Reshaping the Constitution

July 31,2016 - 09:51 PM

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Despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s push for a Constitutional Convention to amend the 1987 Constitution that would pave the way for a federal system of government in the country, eventually he was prevailed upon by his allies in Congress to pursue the less expensive Constituent Assembly instead.

As anyone with a middling knowledge of the political process knows by now, the Constituent Assembly consists of lawmakers from both the Senate and Congress convening as a Congress of the whole to discuss amendments to the Constitution.

There had been previous attempts to oppose this mode of amending the Constitution for the simple reason that it will allow lawmakers to extend their term limit beyond the prescribed ceiling stated under the 1987 Constitution; that is, members of Congress could serve for three terms or nine years, the same with senators except for those in the top 12 who would serve a longer term.

That suspicion was confirmed in this latest Charter change campaign as some lawmakers confirmed plans to amend their term limit to still unspecified number of years.

Duterte was reportedly persuaded to support the Constituent Assembly as a mode of amending the Charter after balking at estimates that the Constitutional Convention would cost the country P6–P8 billion.

To start with, President Duterte’s support for Con-Ass merely showed his determination to overhaul the existing presidential system and replace it with a federal-parliamentary form similar to that of France’s as he pointed out in his first State of the Nation Address (Sona).

He is so willing to push for federalism that he said he won’t hesitate to step down on his third or fourth year in office if Congress manages to finish their amendments and call for special elections at the time in order to give the new leader a fresh mandate from the people.

But we understand that any Charter change referendum and elections for the new set of national and local leaders will have to be held simultaneously in the next national and local elections six years from now — cheaper and more practical since one is hitting two birds with one stone.

The militants will, of course, object to Con-Ass since they believe that it will marginalize them and other disadvantaged sectors, and they have a good point.

The possibility of the elite, landed and powerful minority shaping the Constitution and bending it to their will would be less likely if done through the Constitutional Convention. They said it’s expensive, but anything that is worth doing, especially if done well by our country’s leaders, is worth spending every peso and centavo for.

Thus, if we are to reshape our country’s Constitution — an exercise that has been delayed for too long due to justified suspicions and distrust of traditional politicians — let’s not hesitate to allocate every effort, time and money to do it well.

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TAGS: 1987 Constitution, Duterte, President Rodrigo Duterte, SONA, State of the Nation Address

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