Legislators in make-or-break meeting on Charter change
By Jodeal Cadacio
Reporter

THE fate of the administration’s Charter-change initiative hangs in the balance as congressmen and senators hold a make or break meeting tonight to try to thresh out their differences and bridge their widening gap over how to go about the matter of introducing constitutional amendments.
       Pro-Charter-change congressmen closed ranks Tuesday and moved to firm up their position in the issue in preparation for the meeting scheduled at 8 p.m. at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City.
       At Tuesday’s meeting of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, the legislators voted to create a 19-man panel headed by Lakas Rep. Constantino Jaraula of Cagayan de Oro, committee chairman, that would sit down with the senators.
       The panel gave Jaraula the authority to select panel members, who will represent all political groups in the House. The minority bloc will have four members in the said panel.
       The committee’s decision to create a select group that would dialogue with the senators came amid vehement objections, ironically, from the pro-administration bloc.
       One of those who objected to the move was Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Douglas Cagas of Davao del Sur, who although a staunch advocate of Charter change, was highly skeptical about the outcome of the dialogue, given the senators’ hard- line stance.
       Cagas noted that the senators have taken an uncompromising stance against the House initiative to amend the Charter, and that he saw no signs that the senators would give an inch.
       Cagas was pessimistic that a breakthrough would be achieved at Tuesday night’s meeting, given the senators’ stubborn refusal to support the House initiative to introduce Charter revisions through the legislature convening into a constituent assembly.
       But Jaraula sought to allay Cagas’s fears, maintaining that a breakthrough is still possible at this time.
       “We are keeping an open mind, and we are going to meet with the senators on the belief that each party is proceeding in good faith,” Jaraula said.
       “We are always open to suggestions. On this basis, we sit down with the senators and dialogue with them with an open mind. We will continue to reach out and dialogue with them, and I hope that we can agree on a common stand.”
       Jaraula, however, stressed that there are certain issues that the House may not be open to any compromise.
       “For instance, we are committed to the proposed shift to a unicameral parliamentary system. We are not saying that this is a nonnegotiable issue. What we are saying is that we are committed to this proposal,” Jaraula said.
       He said the House would maintain a certain degree of “flexibility” and try to meet the senators halfway, should all efforts to get them into backing the House position fail.
       The contentious issue is the mode of amending the Charter. While the House had adopted a resolution calling for the convening of Congress into a constituent assembly, the Senate has taken a hard-line stance against it. There is also the disagreement over how the House and the Senate vote on the proposed amendments.
       Several congressmen contended that since the Charter is silent on this issue, the House and the Senate can meet in joint session and vote as one on the proposed amendments. Senators, however, have taken an adverse position, arguing that with Congress’s bicameral nature, the voting should be done separately.
       Jaraula said among the members of the House panel are Lakas Reps. Mauricio Domogan of Baguio City, Exequiel Javier of Antique, Salacnib Baterina of Ilocos Sur, Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City, Roque Ablan Jr. of Ilocos Norte and Eduardo Zialcita of Parañaque City; Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino Reps. Luis Villafuerte of Camarines Sur and Uliran Joaquin of Laguna and Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Benasing Macarambon Jr. of Lanao del Sur.
       Lawyer and Charter-change Advocacy Commission (AdCom) member Romela Bengzon meanwhile expressed hopes for the speedy resolution of the impasse between the House and the Senate over the issue of Charter change.
       Bengzon called on the chairmen and members of the constitutional amendments committees of each chamber to come together and agree on the mode of changing certain provisions of the Constitution.
       Bengzon said that if the amendments to the Constitution are made to undergo the usual legislative process and treated like ordinary bills that must be acted on by each chamber, this will take a lot of time.
       “It may take us an eternity to effect the needed changes. This will prevent us from speedily instituting some very fundamental reforms in economic policy, like liberalizing certain restrictions in the economic arena to allow the entry of more foreign investments in areas that are closed to them at present.”
       She pointed out that neither the government nor the private sector has sufficient capital to fund all activities that must be done to rev up the economy, particularly in the exploration, development and utilization of natural resources. “In effect, the failure to amend the Constitution in the fastest way possible would be prolonging the agony of our people who badly need the jobs that these investments will generate,” Bengzon stressed.