Category: federalism

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.

gloria’s golpe-de-gulat

sinabayan pa talaga ni madam speaker ang red october eklat ng militar.  na-deja-vu ako.  in the run-up to erap’s ouster, then vp gloria conspired (or maybe just met often), it is said, with some generals intending to withdraw support from erap (five different factions daw).  and we know how very far that got her.

this time around she’s house speaker and pushing her version of a federal constitution and perceived to be fast-tracking a constituent assembly, never mind the senate, what senate, just in time for a rev-gov situation it would seem, na di pa pala binibitawan ng mga ka-DDS.  read lito monico lorenzana’s Duterte is not a Marcos.

but wait.  just 2 months ago she announced that it was too late for chacha and federalism, lalo na’t kailangan pa ng info campaign at ng plebiscite.  read Speaker Arroyo: Not enough time for charter change of aug 16.

Arroyo has described as “black propaganda” the claim of some senators and critics that she is eyeing the position of prime minister under a federal system.

“I think those who are raising those issues are those that want to stir controversy,” Arroyo said. “As far as elections are concerned, I’ve already said I’m not in favor of term extension, so I’m not in favor of no-el (no elections).”

In the first place, Arroyo said there is no such position in the setup recommended by Duterte’s consultative committee on Cha-cha, which she added was federal-presidential.

… Arroyo has stopped Veloso’s committee from drafting its own version of a new Constitution. “It’s waste of time. That should be done by the assembly,” Arroyo told committee members during a meeting of the panel, which she attended.

“So now we will work with Senate President (Vicente) Sotto and fellow senators on how to move forward,” she said.

anong nangyari between then and now.  obviously hello gloria and and her gang continued anyway to draft the house version of a federal constitution — with input from senate prez sotto and his gang, possibly?  Resolution of Both Houses No. 15! — just in case?

plan B siguro, in case bongbong doesn’t make it to veep.  how else to circumvent leni’s lawful succession except by adopting gloria’s proposed charter providing that in the transition to federalism-kuno under a rev-gov, the president in case of death or illness or incapacity will be succeeded by the senate president, not by vp leni.  a draft charter that is already so controversial, even self-servingly obscene, on so many points, like, wow, no-term-limits for reps and senators, parang dictatorship of the dynasties, among other unthinkables.  at parang di pinoproblema na baka di tanggapin ng publiko.  siguro walang plebiscite, a la marcos, people’s assemblies lang where people raise their hands when asked who wants rice, ehe, who likes the new saligang batas?

and then of course we have to factor in duterte’s health problem — he ain’t looking or sounding good — that, if taken with his expressed complaints about how hard the job is, and how he’s willing to give it all up right now, just say the word, puts the succession question squarely on the table.  read raissa robles’s IF DUTERTE IS TOO ILL TO LEAD THE PHILIPPINES, WHO IS NEXT IN LINE FOR POWER? 

Among those positioning themselves for leadership are Vice-President Leni Robredo, the opposition Liberal Party which she now heads, and members of the Magdalo Group as well as moderate left-wing Akbayan and civil society groups.

Second is former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr and his mother, Congresswoman Imelda Marcos, and sister, Ilocos Sur Governor Imee Marcos.

Next comes the Davao group, headed by Duterte’s daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, and other Duterte loyalists. These include retired military officers, sitting public officials and diehard civilian Duterte supporters.

Fourth is House Speaker and former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her political allies, while fifth is the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front and its above-ground organisations.

vp robredo is next in the line of succession, no ifs or buts.  ang problema, duterte won’t step down kung si leni ang papalit sa kanya.  duterte wants someone like bongbong, like chiz? who will guarantee that he won’t go to jail for any crimes he might have committed while president.  thus this impasse that seems to be headed for a breaking point, with some prodding, it would seem, from hello gloria.  under her proposed charter, she can run again for any office she wants, though she says she won’t, she’ll be writing her memoir, but who knows, maybe she’s lying as usual.

and then, again, maybe she’ll get her wish to write a book, maybe her chacha won’t fly, too outrageous.  or maybe the case against her majority floor leader rolando andaya filed sa ombudsman by DDS commissioner greco belgica is just the first of many such SALN-related cases.

“Marami siyang hindi na-declare na baril, mga sasakyan, mga properties, lahat po ‘yun. We saw na hindi na-declare na maayos,” Belgica said, referring to Andaya’s SALN for 2016 and 2017.

reminds me of a congressman caught on video welcoming newly elected ones to congress with the line, “this is the life, guys!” or something to that effect.  if memory serves, nakagalitan siya, at napahiya, tried to take back his words.  sino na nga ‘yon?

the gloves are off.  labo-labo na.

 

It’s too complicated #NoToFederalism

Tony Samson

CERTAIN topics are just too hard to “laymanize.” This is a buzzword current nowadays. It means presenting a concept in words and phrases that can be grasped by the man on the street. Such subjects are, by definition, complex and presume prior familiarity and knowledge, sometimes requiring their own special vocabulary.

… Now, what about a complicated change in the political structure that affects the whole country which nobody seems to understand, much less sees a need for? (If it ain’t broke, hurl it against the wall so it breaks into little pieces.)

The challenge then for the designated communicator for the complex structure and transition mechanism being proposed and possibly voted on is how to laymanize this. Add to this hurdle, all the previous failed attempts (maybe five in all) to overhaul the system and change the form of government. One previous proposal was the parliamentary system where the chief executive was elected by the party with the most seats in the parliament. Of course, the new structure allowed the present chief to run again for a different title.

Faced with the daunting task of bringing airy concepts down to earth, what is a communicator to do but fall back on what she knows best? Can the communicators learn from the past on why previous concepts failed to persuade or even connect? Okay, a song and dance on the parliamentary system just wouldn’t have worked — i-par, par mo; i-lia-lia mo? Parliamento. Nah. There was no social media to spread that for some lambasting. Anyway, what body parts are those?

The simple rule in communications states, “If you can’t explain it in three sentences, you can’t sell it.” And maybe you don’t really understand it yourself anyway. So, how can you persuade anyone, even if you are armed with answers to FAQ?

You need to give credit to innovation in the field of persuasion. Until now, it was presumed that you required a power point presentation, interviews in talk shows with articulate advocates (that is still a work in progress), a road show with prospective candidates for national positions in tow, or even a TV commercial with sunrise and carabaos pulling the plow. Why not use a song and dance routine as a low-cost alternative to get the topic into the daily conversation of barbers and wine connoisseurs?

As to the charges of vulgarity, from the Latin word “vulgus” or crowd, somebody important found the dance number cool. (You are asking me about vulgarity?) While the song and dance did get the topic to trend in social media, it’s not certain which side of the debate it truly helped. So please don’t be too hard on her. She should keep her job. Why? It’s too complicated.

ChaCha: Duterte’s endgame #SONA2018 #NoToChaCha

Katrina SS

The Duterte government is on overdrive, providing us all with requisite distractions from the fact that the Duterte-appointed consultative committee has drafted a federal constitution to the President’s liking, and we’re all back to this discussion, not about whether or not we even want charter change, or if it’s necessary at all, but about how it’s going to happen.

Let that sink in.

Duterte’s propagandists and chacha advocates have been able to bring it to this point when we’re not even discussing whether or not charter change will happen but how it will happen. The President and his people have muscled their way through this charter change push — we’re talking THREE different federal constitutions after all since August 2016 — and it has been able to do this by utilizing what we’ve seen government do consistently and viciously the past two years: chaos-by-design.

Read on…