The present conflict between the Senate and the lower house on its interpretation of Article VIII, Section 1(a) on a constituent assembly to propose amendments to the Constitution appears to be at an impasse. The collective sentiment in the Senate is that Charter change (Cha-cha) is dead if the lower house will not yield to the Senate’s voting (or convening) separately as a constituent assembly.
The lower house has not been deterred by the Senate’s position. The House Committee on Constitutional Amendments (the “Mother Committee”) headed by Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado has four subcommittees under it assigned to work on certain provisions of the Constitution:
- Vice Chairman Corazon Nuñez Malanyaon; subcommittee on the executive and legislative, new article on federal and regional powers, number of states, local government and taxation, allocation of resources.
- Vice Chairman and Deputy Speaker Fredenil Castro; subcommittee on the judiciary, constitutional commissions, amendments or revisions, suffrage, citizenship, bill of rights, new article on the bill of duties.
- Albee Beni-tez; subcommittee on the preamble, national territory, declaration of principles and state policies, general provisions and transitory provisions.
- Vice Chairman Vicente Veloso; subcommittee on social justice, education, science and others, national patrimony and economy, accountability of public officers and the family.
- Among the proposals submitted to the Mother Committee as presented to the media last week (see Rg Cruz, ABS/CBN Post 1/16/18) were:
- A shift to a federal parliamentary form of government;
- Legislative power to be vested in a federal assembly as the national legislative department and the Senate as the legislative body representative of the regions;
- The assembly shall have not more than 300 members. 80 percent of the members of the assembly shall be elected by plurality votes, where each single member legislative electoral district shall have one seat in the assembly; the remaining 20 percent shall be elected through a party-list system of registered federal or regional sectoral parties or organizations, representing the marginalized sectors to include labor, peasant, fisherfolk, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, elderly, handicapped, women, youth, veterans, overseas workers and seafarers;
- Each region shall have a minimum of three seats in the Senate; the senators receiving the three highest number of direct votes by registered voters in a region shall represent their region in the Senate; Mercado proposes to retain 24 senators elected nationally, plus the senators elected by regions;
- The federal assembly shall elect its Speaker and the Senate its President by a majority vote of all its respective members;
- The President shall be the head of state, elected by direct vote for a five-year term with one
reelection; - Power of the President; oversight over all branches of government (Legislative, Executive, Judiciary, constitutional bodies, independent bodies, departments, agencies and offices of the government); head of international relations and foreign affairs, commander in chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), appointing power, pardoning power, residual power, enter into treaties, appoint members of the judiciary, constitutional bodies, Foreign affairs officials, address the parliament on the State of the Nation Address, proclaim the Prime Minister;
- The Prime Minister will be the head of government;
- Responsible exercise of the freedom of speech;
- Remove the judicial power to determine grave abuse of discretion;
- Create a regional Court of Appeals in the five proposed regions;
- Deletion of the Judicial and Bar Council;
- Power to nominate members of the Judiciary shall be vested upon the Prime Minister and with the consent of the Commission on Appointments;
- Retirement age of members of the Supreme Court from 70 to 65;
- Creation of a Constitutional Court which shall have exclusive jurisdiction over constitutionalities of treaties, international or executive agreement, law, presidential decree, proclamation, order, instruction, ordinance or regulation, electoral protests which were under the jurisdiction of the electoral tribunal, dispute between the federal and state government, between and among state governments and disputes between the states and local government units;
- Power of the federal election commissions to investigate and prosecute election-related crimes is repealed and vested in the Department of Justice; remove quasi judicial functions of the Commission on Elections, including the Commission on Human Rights as a constitutional commission;
- Deletion of the current 60:40 limit on foreign investments in the areas of exploitation, development and utilization of natural resources, ownership of alienable lands, franchises on public utilities, practice of profession, ownership of educational institutions, mass media and advertising;
The committee also included the following transitory provisions
- First election will be second Monday of May 2022;
- Following the adoption of the Constitution, the present Congress will be dissolved, the Senate and House will be replaced by an Interim Parliament;
- The interim Prime Minister shall be elected by a majority vote of the Parliament. He shall be a member of the Cabinet;
- The incumbent President shall exercise all powers and functions of head of state and government under this federal constitution until the election of the next President and Prime Minister in May 2022;
- The first regular elections for President will be on the second Monday of May 2022 and shall be elected by direct vote of the people for five years.
- The incumbent Vice President will continue until 2022, after which the position of Vice President will be abolished.
So broad and substantive are the proposed amendments that public hearings, consultation with various stakeholders, in depth research and studies must necessarily be done.
To present these to the people in a plebiscite to coincide with the May 2019 elections is unrealistic, arbitrary and smacks of railroading. Especially, if it is true that among the proposed amendments is the removal of term limits for senators and congressmen. That would make public office the private property of our politicians who can remain in office ad infinitum.
Viewed in this context, we can understand why the “undue haste”!