Allies not giving up on 2nd term

MANILA, Philippines - Despite a nationwide poll showing a majority of Filipinos against term extension, Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice said yesterday he is not yet giving up on his campaign to amend the Constitution to allow President Aquino to have a second term.

Going against the tide of public opinion, Erice said he will “subscribe to the sentiment of the people but after a thorough discussion,” referring to his call for leaders of the ruling Liberal Party (LP) to hold a general caucus and come up with a party stand on moves to allow Aquino a second term.

“One indication is the caucus, if the (LP) party leaders call for a caucus and favor (term extension) and there will be consultations and explanations, then that campaign’s still alive,” Erice told The STAR.

“The disagreement in the survey is not overwhelming, so they (people) can still be swayed to support term extension depending on our explanation,” he said.

Erice said this is his last-ditch effort to have Aquino’s term of office extended.

“(If) we don’t have a caucus this month, there will no more time for this,” he added. He said he has yet to file his bill seeking to extend the term of elected officials.

Erice admitted that term extension through amendments in the Constitution was not popular even among members of the majority in the House of Representatives.

Senate President Franklin Drilon said he expects the President to listen to the opinions of the people regarding a possible second term, which Erice and several allies and supporters have been pushing in the past months.

From what he knows, Drilon said he does not think the President will support any move to amend the Constitution so that he could seek a second term in 2016.

“As far as I know, the President is averse to any constitutional amendment which will give him an opportunity to run again,” he said.

Erice is among the Aquino’s allies in the Liberal Party pushing for him to stay in office beyond 2016, saying he is the best option the country has at the moment.

The President’s spokespersons have repeatedly stated that Aquino is listening to his “bosses,” referring to the people who elected him into office in 2010.

This statement has remained vague in spite of repeated attempts to get a categorical response from the President.

The vagueness of the statement has prompted more calls for a second term for the President from groups who took what he said to mean that he was keeping an open mind.

Drilon, however, said the President would always listen to the sentiments of the people whichever way it is expressed.

“I’m sure the President is reading the surveys,” he said.

Sen. JV Ejercito, for his part, said the President should start listening to what his “bosses” are saying as reflected in the survey.

Instead of pushing for what appears to be an unpopular proposal, Ejercito said, the different sectors should work together to make the last two years of the President’s term a more meaningful one for the Filipino people.

“Let us focus on how we can make the people feel the effects of the reported economic gains instead of thinking about a possible term extension,” he said.

Ejercito also reminded Aquino the term limit set in the Constitution was something that his mother, the late former President Corazon Aquino, worked for after the Marcos regime.

On the other hand, the group that recently came out with a paid advertisement urging President Aquino to run for re-election denied being supported by Malacañang.

And despite the recent survey against moves for the President to run again, the Movement for Reform, Continuity and Momentum (More2Come) will continue to gather eight million signatures to support its call.

Former Manila International Airport Authority general manager Melvin Matibag said they their group is aimed to present the initial two million signatures to President Aquino on Bonifacio Day on November 30.

According to Matibag, not a single centavo from government coffers was used in their initiative.

Matibag said he and youth leader RJ Echiverri, son of Caloocan Rep. Enrico Echiverri, even pooled their own money to fund the initiative.

“I assure you that we are not being funded by Malacañang,” he said.

In a statement, the group said President Aquino “is still the best and only successor.”

“As of today, the most visible possible successors are in a bind. One is beset by fatal corruption baggage and the other by perennial low ratings. The others are simply inexperienced,” the group said.

The group is pushing for a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution to allow term extension for Aquino.

Economic Charter change

Erice said he was surprised that Filipinos were not too keen on amending the economic provisions of the Charter even if the move will result in clear and concrete benefits for the economy in terms of job creation and investments.

“I think we have to explain to the people the urgent need for amendments to the economic provisions and our country is becoming less and less attractive to investments, every day will delay economic reforms,” he said.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. expressed optimism that Filipinos will soon eventually support efforts to amend the economic provisions of the Constitution.

Belmonte noted the latest survey that showed many Filipinos are against amending the provision of the Constitution to allow foreign ownership of residential and industrial lands.

In the same survey, a majority of Filipinos do not want Charter change to allow President Aquino a second term of office, or extension of his term.

Belmonte said the House has long set aside political Charter change as divisive, and has been focused only on economic reforms to help Filipinos out of poverty through increased foreign investments.

“We always respect and understand the sentiments of our people and we always listen to them. We have to assure our people that our intention is simply to attract investments that are just waiting out there, waiting for the country’s reforms,” he said.

Belmonte stressed there are already laws protecting agricultural and forest lands and that lawmakers are not likely going to pass laws that would endanger food security nor give away residential lots.

He noted that in the survey, nearly half of Filipinos are not fully aware of the issue while 36 percent agreed that the Constitution may be amended in the future, which means economic Charter change must be clearly explained to the people.

Belmonte said the proposed Resolution of Both Houses No. 1 (RBH 1), which seeks to ease the restrictive economic provisions of the Constitution, will be passed by the House in the coming weeks, and the Senate has committed to pass a counterpart measure authored by Sen. Ralph Recto.

RBH 1 seeks to include the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law” in some sections of Articles XII (national economy and patrimony), XIV (education, science and technology, arts, culture and sports), and XVI (General Provisions), which means the constitutional restrictions on foreign ownership remain until Congress enacts specific laws to remove them.

He said the proposed amendment is just a key to allow the government to adapt or take advantage of global developments.

Plenary deliberations on RBH 1 began last August and the measure is listed as among the priority bills of the House.

Davao City Rep. Mylene Garcia-Albano, chairperson of the House committee on constitutional amendments, earlier gave assurance the proposed amendments to the economic provisions of the Constitution will not be automatically written even if RBH 1 is approved by Congress and ratified by the people.

She said the parliaments of China, Indonesia and Vietnam have passed numerous laws that tend to ease economic restrictions in their respective constitutions.

“That’s not the objective. We’re not saying we’re going to remove them (restrictions). We want to provide flexibility to our country on crafting economic policies to meet the exigencies that come our way,” Albano said.

She said China has allowed long-term lease of up to 99 years for land while Vietnam and Indonesia have also enacted laws that allow full repatriation of earnings of investors, among the many legislation they have passed to attract investments.

Albano said land ownership is not the only concern addressed by RBH 1 but also other sectors of the economy.

She said Congress has recently ratified the bill allowing full foreign ownership of banks. -Marvin Sy, Reinir Padua