To help address the gaping social and economic inequities in the country, members of President Duterte’s consultative committee (Con-com) have made known their intention to include the rights to education, decent housing and health in the Bill of Rights of the federal charter they are crafting.
This was immediately welcomed by officials of agencies mandated to deliver these basic but largely neglected rights, as they believe their enshrinement in the new charter will compel the government to allocate more funds for their programs.
This is also the intention of the Con-com, according to its chairman, former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno.
Puno told the BusinessMirror that with this proposal to include these rights in the Bill of Rights, the government will really be compelled to do something to enforce these rights. “Its impact will be the government will be forced to allot resources so that these rights will benefit the poor.” He noted that the biggest problem besetting these three sectors is lack of funds.
At present, only civil and political rights are listed under the Bill of Rights.
The Con-com is set to decide on the exact wording of the self-executing provisions on socioeconomic and environmental rights in an en banc decision this week.
The panel aims to submit its final draft of the federal charter to the President on July 19, days before the Chief Executive’s State of the Nation Address on July 23. “It would also encourage Congress to make the proper appropriations in order to be able to satisfy the grant of this most basic socioeconomic rights,” Puno said.
Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Commissioner Ronald L. Adamat hopes that their challenge on lack of budget will somehow be solved once the right to education is enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
“It all boils down to budget, be it with CHEd alone or with different state universities and colleges across the country. The bottom line is budget,” he said. “If the schools have a meager budget, then they cannot provide state-of-the-art facilities, and [if the] facilities are not state-of-the-art, then that is tantamount to less quality of education.”
Adamat added that the inclusion of socioeconomic rights under the Bill of Rights is a “triple victory for the Filipino people, particularly to those coming from the poor families.”
“Now with this proposal to include [right to] education in the Bill of Rights in the [new] constitution, all the more that it will be given emphasis by the government because this becomes a very important and basic right of the citizenry,” he said.
Asked if he has any specific provisions in mind to propose to the Con-com, Adamat said he wanted tertiary education to be a shared responsibility between the federal states and the federal government. Puno noted that this is possible, adding that the federal government may be put in charge, especially when setting standards and policies.
Lawyer Tonisito M.C Umali, Department of Education (DepEd) undersecretary for legislative affairs, external partnerships and school sports, welcomed the inclusion of right to education under the Bill of Rights.
“I will support that proposal to put that in the Bill of Rights [in the new charter], but it’s already there in the present Constitution, but if you will put that in the Bill of Rights, then that should be even better,” Umali told the BusinessMirror.
However, Umali said he is hoping that the separate article on education, Article XIV in the 1987 Constitution, will remain as it is.
“Please, I hope that they won’t remove the separate article on education. That shows the importance of education.”
Asked if he wanted to propose any specific provisions related to right to education, Umali said, “What we have in the current Constitution is already more than enough.” He also admitted that not all challenges are solved by the current constitutional provisions.
Once these rights are put under the Bill of Rights, Umali added, the challenge for the DepEd is how to implement the mandate given by the Constitution.
On the enshrinement of right to housing under the Bill of Rights, the head of Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), Gen. Eduardo D. del Rosario (Ret.) said he is all for it.
“It will make a difference [in our operation in HUDCC] because we will be given more budget to subsidize construction of more affordable housing,” del Rosario said, noting that the country currently lacks the budget for it.
Housing needs will be easily fulfilled if there is a corresponding budget, added del Rosario, who also chairs Task Force Bangon Marawi.
The public, he stressed, may gain protection from the state once the right to housing is enshrined, unless the house was illegally constructed or belonged to another person already. “There are no absolute rights. It must be with responsibility and accountability.”
According to Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development Director Alvin P. Ang, it is important that the state will be able to define these socioeconomic rights and be clear on what it wants to achieve.
This, he noted, is because there might be some fiscal implications, since the state will now be paying to realize these rights.
“It’s not necessarily bad; it’s not bad but the government should be prepared with its implication,” he said, noting that once it is put in place in the Constitution, there is no turning back.
“If you put that in the Constitution, you won’t be able to remove it and you will need to fulfill it every time,” he added. “If it’s in the Constitution, then it means you really want to do it.”