No term extension in Charter change
Written by Writer on Friday, November 21st, 2008
No term extension in Charter change
‘Presidentiables’ need not worry
MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE) Pampanga Representative Juan Miguel Arroyo on Thursday acknowledged pushing a House resolution seeking to convene Congress into a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution but said this was not intended to extend the stay in office of his mother, the President.
“Any talk of term extension is zero level, it’s not in the resolution,” Arroyo told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview Friday, adding that those seeking to run for president in 2010 should not fret over the move to revive Charter change.
“Sa mga ‘presidentiables’, huwag silang kabahan [To the ‘presidentiables’, don’t worry],” Arroyo said.
The resolution, an initiative of the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi, Partner of the Free Filipino), the party founded by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has already gathered about 150 House members’ signatures, Arroyo said.
Arroyo admitted asking some few friends in the House to sign the resolution, but said it was not his initiative but that of Kampi president Representative Luis Villafuerte.
“I’m not the ringleader here, but I’m not denying the fact that I asked some of my friends in Congress to sign because that’s how we look at ourselves in Congress, as [a] scholarly body. We ask each other to support each other’s issue,” Arroyo said.
He added that this was the same resolution espoused by Pangasinan Representative Jose de Venecia when the latter was still House speaker. De Venecia has gone from staunch administration ally to outspoken critic.
The resolution calls on the Senate and the House of Representatives to convene as a constituent assembly and start discussing amendments to the 1987 Constitution, he said.
Speaker Prospero Nograles earlier field a resolution, which has gathered 163 signatures so far, that is focused on relaxing some economic provisions, such as foreign ownership of corporations.
He said he favors amending the economic provisions of the Constitution immediately but that the political provisions should be discussed only after the 2010 elections.
Proponents of Charter change hope to bring the measure to plenary for debates and for a test case for the Supreme Court to rule on whether the House and Senate should vote as a whole or separately to amend the Constitution.
Quezon Representative Danilo Suarez, a member of Kampi, confirmed signing the Kampi resolution.
“It’s calling for a constituent assembly, it tells the senators and congressman that let’s sit down and discuss what changes should be done in the Constitution, that’s it,” he said in a separate interview.
Nograles, who is president of the Lakas Christian-Muslim Democrats but also signed the Kampi resolution, described it as “generic and with no specific proposal.”
Arroyo appealed to critics of Charter change “not to shoot it down immediately,” claiming that the people want to amend the Constitution.
For his part, Suarez said discussions on the amendments, including the political provisions, should begin immediately.
Suarez has authored a resolution to amend the Charter which is pending with the committee on constitutional amendments.
The resolution says the election of local officials every three years is counterproductive. Suarez favors elections where everyone, from the president to the lowest official, run together.
“If we can start this in 2010, why not,” he said.
The committee on constitutional amendments will conduct a public hearing on the pending resolutions for Charter change on November 25 at 9 a.m.
But the leftist Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya, National Strength of the Fishers’ Movement in the Philippines) asked the lawmakers who signed the Kampi resolution: “How much?”
“We have to be brutally frank here. Did President Arroyo promise them [lawmakers] the early release of their pork barrels before the Christmas break?” Pamalakaya chairman Fernando Hicap asked.
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 12:02pm (Mla time) 11/21/2008
