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SENATE
Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. (PDP-Laban)
Tuesday denounced a move of proadministration local
chief executives to relaunch a people’s initiative to
amend the Constitution with the objective of abolishing
the Senate.
Pimentel
vowed to block a reported plan of the Union of Local
Authorities of the Philippines (Ulap) to revive a
people’s initiative for Charter Change by proposing the
conversion of the two-chamber Congress into a unicameral
legislature while retaining the presidential system.
The
proponents of the proposal, said Pimentel, apparently
aim to hit two birds with one stone: the dissolution of
the Senate and allowing President Arroyo to stay in
power beyond the 2010 end of her term.
“It’s an
old Ulap off-tune song they are trying to revive, hoping
the people will sing along with them,” Pimentel said.
“The
people won’t support such proposal because it’s a ploy
to perpetuate GMA in power.”
Pimentel’s partymate in the PDP-Laban, Makati Mayor
Jejomar Binay, meanwhile, dared Malacañang to “stop
plotting to prolong Mrs. Arroyo’s term of office”
instead of telling the opposition to shut up.
Binay,
who is also United Opposition (UNO) president, said, “It
is about time the Arroyo administration accepts the fact
that the end is near. They should stop plotting to
prolong Mrs. Arroyo’s term of office,” he said.
On
Monday, Chief presidential legal counsel Sergio Apostol
urged former President Joseph Estrada to tell his
allies, particularly Binay, to stop issuing statements
critical of the Arroyo administration.
Binay
said such statement shows the Arroyo administration does
not believe in a democratic system of government. “An
opposition is vital in a democracy. You remove the
opposition and a free press and what you have is a
dictatorship. It seems that Malacañang is more
comfortable without legitimate dissent,” Binay said.
The
opposition leader said he will not be stopped from
exposing irregularities in the government, and he
believes Estrada will be the last person to tell him so.
Binay
said the Arroyo administration has been tainted by
scandal since its first year in power, and had it not
been for the opposition and a vigilant media, these
would not have been exposed.
He
listed some: the
Macapagal Boulevard,
the Joc-joc Bolante Fertilizer Scam, the Hello Garci
tapes, the Mega Pacific deal, and the ZTE Broadband
deal. He added that the rampant abductions and killings
of political activists and journalists would not have
been exposed had it not been for the opposition and the
press.
Binay
had warned against a second people’s initiative to amend
the Constitution to be mounted by local officials loyal
to Mrs. Arroyo. He said this could be a prelude to the
cancellation of the 2010 presidential elections and the
extension of Mrs. Arroyo’s stay in office.
Bataan
Gov. Enrique “Tet” Garcia, leading advocate of the
proposed constitutional amendment, said the merging of
the present Senate and House of Representatives into a
unicameral body is supported by a vast majority of the
Filipino people who have grown weary of the legislature
gridlock.
However,
Pimentel said the people are apprehensive of the phasing
out of the Senate and the shift to a unicameral
legislature because this will make it easier for the
administration-dominated body to approve measures that
will remove the stumbling block to President Arroyo’s
continued stay in power.
Indeed,
Mrs. Arroyo will be the ultimate beneficiary of such
odious scheme, he said.
Pimentel
said that while he is in favor of amending the
Constitution, it should focus on the adoption of a
federal system of government.
He said
the federalism proposal is intended for three goals:
resolve the recurrent Muslim separatist conflict;
address the chronic grievances over the disparity in the
distribution of the national wealth among the various
regions; and accelerate the country’s economic growth.
Pimentel
said that while he is batting for the shift from the
existing highly centralized unitary system to a federal
system characterized by the dispersal of government
powers among the component federal states, the
presidential system with a bicameral Congress will be
retained.
Pimentel
said although the best mode for amending the
Constitution is through Constitutional Convention, it is
an expensive, long and even unwieldy process.
Besides
this, he said it would be difficult to impose a limit to
the scope of the amendments that can be undertaken by
Con-Con once it is granted plenary powers to overhaul
the fundamental law.
Pimentel
said the most convenient—and least expensive—way to
amend the Charter is converting Congress into a
constituent assembly by imposing a limit to the scope of
amendments that it is authorized to tackle. |
