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SENATE
leaders are wary over what they see as a Palace
Charter-change (Chacha) ploy to extend the term of
President Arroyo beyond 2010 by hijacking a pending
proposal to shift to a federal form of government in
order to accommodate the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical
Entity (BJE) as part of a peace deal with secessionist
rebels in Mindanao.
Palace
officials were unfazed by the suspicious eye cast by
senators on the President’s earlier remarks saying peace
in Mindanao hinges on a shift to federalism and which,
in turn, would require Charter change. They insisted on
Tuesday there was nothing wrong with Mrs. Arroyo’s
position, made after her meeting with Swiss Federation
President Pascal Couchepin on Monday.
The
President is merely supporting an existing Senate joint
resolution, authored by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino
Pimentel Jr., asserted Palace aides.
Malacañang on Tuesday expressed its “full support” for
Senate Joint Resolution 10 filed in April which seeks to
convene Congress into a Constituent Assembly to revise
the Constitution to establish a federal system of
government.
Press
Secretary Jesus Dureza said in a news briefing the
Executive threw its full support for Pimentel’s
resolution to “debunk the naughty insinuation” that
President Arroyo renewed her advocacy for a federal
system to pursue Charter changes that extend her grip on
power.
“We are
fully supporting the said resolution that spells out
very clearly the need for 11 federal states to be
established in the whole country,” Dureza said.
He
added: “The Senate started the process but she is going
to hasten this process by saying that we’re going to
look at this as the way forward, especially in our
agreement that may take place with the MILF.”
The
author of the “hijacked” bill, however, was upset.
Taking the floor at Tuesday’s session, Pimentel
protested “there is no way” President Arroyo will be
allowed to stay in power beyond the 2010 expiration of
her term if the federal system embodied in Joint
Congressional Resolution 10 that he earlier filed will
be adopted.
This,
even as Pimentel acknowledged there may be truth to
fears the peace agreement worked out by the Arroyo
administration with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
may be used by Malacañang as a pretense to amend the
Constitution to enable Mrs. Arroyo to circumvent the
constitutional ban against reelection.
He
admitted that the term limit on the presidency could be
removed by shifting to a parliamentary system, which is
not contemplated under Resolution 10 that he and 15
other senators have filed. Under a parliamentary system,
Mrs. Arroyo can run for prime minister.
But
Senate President Manuel Villar vowed to first unravel
the details of the Palace proposal for Charter changes
as part of the peace deal with the MILF.
“This
Charter change is becoming complicated because it came
at the same time with the government-MILF agreement.
Their coming out together is very mysterious. I want to
uncover how this started and where it will end. It is
difficult to go in a hurry and analyze it piece by
piece. I want to see its totality,” Villar said in
Filipino.
Senate
President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada explained, “This
is not the proper time to debate about federalism in
Congress because there is the danger that the
Charter-change process could only be used for Mrs.
Arroyo’s term extension.”
Even
administration Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the
Senate committee that will conduct the hearings on the
Cha-cha proposal, prefers that constitutional amendments
be adopted after Arroyo’s term expires on June 30, 2010.
Opposition Sen. Loren Legarda admonished Malacañang
against using the agreement with the MILF to push the
Charter change ploy. “Let no one use the issue on MILF
and the ‘restrained’ memorandum of agreement [MOA] to
push for something already rejected by the people.”
Asked
how Palace support for the three-month-old Senate
resolution came about, Dureza narrated that at the
National Security Cluster meeting at the Premiere Guest
House that day, the President complained why some media
reports made a big fuss about her Monday statement
advocating a federal government when it is nothing new.
Dureza
said the President cited the banner story of the
Philippine Daily Inquirer on her remarks over lunch for
visiting Swiss President Pascal Couchepin that said,
“The cat is out of the bag.”
“She
said, ‘Why is that so when all along it has been there
in the Senate, and we have been talking about it from
the very beginning?’ It is as if this is coming out from
her for the first time. And so she said we’re just
supporting the pending Senate joint resolution that had
been supported by [many senators],” Dureza said.
He noted
that the President has long openly supported federalism,
and had mentioned this repeatedly when she campaigned
for the presidency in 2004.
Dureza
said Malacañang expects the Pimentel resolution to gain
supporters in the House of Representatives, especially
among administration allies, following the President’s
endorsement.
Justice
Secretary Raul Gonzalez said in an interview before the
security cluster meeting at the Premiere Guest House
that it may not be possible to amend the Constitution to
establish only one federal state in the country or the
BJE.
“I’m
just suggesting that to me, a segmental federalistic
system may not be in accordance with the Constitution,”
Gonzalez said.
“We
should study it carefully. They give us the draft of
what they want; we will study it. I cannot say
categorically 100 percent that it cannot be done. We
have to study it,” he said. |
