RESOLVING crucial political and economic issues that have long bedeviled the country has been the name of the game for the 22-member committee handpicked by the President to review no less than the highest law of the land—the 1987 Constitution.
The Consultative Committee (Con-com) is already halfway through its six-month life which started in February.
It may look like there is still much time left, but the committee actually has only less than two months to beat its self-imposed deadline to submit the final constitutional draft to the President on July 19. This is days before the Chief Executive’s State of the Nation Address on July 23.
Still, Con-com chairman and former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno told the BusinessMirror that they are already 80 percent done with the draft federal constitution.
Although there are still a number of crucial things that are yet to be accomplished, Puno said he is “confident” that the Con-com is on track to beating the July deadline.
“We are confident that we shall be able to submit to the President this draft and barnstorm the country and educate the people about this draft constitution,” he said.
Supposedly, the committee should have begun its regional consultation phase as scheduled; however, this was moved to June as the next remaining days of May will be devoted to accomplishing Con-com’s unfinished business.
All that’s left to do in terms of drafting the Constitution, Puno said, is to finish the deliberations on the structure of federated regions and their powers, the constitutional commissions, such as the Commission on Audit and the Civil Service Commission, and the proposed independent competition commission, the Federal Electoral Tribunal that will handle electoral cases, liberalization of restrictive economic provisions and the transitory provisions.
What’s been approved, so far
To recall, the committee has already adopted the federal-presidential form of government.
The committee has also approved en banc a revised preamble, a new article on political rights and political parties, articles on legislative department and executive branch, antipolitical dynasty provisions and the elevation of the Commission on Human Rights to a constitutional commission.
Other articles approved at subcommittee level were those on national territory, declaration of principles and state policies, bill of rights with the addition of socioeconomic and environmental rights, citizenship, suffrage, judicial branch and family.
Everything seems easier said than done, however.
Puno admitted that the task given to the committee was “quite difficult” since they are changing the form of government from the present unitary to federal.
“When they revised the 1973 Constitution, there was no change in the form of government. The government has always been unitary so this time, there is a major radical revision of the structure of government,” he said. “[And] there are really areas in our 1987 Constitution which need revisiting, not because the constitution is not a good constitution but just because of the passage of time,” he added.
It is the committee’s belief that there were changes in the needs of the country that warranted some constitutional amendments, the former chief magistrate pointed out.
In an earlier interview, Puno described the structure of federated regions as a “slippery slope” for the Con-com.
As of press time, the Con-com has yet to decide on the number of federated regions. Puno said the committee targets to finish this in two week’s time, at the latest.
At present, the country has 17 regions but the committee is still studying whether or not to adopt the same number in the federal constitution.
“[This is] because we want to be sure that the federated regions will be properly grouped together, especially their economic viability and sustainability, and in this endeavor, we are soliciting the assistance of all our government agencies, especially agencies that have knowledge that should be considered in determining the future viability of these regions, the economic data, the fiscal data, the social data and others,” he said.
Puno added the committee will also be working hand in hand with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) when they do regional consultations, which will be done in two phases.
For the first phase, Con-com members will break out into groups to go to regional centers. Members will be assigned to regions where they came from to lead the consultations.
Next, Con-com and the DILG will train speakers who will carry out the second phase in the provinces and key cities.
According to Puno, the committee shall endeavor to finish the task at hand to review the Constitution until August as stated in the executive order, but they took it upon themselves to impose the July deadline so that the President can consider it in his State of the Nation Address.
Asked if he thinks Duterte will fight for Con-com’s draft even in Congress, Puno said: “So far he has not expressed any disagreement on what has been approved and favorably voted upon by this consultative committee, and so on that basis we are confident that we shall endorse this draft constitution to the Con-ass [constitutional assembly] for appropriate action.”
After all the work has been done, Puno said it is only through the draft that the committee can be judged by the people as to whether it has succeeded in its mission.
“I think from the draft itself, one could reasonably predict whether this new constitution is better than the 1987 Constitution in meeting the current needs of the country, as well as the challenges which will confront us in this century considering that the society is now technology-driven, science-driven,” he added.
For Ronald U. Mendoza, dean of the Ateneo School of Government, the Con-com has tackled a number of important reform issues at this point, including possible steps to promote stronger governance and accountability in the political system.
Dynasty regulation
“One of their first decisions was to include a self-executory dynasty regulation which, when combined with political party reforms, could help address some of the structural sources of the political noise that we see today. To the extent that this also promotes more accountability and better governance, we could also see more coherent policy-making and implementation,” Mendoza said.
He pointed out, however, that accomplishing the draft constitution, including the regional consultations for only six months, is difficult.
“Nevertheless, the scope of ground to cover is considerable, and completing a full review of the Constitution, along with consultations with the public, which until now appear oblivious to the many issues being tackled here—all in under half a year—is a tall order,” he said.
The present political noise has also led to a very divided political atmosphere, he added.
These include controversial policies pursued by the government, as well as the Supreme Court decision to grant the Solicitor General’s quo warranto petition to unseat Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno.
“With all this noise and division, it is difficult to imagine a new or amended constitution providing a unifying basis for political and economic reforms. Unsurprisingly, many supporters of federalism are beginning to conclude that this is not yet a federalist moment for the country,” he said.
Ready to defend draft–Ex-CJ Puno
Meanwhile, political analyst Ramon C. Casiple, executive director of Institute For Political and Economic Reform, said that he agrees with 65 percent of the Con-com proposals.
The other 35 percent is composed of his reservations on Con-com’s decision to adopt a federal-presidential form of government and their noninclusion of state subsidy, which Casiple said is an important part of political reform, among others.
Casiple helped write the proposed federal charter made by the study group of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban, the President’s political party.
However, PDP-Laban’s draft adopted a federal semi-presidential setup, different from what was adopted by Con-com. Under the semi-presidential model, power will be shared by the president and a prime minister.
Although there were differences in the Con-com’s proposal and the PDP-Laban study group draft, Casiple said there is no competition between the two groups.
“That is not competitive because some of our proposals were taken up by the consultative committee. We submitted it to them and we are also monitoring their discussions,” he said.
At the end of the day, Casiple added, Con-com’s work is recommendatory to the President and that the President will endorse the working document to Congress, who will then decide at least on the draft federal constitution.
Although Puno acknowledged the fact that Con-com will be facing Congress in the future, he maintained that the committee has remained independent while they are drafting the federal constitution.
“We are not in touch with them. We are not discussing [with them] the proposals or suggestions being made in this consultative committee. We have not also been appearing in the different committees of Congress,” Puno said. “But in due time, it is inevitable that upon the endorsement of the President of this draft, Congress will be calling us to defend our draft constitution. That will be the time,” he added.