Con-Con or Con-Ass

When Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino was on his way to his presidential inauguration at the Luneta Grandstand, he showed the nation that change was coming. He stopped at every traffic light and did not use his “wang-wang.” Everyone seemed perplexed and quite confused with his actions. But at that point, we were all happy, very supportive in the journey he was about to embark on as president. Indeed change was in the horizon and about to happen. Well, the rest is history. You be the judge. Was he a good president? Did he serve you well? Are you a happy Pinoy today?

Now, six years after, when ‘Digong’ took his oath as President in Malacañang, he too created a buzz. He said he would only serve mongo and maruya. He downplayed the glitz and glamour of the traditional ceremony and went straight to work. His statement was: the party is over, let’s get down to work. The question is, will he be consistent to his mandate? Abangan!

It has been 17 days since he took his oath of office. True to his words, he did serve monggo and maruya at the simple but elegant presidential inauguration saving us (taxpayers) millions of pesos; he started his battle against criminality and drugs showing us overwhelming results (such herculean task making us now worry about the increasing number of deaths and vigilante groups); the airport has indeed improved; the tanim-bala has stopped; streets have been cleared of illegal vendors; etcetera, etcetera. To an ordinary Juan dela Cruz, the government seems to be working and serving the citizens. I actually feel safer knowing that drug pushers and addicts have lessened although the big fishes still need to be caught and punished.

Clearly there are changes, many changes – unimaginable because we are simply not use to good governance. Our systems have been weak and weedy all this time. But how can real change happen? The only ‘key’ to real change is to amend the old Constitution. Through the years the Constitution has been tailored to fit the desires of the legislators without considering the country’s development and the people. President Duterte should not lose sight of the equally important charter change (CHA-CHA) which was central to his campaign. Would it be better to do a CHA-CHA through CON-ASS or CON-CON?

The 1987 Philippine Constitution has imperfections. Since it was hastily done, it has many loopholes and perhaps unintentional mistakes. It is ambiguous and shows lack of foresight on the part of the Commission that created it.

Simply, put, the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government have not been efficiently performing their mandated functions. There seems to be an apparent struggle caused by the overlapping of functions that has been detrimental to the country and people.

This inadequacy has resulted in legislations being written incorrectly, sometimes even incomplete. When this happens, misinterpretation of the law and ways of swaying judgment occurs. Who currently fixes legislation? It is Congress. And what is the content of expertise in our Congress? It is composed of artists, celebrities, lawyers, wives of former Congressmen, sons and daughters of ‘trapos’, public officials with questionable integrity, at one point some even having or have had pending cases or literally are in jail, and laymen from varied disciplines who know nothing but to grandstand and feast on the power that goes with the position of being a senator or a congressman.

But how can you expect a progressive review of legislation with such inexperienced legislators who we know will surely vote for changes not for good governance of the nation but for their conniving intentions?

There are three ways of proposing changes to the Constitution to be approved by the people in a plebiscite. First, Congress upon three-fourths vote of all its members may convene into a Constituent Assembly (CON-ASS) and propose amendments or revision to the fundamental law of the land. Second, a Constitutional Convention (CON-CON) may be called by a two-thirds vote of Congress and the people will elect their delegates to the Convention, which will then craft the amendments or revision. Third is a direct proposal of an amendment through People’s Initiative upon petition of at least 12 percent of the total number of registered voters with every legislative district represented by at least 3 percent of registered voters therein. This third mode, however, is in limbo after the Supreme Court ruled that the implementing law passed by Congress (RA 6735) was defective, hence, the choice is now between CON-ASS and CON-CON.

The proponents of CON-ASS argue that this would be faster and more economical because the election of delegates for the CON-CON does not only take time but also entails an expensive process, not to mention the additional compensation for the elected delegates. After all, the present congressmen and senators who will form the CON-ASS were also elected by their constituents and could therefore effectively represent them not only in enacting laws but also in proposing changes to the Constitution.

On the other hand, a CON-CON is perceived to be a more independent body free from any political bias, as the delegates have neither personal interests to protect nor terms of office to extend. Moreover, additional reasonable qualifications may be prescribed for CON-CON delegates to prevent clowns, like some members of the present congress, from messing up the Constitution. Translated to better constitutional provisions that are truly for the common good, the additional expense to maintain a CON-CON will be taxpayers’ money well-spent. Moreover, the CON-ASS mode may actually take more time because of the unresolved issue on whether the two houses of Congress should vote separately or jointly, which may need judicial interpretation by the Supreme Court.

From my view, it really doesn’t matter whether it is by CON-ASS or CON-CON for as long as the job gets done. Anyway, the people will finally decide to ratify or reject any amendment or revision of the Constitution. But hoping for the debate on federalism, among other proposed changes, to begin immediately, and considering the unconventional leadership style of President Digong, I would gladly put my bet on the CON-ASS simply because of the monggo and maruya savings mindset. Besides, I guess we already have more than the laws we need. Furthermore, the resources of Congress may be put to better use for the long-awaited revision of our basic law.

And yes, we could definitely get the best proposals from the CON-ASS. President Digong was elected with the biggest margin in recent years and the overwhelming support of the people puts him in a position to impose his people-oriented advocacies upon the CON-ASS.

To be fair with Congress, much as there are clowns in their midst, it is also a fact that we do have the best constitutionalists among them. With the expected guidance from the Palace, the great majority of members of Congress, acting as CON-ASS, we should get the ‘best’ amendment or revision of the Constitution, or else, heads will roll.