House Assistant Minority Floor Leader Gilbert Remulla today said the opposition might no longer pose a threat in the new initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution and the issues of serious debate would be limited to particular provisions that need to be revised.
“ There’s no doubt in my mind that an overwhelming majority of lawmakers from both the House and the Senate, including opposition members like me are now in favor of a new initiative to amend the Constitution. The issue will no longer be on whether or not we should amend the Constitution,” Remulla said.
Remulla said that previous efforts to amend the 1987 charter failed to take off primarily because of the partisan divide among lawmakers in relation to the charter change initiative.
Another reason, he said, were the inherent doubts on the motivation of the past administrations that pushed the cha-cha and the unresolved issue on the mode of amending the Constitution.
“During the cha-cha initiative under the Ramos administration, the fear was that the amendment was designed to extend the term of President Ramos. Under the Estrada administration, the core issue was on the proposal to allow foreigners to own real estate properties. On both instances, opposition solons on both administrations played their role as oppositionists. There was virtually no in-depth and intelligent discussion of issues, particularly on how to resolve the contentious ones,” Remulla said.
Another crucial factor that diminished the previous efforts to amend the Constitution , Remulla said, is the hard-line stance of traditional anti-cha-cha groups, particularly the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
But unlike the previous efforts, lawmakers, including a huge number of those in the opposition are in agreement that the 1987 Constitution could no longer effectively respond to the changing times, Remulla said.
Previous accusations that the cha-cha was aimed at perpetuating the national leadership does not apply under the present administration because President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is still eligible to seek the presidency in the 2004 elections, he added.
Remulla also pointed out that there are also many inherent loopholes in the 1987 Constitution that needs to be reviewed and revised.
“ There are many provisions in the 1987 Constitution that are inherently defective. A basic example is the uneven spread of representation of our people in the Senate. A huge majority of our senators are from Luzon because it has the highest concentration of voters. The regionalization in the election of our Senators could be one of the most important amendments in the Constitution,” Remulla pointed out.
Remulla also agrees that there could be also a need to change the form of government from presidential to parliamentary form in order to ensure faster and more effective coordination between the executive and the legislative departments.
april 3,200