Category: constitution

No to cha-cha, YES to united front

August 11, Antipolo Rep. Ronnie Puno in a privilege speech called for charter change via constitutional convention, triggered by the “vagueness” of “forthwith” and Senate Prez Chiz Escudero‘s cavalier take that led to the delays and eventually the archiving of the impeachment. Pero natabunan agad ito ng same-day exposey by PBBM of the 15 top flood control contractors, among them (it was quickly revealed) one who donated P30 million to Chiz’s campaign kitty in 2022. Double whammy kay Chiz. Kumusta na siya.

September 3, the House of Reps’ Young Guns filed a resolution also calling for cha-cha via con-con to lower the minimum age for president and VP from 40 to 35, and for senators, 35 to 30, apparently triggered by a notion that it would work for young ones like the hugely popular heartthrob Vico Sotto who turns just 39 in 2028 which to me only means hindi pa oras ni Vico, huwag madaliin.

But the grapevine buzz is that Congress is serious and are moving on it, or something like that, amid coup rumors in both Houses. I heartily hope it’s all just talk, trying o distract us from flood and corruption issues. Because now is not the time for charter change. Maybe later, in a new admin led by an enlightened one who wins on the promise of a constitutional convention streamed live, and a multi-media information campaign so that the people will know what they will be saying YES or NO to in a nationwide referendum.

CHACHA CONCON
Besides, mahaba at magastos ang proseso — from election of delegates, to drafting of a new charter, to prepping the people, to holding a referendum. Back in March 2023, in response to House Bill No. 7352, the expense was among the concerns of the Makati Business Club:

NEDA estimates a Constitutional Convention would cost Php 14 billion to Php 28 billion. HB 7352 proposes 300 delegates who would get P10,000 per day, or a total of Php 3 million per day, or more than Php 400 million for the seven-month project. We believe these funds can be better used on agriculture to address the high inflation, transportation to enable Filipinos to get to work and home in much less time, and needed social services like health, education, and social security. https://mbc.com.ph/2023/

Pero sabihin pa nating pursigido’t desidido ang Konggreso. The only way it could happen very fast is not through a Con-con but through Con-Ass, where the two chambers agree to constitute themselves into a constituent assembly, and the lower house finally agrees to the two chambers voting separately. Ibig ding sabihin, kailangan ay parehong YES or parehong NO ang boto ng dalawang kamara for any amendment to pass into law. Which is so iffy.

Besides, it would be open season for all kinds of surreptitious insertions and deletions that dynast lawmakers and government officials have long pushed for (term extensions, foreign ownership, shift to unicameral federalism), at tiyak makikialam ang mga naghaharing-uri to protect their interests, as in the Quintero payola scandal noong 1971 ConCon.

Sabi nga ni Ronald Llamas in a sober panayam with the sophomoric subsaharan Richard Heydarian who actually thinks charter change might be the only way:

LLAMAS:  In principle I’m for a federal system but if you federate without the necessary minimum reforms, you are just federating warlordism, you are just federating concentration of power in the hands of a few, on the local level you will just be federating poverty. You need minimum economic and political reforms so that federalism would be much [more] real.

… Its about changes, [there are] minimum requisites before you change the constitution. Like, education is pretty basic, even congressmen don’t read the constitution. Perhaps even senators. So you have to popularize what you are changing and the proposals to change that. Usually the timing should be in the first half of a president’s term. Usually in the last half it’s tainted with suspicion that you just want term extension. You just want to change the system for vested interests. So if you start it early you have time to present, to educate, to do the minimum reforms necessary for changes in the constitution. They always use the excuse of economic changes but what is real is the political changes…

HEYDARIAN: Baka the right time will never come unless you create a sense of crisis… and maybe kicking off a constitutional change process by the trapos will activate the good guys.

LLAMAS: I doubt that will happen. … Because for now those who will push for charter change are the corrupt people of the present system … even, the most corrupt. You don’t even have a reformist in that group. So if you change the system, those who will decide about the changes will be the vast majority who are involved in the ills of the system you are trying to change. You want to change the system so that the ills will be mitigated, but the ones who will change the system now, if we do it now, will be the same guilty persons responsible for those ills.

Exactly. Whether con-con or con-ass, wala tayong panalo. If anything, dumadagdag lang ito sa gulo ngayong nagkakabukingan at nagkakaalaman na ng mga pasikot-sikot ng sistemang bulok na nagdadala ng karumaldumal na bahâ at karagdagang hirap sa taongbayan. As if life weren’t miserable enough.

LLAMAS. For me, the trigger is that the Dutertes may win in 2028. … This week there are lines being drawn for a united front. … So for now the trigger is 2028. If we don’t build a broad anti-Duterte front then the Dutertes will come and there will be hell to pay.

