ALVAREZ READIES DRAFT EO FOR CONCOM

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez speaks before the new members of PDP-Laban in Cebu on Saturday (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Cebu’s Antonio Cuenco is considered a possible commission member

The name of at least one prominent Cebuano legislator has been floated as a possible member of a Constitutional Commission (Concom) that is expected to be formed within this year to study and draft the proposed amendments to the Constitution to pave the way for changing the country’s form of government from unilateral to federal.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said he is now finalizing the draft of the proposed executive order that would be presented to President Rodrigo Duterte next week for the creation of the Concom.

The Concom is proposed to be composed of 25 persons appointed by the President who may be experts on Constitutional Law such as retired justices and deans of law schools, Alvarez told reporters here on Saturday night.

Off hand, Alvarez said he was proposing the names of retired Chief Justice Renato Puno and former Cebu City South District Rep. Antonio Cuenco.

The Concom should be formed through an executive order since the House of Representatives and the Senate would be preoccupied with the 2017 annual budget, Alvarez said Saturday night in a speech before the oath taking of about 300 Cebu officials as new members of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) held at the Sacred Heart Center in Cebu City.

Alvarez, interviewed after the speech, said he proposed the name of Cuenco because, apart from his being a member of PDP-Laban, “we all know he is a veteran (legislator) and a member of so many Congresses.”

Cuenco, reached by phone yesterday, told Cebu Daily News he was honored that he was being consideredfor inclusion in the commission and believed he has the qualification to become a Concom member since he had chaired the committee on constitutional amendments at the Lower House.

Cuenco said that another Cebuano who should be considered as a Concom comissioner would be former third district representative and Cebu governor Pablo Garcia, a noted Constitutionalist.

On the other hand, Alvarez stressed he was only making a suggestion on who could compose the commission, as it would be up to the President to determine whom to appoint as Concom members.

“Ang akoa, suggestion lang to. Pwede ubang justices [Other justices can [also be included]. I even missed some names like (former senator Aquilino) Nene Pimentel, (lawyer) Reuben Canoy. These are all icons,” the Davao del Norte congressman told reporters.

Pimentel, also a former Senate president and father of the current Senate President, Aquilino III, and Canoy, the founder of the country’s largest radio network, the Radio Mindanao Network (RMN), are both from Mindanao who have long been staunch federalism advocates. Alvarez said he wanted the commission to be activated by September but admitted that it would depend on how soon the EO would be signed by President Duterte.

He said he would submit the drafted EO to Mr. Duterte next week. If his time table would be followed, he added, Congress may be able to convene into a Constituent Assembly (Con Ass) by next year, after receiving the final draft of the Concom.
Once Congress has finished studying the draft of the commission, Congress, as a Con Ass, would come out with a final draft, Alvarez said.

The final draft would be presented through a plebiscite during the midterm election in 2019, according to Alvarez.
After the EO will be approved, the remaining three years in office of President Duterte will serve as transition period from the presidential to the federal form of government, he added.

Alvarez was in Cebu yesterday not just to administer the oath of the new members of the ruling party PDP-Laban, but, also, was the guest speaker in the basic orientation seminar of the party’s members, where he lengthily spoke of the need for concerted efforts to ensure that the Philippines would be transformed into a federal state before Duterte’s term of office ends.

In his speech, he also said that they are pushing for the recruitment and membership of more individuals and officials down to the barangays to join the party as they will make use of it to disseminate information down to the grassroots level on the federal system of government.

“This is the first mission sa campaign on federalism… nga kinahanglan masabtan sa tao (that the people must understand what it all about) ,” Alvarez said.

According to Alvarez, they have one year to make the people understand what the federal system of government is and how it differs from the present unitary form of government.
In an earlier interview with Philippine Daily Inquirer editors, Alverez mentioned that under his proposed federal state, the Philippines will have different states that will have its own set of laws and even its own court system.

“‘Yung idea ko d’yan, kung sa America, may courts sa bawat state and different set of laws in different states. Mayroong states na pwede ang same-sex marriage; ‘yung iba may pabor sa abortion. Depende na sa culture and tradition nung isang state,” Alvarez said.

(My idea is that in America, there are courts in every state and different set of laws in different states. There are states that allow same-sex marriage; there are others that are in favor of abortion. It depends on the culture and traditions of the state.)

He said through federalism, provinces and other administrative regions such as the Cordillera Administrative Region and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will have the opportunity to manage its own economies.

“Cordillera and ARMM, of course, magbabago ‘yun. Magkakaroon ng different states; mas gaganda pa ‘yung mga privileges nila. (Cordillera and ARMM, of course, it will change. There will be different states; they’ll have better better privileges.)

They’ll have the chance to manage their own economy, manage their own natural resources, chair their own destinies,” Alvarez has said./with INQUIRER.NET