A Statement on the Charter Change-Constituent Assembly

Frustrate GMA’s maneuvers to extend her rule!

The House of Representatives did it again. This bastion of reaction in Philippine politics again displayed their capability for brazen, shameless railroading of decisions once commanded by those who control the public coffers.

Last Monday, June 1, the Lakas-Kampi majority coalition in the House decided to give precedence to floor debate on House Resolution 1109, a resolution calling on Congress, acting as one or jointly, to constitute itself into a constituent assembly (con-ass) for the purpose of proposing amendments to the 1987 Philippine Constitution. With such decision, they immediately set aside discussions on two other urgent issues before the House – the bill on the right of reply, which mandates media outlets and practitioners to ensure the reply of public officials on issues concerning them or face prosecution, a clear suppression of the press freedom, and the long-demanded agrarian reform, which the Congress has by-passed in the past sessions.

The idea of Congress acting as one (with each legislator having equal voting weight) has long been toyed in the House in the face of the continuous refusal of the Senate to approve the Con-Ass path to charter change. It is the desperate maneuver by a House dominated by GMA-paid hacks to skirt the bicameral character of the present legislature. Worse, the proponents of the Resolution, and their nit-wit, ‘pork barrel’-powered allies in the House, obviously hope to pass off the House decision on the Resolution, under their rules to be decided in only by a simple majority (136 votes), to be a Congress decision. After all, they cannot hope for a similar resolution to be processed by the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments, much more be deliberated in the Senate floor.

House Resolution 1109, then authored and sponsored by Congressman and Kampi president Luis Villafuerte (he now claims it was Nograles’ idea and he just wrote it), was submitted for deliberation to the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments as early as the resumption of the Congressional sessions last April 13. Presidential son Mikey Arroyo actively sought Lakas-Kampi representatives’ signatures for the Resolution. For weeks, the House Committee could not agree on what to do with the Resolution. At one point, Villafuerte himself withdrew, and the Committee decided to drop the resolution. But a signal from Malacanang gave the ruling majority in the committee renewed enthusiasm, and they resurrected and endorsed it for floor deliberation. The hasty Lakas-Kampi merger last Thursday May 28, presided over by GMA and pursued despite the absence of some Lakas and Kampi stalwarts, gave the final marching orders to Lakas-Kampi House representatives to fast-track the passage of the resolution before Congress goes on recess. Rumors circulated that millions of pesos changed hands to ensure passage, even as the crucial CDF, better known as ‘pork barrel’, for the last fiscal year for this Congress, will also be at stake for those who dare oppose it.

True to form, those in the ruling Lakas-Kampi majority acted in indecent haste. They decided by nearly noon Monday, June 1, to give the resolution utmost priority, and when confronted with the technical flaw of absence of committee approval - a condition that bars floor deliberation on it - the House Committee hastily met, and in a few hours approved (!) what they could not decide upon in the past month. They sent back the approved HR 1109 to the House, where the rest of the Lakas-Kampi members (211) railroaded its passage last night (June 2). The monster in Malacanang got the approval she sought; at what price, anybody can now guess.

Filipinos can dismiss all these recent maneuverings with exasperation over what the Philippine legislature, specifically the House of Representatives, has reduced itself to – an idiotic, uncritical, undemocratic, shameless mob of people who kowtow to the dictates of those who control the people’s funds, i.e. Malacanang, from whom they get the funds to fuel their own political ambitions. Indeed, a despicable mob! After-all, Malacanang apologists Gabriel Claudio and Reynaldo Puno and even administration allies in the Senate, among them Juan Ponce Enrile, have been quick to dispel people’s suspicion over such moves with ‘assurances’ that nothing will come out of it; at least nothing to offset the scheduled May 10 general elections.

Yet, the question should be asked: if nothing is expected to come out of it, then why did GMA, her sons and her allies, go out of their way to wring out that decision?
To venture an answer, one must view the administration coalition’s, specifically GMA’s, obsession with cha-cha, in its proper perspective.