Yes. There are other ways to beat Sara in ’28. As in 1986, if the anti-Duterte forces and the anti-corruption movement, across classes and colors, can get behind one candidate, may panalo ang taongbayan.

“Extra-constitutional musings”

Until now, the Senate has been savaged by lawyers, law deans, law students and even plain housewives for allegedly failing to do what the Constitution commands. Some of them may have even begun to believe that an extra-constitutional option would be a better alternative. By going to trial now, and making sure the trial works, the Senate could effectively put these extra- constitutional musings to rest and reassure the nation that the impeachment process still works and should be given a chance. There would be no need to mobilize public sentiment, as some sectors seem to believe they should be doing, in favor of some costly alternative. https://www.manilatimes.net/

That’s from “The Senate and its discontents” by former Senator Francisco “Kit” Tatad, one of the 11 who refused to open the second envelope, circa Erap. Interesting that he brings up the notion of “an extra-constitutional option” — meron nga ba? Parang wala.

If in the 20th Senate, the VP’s allies have enough votes to manage to dismiss the case without convening as an Impeachment Court, on whatever grounds, a walkout by the opposing Senators, even if supported by The People (as in Edsa Dos) would not necessarily compel the VP to resign. And even if she were to resign, she could still run for president in 2028 even if she may be guilty of betraying public trust atbp.

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Thanks to former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban for calling out the Senate in his column today: “Senators, do you know where the impeachment proceeding is going to?”

To the Supreme Court where the 20th Congress and the lawyers may delay and scuttle it till forgotten by our people?

To the waste basket, never mind the people’s cry for accountability (credible polls say that a vast majority—from 78 to 88 percent—of our people want accountability and transparency)?

To embarrass the VP who expressed a desire to clear her name via due process from her alleged maltreatment by the HOR?

To the battle in July 2025 for the election of the senate president of the 20th Congress who would thereafter preside over the reconvening of the IC?

To be fair, I did not identify the senator-judges alluded to though readers could name them based on what they saw and heard during the live coverage of the IC sessions, and on printed media reports. I leave it to their discretion as elected public officials to retain the public trust by answering the questions in the song popularized by the chanteuse Diana Ross. https://opinion.inquirer.net/

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And then my YouTube algo came up with a Doris Bigornia phone interview of Senator-elect Tito Sotto who has changed his tune, now agrees that the Impeachment Court continues into the 20th Senate. BUT he’s saying that it’s the Chief Justice who should be the Presiding Officer of the Impeachment Court, as when a president is impeached, because the VP’s office and duties are more like the president’s, or something like that. Also, that if the VP is impeached, it’s the Senate Prez who becomes Acting VP until the prez appoints a new one, which means “ikaw pa ang tratraidor sa papalitan mo” … a confict of interest for the SP, who can also be replaced even while the prez has yet to appoint a new VP,  or something like that. https://www.youtube.com/

For a very brief moment there, it sounded reasonable, but is it even possible to have the Chief Justice preside in the VP’s impeachment without amending the Constitution?  I emailed CJ Panganiban forthwith and here’s his reply, also forthwith:

The Constitution provides that the Senate President presides except when the President is the respondent in which case the CJ presides. There is only one exception, we cannot add another whether by our wise judgment or by far fetched logic.

So there. Which brings me back to “extra-constitutional musings” and how to get the DDS allies in the Senate to behave as honorable senators should, like recuse, or restrain themselves until we’ve all heard all of the evidence. How ironic that we succeeded in removing two presidents but can’t do anything about a Senate that threatens to acquit an impeached vice president without a trial.

Why the Constitution has to be defended

Tony La Viña

For three years now, the Constitution has been under relentless attack, and ironically it is the President, whose oath of office commits him to execute and defend it, who is leading the assault.

Among others, the Bill of Rights has been disregarded in the conduct of the war against drugs, in the fight against insurgency, in retaliating against human rights defenders, and in suppressing political dissent by going after opposition figures like Senators Leila De Lima and Antonio Trillanes. The doctrine of separation of powers has been set aside, notably in the ouster of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and in criticism by the President of independent accountability mechanisms like the Commission on Audit and the Commission on Human Rights.

And now, the sacred constitutional cow of our national territory is tossed aside in defense of a failed policy of appeasement with China.

We live in perilous times. Unfolding before us, the constitutional order is being destroyed. In the name of our children who must be saved from shabu, promising to eradicate all corruption and to end an insurgency without addressing its roots, and out of misplaced friendship to and an unfounded fear of war against China, the Constitution is being buried by a lawyer-president aided by fellow lawyers trained in sophistry and not with Socratic wisdom.

Why should we care?  Read on…