With the Lower House charging full steam ahead in its campaign to amend or replace the 1987 Constitution, it’s time for Congress to set aside their collective ambition and differences and start to meet halfway at least in their plans to push for federalism in the country.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson came out with the most obvious solution to the Senate-Congress impasse over Charter change and that is for Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to meet along with their lieutenants and try to work on a common ground for revising or replacing the Constitution.
It is Alvarez that is not only complicating but dangerously railroading Charter change with a resolution calling on both the Senate and Congress into convening a constituent assembly.
Alvarez is using numbers i.e. the number of lawmakers in the Lower House to pressure the senators into agreeing with his push for a constituent assembly even if he and his cohorts were voted into office by their constituents in their respective districts and not by the Filipino people at large.
Incidentally, one of the amendments being sought by Alvarez and his allies is to allow the election of senators by region so the Visayas and Mindanao would be guaranteed representation in the Upper House.
While the Senate has so far admirably resisted the Lower House pressure to convene into a joint constituent assembly, Alvarez need also be reminded about the plan of President Rodrigo Duterte to create a committee that will study and propose amendments to the 1987 Constitution.
That committee is chaired by former chief justice Reynato Puno who campaigned for federalism along with former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. despite the reservations of another former chief justice Hilario Davide Jr.
How much influence and input the committee will have in amending the constitution and in the transition from presidential to federal is something that had yet to be seen, and this is where the Duterte administration’s sincerity and commitment to good governance will be tested.
It is imperative that the committee will have weight and input into the Charter change initiative and not just be a paper creation put up by the administration in order to lull those opposing the railroading of Charter change into complacency.
In fact, it would be better if the committee is expanded into a full on Constitutional Convention that would invite the best minds in the country to craft a Constitution that will not only craft the best possible form of federalism envisioned and advocated by its proponents but will also ensure that it won’t be abused and exploited to serve the interests of those in power including the present regime.
For now, the Senate should hold the fort and not yield to the pressure brought to bear by the arrogance of Alvarez and his like-minded allies in the Lower House.