incumbent officials including the President, allowing her to either remain in power longer or at least be eligible for re-election.

Nograles has said he wanted to see Charter change or Cha-cha under his watch, and he wanted to create an actual situation that would warrant action by the Supreme Court. Thus the filing of his resolution and the gathering of commitments supporting the measure. He wants an official go-signal for Cha-cha from the nation’s highest court.

A constituent assembly or con-ass, which the original Cha-cha proponent, Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr., had also pushed, will cost taxpayers far less than a constitutional convention where the delegates are elected.

Even more important for an administration with less than two years left in power, con-ass can change the Constitution with a speed that can surprise a nation distracted by too many problems, from finance to fuel and food safety.

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That speed and minimal cost would be helpful in amending certain constitutional provisions that are in fact serving as disincentives to foreign investments.

As numerous reports have shown, the Philippines is increasingly being bypassed by foreign investors in favor of its Southeast Asian neighbors including Thailand and Vietnam.

Without foreign direct investments, with agrarian reform a failure and entrepreneurship not getting off the ground, there aren’t enough decent jobs and livelihood opportunities, forcing millions of Filipinos to go overseas to find employment.

The government’s positive spin on the financial crisis in the United States is that the Philippines has diversified and is no longer dependent on the US market. The truth is that our agriculture and industries are inefficient and unable to compete with the best in the world, and we are not a major exporting country. Our biggest export is our human resource, and its market could be threatened by a recession in the United States and Europe, which will affect other regions of the world.

Aggravating our slip in global competitiveness is corruption. We have auditors at the Commission on Audit to thank for giving us a picture of how public funds, limited as they are, are being wasted through inefficiency and corruption.

The Department of Agriculture, which should be moving to boost food production following the rice crisis and now the tainted milk scandal, has allowed itself to be turned into a milking cow for political largesse of the administration. The Department of Education has piled up computers, textbooks, desks and chairs that are left to rot unused. Poor quality street lamps installed in Cebu by the Department of Public Works and Highways for the annual leaders’ summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations two years ago have deteriorated so much the local government wants to get rid of them.

We cannot even build a railway just 32 kilometers long without the project becoming bogged down in a corruption scandal. With the fuel crisis, other countries are retooling their railways to shift away from trains powered by fossil fuels. The North Luzon Railway, whose cost has ballooned to a staggering $503 million with a request for an additional $299 million, will have trains that run on diesel. If the additional cost is approved, and at the exchange rate of P47 to $1 yesterday, Filipino taxpayers will be paying over P1.1 billion for a kilometer of railways. How is this possible?

The corruption cannot be directly addressed by Charter change. But economic provisions can be amended or deleted to bring in more investors.

More investments mean more jobs and a more competitive environment that can boost efficiency and bring down consumer prices.

Unfortunately for a nation that can actually benefit from amending the Charter, the Arroyo administration lacks the credibility to pull it off.