First, the main force behind the maneuver is definitely GMA; this indubitable fact every Filipino knows. Second, GMA faces a string of unresolved cases – electoral cheating (the Hello Garci tapes, the “I am sorry” performance, and murders of election officials); the fertilizer scam, the Diosdado Macapagal highway scam, the ZTE-NBN scam (and subsequent kidnapping of Lozada, and recent assassination attempt on a vital witness), the extra-judicial killings, and a lot of several others – unresolved because presentation of evidences could not even proceed under the tyranny of the majority in the House. Third, the end of GMA’s illegal (at it resulted from a fraudulent election) term in May 2010 will make her no longer immune to suits stemming from all the unresolved cases. Her only recourse to protect herself is to be able to maintain herself in power, while promoting imperialist’ interests as well.

One way is via a constitutional amendment that will make possible her getting past the current constitutional prohibition or ban on her further holding the most powerful position in the land. It can be via a change in the form of government, where she can be the Prime Minister therefore head of government, or President, thus, head of State.

Can such a move be done before an election under the 1987 Constitution? Yes, if the Comelec fails to prepare for the May elections and the election is postponed, an idea Comelec Chairman Jose Melo himself presented as their nightmare; if the Supreme Court, now dominated by GMA appointees, upholds the intent of House Resolution 1109; if a “Joint Congress or Congress acting as one” railroads amendments, and “Congress” comes up with supplementary appropriation for a railroaded plebiscite. But all these possible only if GMA appointees, now dominant in the Comelec and the Supreme Court, act according to her desire (or command?), be it in flagrant violation of the people’s expressed sentiment and will (which has consistently been anti-GMA) and of the spirit of the 1987 Constitution.

Can such a new form of government be put in place after the May general elections? Obviously, the GMA camp is working out that alternative. In fact, her National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, in a slip of his tongue, revealed that alternative scheme when he said “the next president will only be a transition president”, seemingly so sure that a new government, under a new form, most likely headed again by GMA, will be put in place even after the May elections. A Lakas-Kampi dominated legislature after election to constitute itself as Constituent Assembly immediately after election and put in-place a new form of government? It seems to be what Norberto Gonzales had in mind. Could that be the reason for GMA’s obvious wooing of the second district of Pampanga – for her to be its first MP under the parliamentary form of government?

Or could the recent maneuvers be calculated moves to create a calculated disorder – a convenient excuse for a declaration of a state of emergency? It cannot be ruled out. After all, if one monitors GMA’s unusual moves on AFP promotions, one cannot miss the fact that she is putting her most loyal generals in positions of power, by-passing other generals who by the current political system’s own measure should not have been by-passed. A coup from the center is still possible.

Simultaneously, GMA is keeping US monopoly-capitalism, the most dominant force in Philippine politics, at bay by promoting its interests as well, as is contained in the other amendments she is promoting, among them the liberalization in foreign ownership over land, mineral resources and the media, contained in HB 767.

GMA’s maneuver is most probably premised on the assumption that the masses of ordinary Filipinos would not actively intervene in politics; that they are so exasperated over elite squabble for power, so preoccupied with eking out a living amidst the current crisis, so reduced to inaction by their resignation to their own powerlessness. She probably thinks she can get away with her moves, for as long as she controls institutions of power and her elite rivals can only shout in disgust. So she can cheat, rob, misuse and disabuse the public coffers, suppress civil liberties and violate rights and processes with impunity, because others are helpless.

GMA and her likes may yet be in for a surprise. When people are made to bear the burden of an economic crisis exacerbated by government programs and policies while those in power squander urgently-needed funds in incessant political maneuvers; when their just claims to economic and political rights fall on deaf ears and their struggles are met with water hoses, tear gas and batons, when the hunger pangs gnaw amidst the flaunting of illegally acquired wealth, when disrespect becomes so blatant and insulting, the people may yet decide to take the matters in their own hands, awaken to their strength and assert what is rightfully theirs – their sovereignty. May that awakening be now, before more children are wasted, more women are prostituted, more patriots are killed!

Frustrate GMA’s maneuvers to extend her rule!
Assert the people’s democratic rights in the midst of crisis!
Power to the people!

3 June 2009