Now is the proper time for charter change

For tonight’s special presentation on our talk show “Straight from the Sky”, we will help promote the up and coming 28th annual and national convention of the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Association, Inc. (CREBA) this coming October 9 to 12 with a serious talk about what CREBA has been doing all these years as the nation’s top organization that deals with real estate and building issues, both national and local.

This annual convention is primarily designed to generate valuable business interactions and to deliberate on workable measures to address the country’s major real estate and housing concerns. It also aims to foster fellowship and networking among all industry stakeholders and members.

With us tonight we have CREBA national convention chairman and executive vice president Pablo “Lito” Panlilio, Jocelyn “Jo” Yumul, VP for chapter affairs, CREBA Cebu president Roberto “Bobby” Pacaña, and Renato Avila, chairman of CREBA Cebu, who is my eldest brother. As I pointed out, we are starting this show about CREBA a week ahead of the national convention from October 9 to 12 at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino.

So watch what CREBA is up to on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.

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It looks like despite all the issues and problems that our nation is having, it seems that a great number of the members of the House of Representatives are eyeing a longer term of office for lawmakers and thousands of officials of provinces, cities, and towns. This proposal is to lengthen the tenure from the present three years to four years or five years, and it could be one of the amendments the committee on constitutional amendments will endorse to the House.

We learned that Cagayan de Oro City representative Rufus Rodriguez, who is chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments, said that there is a growing consensus among members of his panel for a change in the term of office of the members of Congress and local officials. House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano also revealed that he was in favor of a four-year or a five-year term. With this news, I would certainly like to know if this move is good for the country or simply just good for the members of the House of Representatives.

At this point, I do not doubt that the current term of our elected officials is just too short. I mean, three years means that a politician has a year to learn the ropes of his office, that leaves him with one year to push for what he believes is good for his community, then on the third year he is left to have a year to ensure that he gets reelected back into his office. There is no doubt that giving members of Congress and local government officials term extension is good for them.

But this issue brings me to the point that I have always written about in my columns, that the 1987 Constitution did not give the nation a better constitution when Cory Aquino and the people behind the EDSA Revolution removed the 1973 Constitution. My mentor and good friend, Sir Max Soliven, the late The Philippine STAR publisher, always wrote that the 1987 Constitution had a “martial law hangover.”

For 30 years we learned to live with a three-year term for our public officials and a single term for the president, this is because then President Ferdinand Marcos stayed in power too long. But then people who were part of the group that created this constitution would dare say that the 1987 Constitution was perfect and doesn’t need to be replaced. But in truth, these are rabid pro-Aquino people. The Aquinos have lost their grip in power to the point that no one attends the EDSA Revolution celebrations anymore.

At this point, I would like to suggest that the time has really come to get serious about charter change and the time has come for the 1987 Constitution to be replaced by a better one. While I may agree about the shortness of the terms of public officials, this should be changed in a constitutional convention or similar moves to change our charter into a better one.