‘Not enough time for Cha-cha before polls’

MANILA, Philippines — There is no “material time” for Congress to finish Charter change (Cha-cha) before the May 2019 elections, according to House minority leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez.            

He told “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News channel Thursday that the only way for lawmakers to focus on writing a new Constitution is to postpone next year’s polls.

“They can do that. Anyone can file a bill to that effect,” he said, although he believed the scheduled balloting in May would push through.

Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has expressed opposition to a no-el (no elections) scenario that her predecessor, ousted speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, advocated. She is also willing to work with senators on Cha-cha.

Some of Arroyo’s allies are against Alvarez’s advocacy.

“We are opposed to it. Many party-list groups and political parties want the elections to be held as scheduled. The people are already looking forward to it,” Rep. Michael Romero of 1-Pacman, who heads a large bloc of party-list representatives, said.

Romero, an assistant majority leader, told “The Chiefs” on Wednesday that the House majority and committee on rules have already recognized Suarez as minority leader despite his vote for Arroyo last July 23 when Alvarez was ousted.

Suarez said he has tried to reach out to other groups claiming to be the new minority.

“I have talked to Makabayan (which has seven representatives) and the group of Edcel Lagman (of Albay, which also has seven), but they just laughed at me. I don’t think they want to join us,” he added.

He said he has not approached the group of Marikina Rep. Romero Quimbo of the Liberal Party, Alvarez and former majority leader Rodolfo Fariñas. Quimbo claims he is the minority leader, while the Alvarez-Fariñas bloc has elected Eugene Michael de Vera as its own minority leader.            

Arroyo has said if the minority leadership issue continues to be a problem, she would leave it to her allies to resolve.

In his “The Chiefs” interview, Suarez insisted he is still the minority leader “because my position was not declared vacant.”

He admitted his closeness with Arroyo but claimed that this would not prevent him and his group from fiscalizing the Speaker. He also said the country needs the death penalty for drug-related offenses.            

“Our laws are not strict enough to combat drug peddling and abuse,” he said.

He promised to push for the enactment of the death penalty bill, which is languishing in the Senate.

Meanwhile, Sen. Sonny Angara said some of them at the Senate are keeping an open mind on Cha-cha even when this seems to be dead to some lawmakers.

While admitting that many of his colleagues are against amending the Constitution, he noted that there are also those, such as Senator Aquilino Pimentel III and Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, who want to amend it to realize their dream of shifting the form of government from unitary to federal.

There are also those who, just like him, are still undecided and would want to listen to all of the arguments for and against Charter change.

“There are senators in the middle like us who want to see the proposals,” said Angara over dwIZ yesterday.

He noted how the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and revision of codes headed by Sen. Francis Pangilinan is still conducting hearings on the proposed amendments to the Constitution, which he said is a good sign. 

“So, as long as hearings are being conducted, I don’t think it’s dead. We’re hearing the arguments and there are many of us who still want to hear what are the arguments for changing the Charter,” he said.

Angara said he has been studying the various proposals on Charter change, including the draft federal constitution submitted by the consultative committee created by President Duterte.

He said there were several innovations contained in the draft constitution that are worth considering, such as the creation of regional governments similar to what is found in countries such as the United States.

While the proposals look good on paper, Angara said he wants to hear more of the details because these would have long-term effects that may be to the detriment of some sectors.

Among the issues he wants clarified is the cost to establish these regional governments and what this would mean to the local government units lumped within these regions.

He said some concerns were already raised about how some local government units could be abolished by the regional government.

“It’s something that we have to study. Which of these would actually be beneficial to us,” Angara said.

As far as Angara is concerned, the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution should be reviewed and amended if the country wants to remain competitive in attracting investors.

He aired his belief that limiting the amendments to the economic provisions could garner greater support from his colleagues.

Angara recalled that the efforts to amend the economic provisions of the Constitution have been going on for some time already, including in the previous administration where the Liberal Party legislators were leading the push.  – With Marvin Sy