MANILA, Philippines - Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto believes that the constitutional commission proposal of Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to aid Congress in amending the Constitution would gain credibility if it includes people who have reservations about changing the form of government to a federal system.
He does not intend to oppose the creation of the commission, a draft executive order of which has been submitted by Alvarez to Malacañang.
The commission would in effect be a mere “study group whose output will have to be submitted to Congress for consideration, and whatever Congress recommends will still have to be ratified by the people in a plebiscite,” he added.
Alvarez said the proposed commission would have 25 members and would include retired chief justice Reynato Puno.
Recto said there should be a semblance of impartiality in the work of the commission because the proposed shift to a federal system is being pushed by President Duterte and his allies in Congress.
“Its membership must be drawn from various sectors, all regions, from parties of different, even clashing, political persuasions, from Left to Right, from former outlaws to legal luminaries,” he said.
“If it is packed with partisans whose marching order is to rubber-stamp pre-conceived plans, then it will have a serious credibility problem. If it is straitjacketed toward certain conclusions, then it will lose respect.”
Recto said that the members of the commission should have “no prior biases, no script to be followed” once they get down to work.
“For the discussion among members to be vibrant, it must be given complete freedom to revisit the basic law, find its weaknesses and recommend the cures,” he said.