EDITORIAL- Wasting time

Speaker Prospero Nograles thought Charter change was so urgent that as time ran out on the latest effort to amend the Constitution, he ignored the flu threat and took off for Las Vegas to watch the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Britain’s Ricky Hatton. In the days leading up to the fight, the vacation bug also bit other members of the House of Representatives. The lack of a quorum forced the cancellation or postponement of several House activities.

The forced hiatus compounded the confusion over the installation by the Supreme Court of over 30 new party-list representatives, which increased the House membership beyond the constitutionally mandated 250. The new members also changed the number of votes needed to ram through a proposal to convene Congress into a constituent assembly, even without Senate participation, and revise the Constitution to shift to a parliamentary system.

Earlier this week one of the main proponents of that effort, Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. Luis Villafuerte, announced that he was withdrawing his support for the resolution. The latest Cha-cha effort, Villafuerte conceded, was dead.

Not so, Nograles countered as he chided Villafuerte for behaving like he was in charge of the House. Nograles said he would pursue his own Cha-cha resolution, which seeks to amend two economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution that restrict foreign investments and ownership of assets in the Philippines. The House also refused to archive Villafuerte’s proposal. For good measure, Nograles said the House would hold two extra sessions next week before adjournment to tackle his Cha-cha resolution together with other urgent matters in the House agenda: the bills on reproductive health, the right of reply and the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

That should help Nograles persuade those behind the Cha-cha effort that his support is sincere. But even Nograles should realize that his proposed Cha-cha mode is as shaky as Villafuerte’s con-ass without Senate participation. Nograles seeks to amend the Constitution through the regular legislative route, treating Charter provisions like ordinary laws. He then intends to toss the amendments to the Senate for concurrence, despite senators’ repeated pronouncements that any Cha-cha initiative at this point is good as dead. Nograles is wasting precious legislative time and effort.