By Psyche Roxas-Mendoza
Conclusion
President Joseph E. Estrada’s ascendancy as the 13th President of the Philippines came on the wings of an “Erap para sa mahirap [Erap for the poor]” platform of government.
Estrada’s first State of the Nation Address (Sona), delivered on July 27, 1998, focused more on poverty alleviation and cutbacks on government expenditure.
It wasn’t until his second Sona that Estrada talked lengthily about the need to amend the Constitution.
On July 27, 1998, Estrada enjoined Filipinos in his second Sona to “face up to the fact that certain provisions in our present Constitution are obsolete and serve as deterrents to our global competitiveness. In the race with the rest of the world market to the coming millennium, we cannot afford to let our Constitution bind our feet.”
“It is now time for us to identify which parts need to be improved. Some are economic; they should be made effective as soon as possible. Some are political; they should be rewritten in a way that will not allow
the incumbent officials to benefit from them. Changing the Constitution is not about extending the terms of office of incumbents,” Estrada said.
In his speech, Estrada told Filipinos “not to allow paranoid fears to block the convening of an appropriate assembly or convention to rewrite our Charter. Let us not prejudge its outcome. Our citizens can always make their voices heard during the amendment process.
And, ultimately, they will exercise the power, in a plebiscite, to ratify the new Charter or to reject it. Our Constitution must be made to adapt to the dynamics and imperatives of global realities.”
The “appropriate assembly or convention” Estrada referred to was later divulged as CONCORD, or the Constitutional Correction for Development.
Public consultations, road shows
As reported in the media, a Preparatory Commission on Constitutional Reforms (PCCR) was formed under the CONCORD.
The PCCR was headed by former Chief Justice Andres Narvasa. Its task was to study and make recommendations on amending the provisions of the 1987 Constitution and to “hold public consultations and road shows to inform the people on the proposed economic reforms of the Estrada administration.”
Unlike the PIRMA, espoused by Estrada’s predecessor Fidel V. Ramos, the CONCORD proposal, its proponents said, “would only amend the ‘restrictive’ economic provisions of the Constitution that is considered as impeding the entry of more foreign investments in the Philippines.”
Still, the CONCORD, like Ramos’s PIRMA, met stiff opposition from militants, the religious and opposition politicians.
The CONCORD campaign, however, was cut short by Edsa II, which ousted President Estrada in 2001, less than two years after his administration mounted CONCORD.
Both Ramos and Estrada launched their bid for Charter change (Cha-cha) on the last years of their administration. It is a pace that will also characterize the administration of Estrada’s successor, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
More consultations
It was also during a Sona that then-President Arroyo would publicly declare her administration’s move to effect Cha-cha.
One year after winning a hotly contested presidential elections, Arroyo announced in her July 25, 2005, Sona the creation of the Consultative Commission (ConCom) on Cha-cha.
ConCom, as explained by Arroyo, would propose revisions to the 1987 Constitution. The proposal would be submitted to the president before transmitting it to Congress, which will then deliberate on the matter.
It was also in her 2005 Sona that Arroyo equated Cha-cha with federalism. This, however, will be achieved by way of a “transition to a unicameral parliamentary system”
In their study “Federalism and Multiculturalism,” authors Elyzabeth F. Cureg and Jennifer F. Matunding mentioned that Executive Order 453 (2005) defined the ConCom’s principal mandate, which is “to conduct consultations and studies and propose amendments for a shift from the Philippines’s present presidential-unitary system to a parliamentary-federal form. Also among the ConCom’s mission is to refocus and review economic policies in the Constitution to further the country’s goal of global competitiveness.”
“To do this, the ConCom will hold nationwide consultations with various sectors, such as farmers, fishermen, workers, students, lawyers, professionals, business, military, academic, ethnic, including the different leagues of local government units and members of Congress and the Judiciary,” the study added.
According to the study, the establishment of a federal government was mentioned only in the latter part of the Transitory Provisions of the report (Sections 15 and 16). After the adoption of a parliamentary system of government, autonomous territories will be created.
These will eventually become federal states in what will later be called the “Federal Republic of the Philippines.”
Arroyo, as with her predecessors, also failed to push for Cha-cha. Her administration, seen by political observers as the most maligned and riddled with charges of corruption, was forced to drop its campaign for federalism in the face of mounting oppostion.
The thwarting of Arroyo’s federalism effort was further hastened when the Supreme Court (SC) issued a temporary restraining order against the signing of a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD), which the Arroyo administration had been poised to sign with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The SC later deemed the MOA-AD as unconstitutional.
Expert revival
Some of the government officials who played a major role in the peace and order and federalism efforts during the Arroyo administration are now tasked to do the same duties under the Duterte administration.
They include Press Secretary Jesus Dureza, who is now peace process adviser; Arroyo’s Peace Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who is now national security adviser. Esperon also served as Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff during Arroyo administration.
Among the criticisms to the previous Cha-cha efforts was the lack of sufficient consultation.
In the time of President Duterte, social media can be the ultimate public information tool.
According to Google, the Philippines has a very tech-savvy population. About 34 percent of online Filipino users visit the Internet every day, while 45 percent of online users go online at least once a week.
There are 39.8 million Internet users in the country, or four out of every 10 Filipinos. An 11.3-percent Internet growth rate is projected until 2016. More than half, or 59 percent, of Filipinos will be Internet users by that time. Some 48 percent of Filipinos between the 20 and 29 age group will be Internet users by then.