Time to push for constitutional reform
When Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte was in Cebu City to attend the Sinulog Festival at the Cebu City Sports Center last Sunday, he mentioned that in his last two years he will try to help Cebu City improve its heavily-congested roads. Mind you, during my term as Cebu City Traffic Operations Management chief, I wanted the Cebu City Council to turn over the Talamban Road all the way to Pit-os into a national road so that the Department of Public Works and Highways can widen and cement this road into the interior of Cebu City. Unfortunately, this was never done.
But as I wrote in my column the other day, I suggested to the president that he should also work in his last two years to change the political infrastructure of the Philippines. If you’ve been to many famous European cities, their politicians are no longer given cars paid for by the taxpayer. Often, I even saw a prime minister visit his king using a bicycle and without any security surrounding this top official. Here in the Philippines, our politicians are like royalty, given so much money to spend in their name, although the money comes from the taxpayers. I dare say that it is high time for Pres. Duterte to use his power to shift our political system into a better one and if he can do this he will earn the reputation as the greatest president the Philippines ever had!
Call me lucky that in my Facebook page, I read news that the members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Constitutional Reform (Task Force CORE) called a media briefing last Tuesday. This government body is pushing for amendments to the Constitution and is calling on the Senate to launch its own public hearings in hopes that reforms can be passed before the end of President Duterte's term. During that media briefing, this body said that they have gathered at least 22,469 signatures of Filipinos pledging support for amending the Charter, including 256 local chief executives across the country.
I do not know whether Task Force CORE has a chapter here in Cebu because I would certainly like to join this group. Interior undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said "We urge the Senate come 2020 to begin their own series of public hearings and public consultations. As soon as we are called by the Senate, we will submit to them the pledges of support, we will submit to them the signatures we have gathered, and we will submit to them the packages of reforms which we earlier submitted to the House." He also added that the House of Representatives is expected to pass the proposed amendments at the committee level this week, followed by an approval at the plenary.
I heard that the proposed amendments include political and electoral reforms such as strengthening the political party system through provisions setting up campaign funds and prohibiting political turncoatism. Under the proposal, the Commission on Elections will manage a democracy fund for the parties, while Congress can also approve of a political party development fund coming from government money. Meanwhile, members of a political party will not be allowed to jump ship one year before and one year after the elections. I already wrote in many columns these provisions and apparently we have been heard by this group.
Mind you, the shift to federalism was among the promises Pres. Duterte made during his 2016 presidential campaign. He believes it will pave the way for a more equitable distribution of wealth and political power throughout the regions and bring lasting peace in Mindanao. There are also proposed amendments seeking to give additional funding to local government units and create a Regional Development Authority to make sure the country's regions have the capacity to govern their own affairs. The economic cluster is also pushing for eliminating citizenship restrictions on foreign investments.
Mind you, it is still January 2020 and, yes, we still have two years to go for Pres. Duterte and if he uses his very high popularity to support this group, then we could be heading towards a totally brand-new political system, where old habits like turncoatism becomes illegal and where we can create a task force that would look into revision in the new Constitution within ten years, unlike today when the Aquino political clan does not want to change our Constitution.
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