Malacañang has reached a “consensus” with Senate and House leaders to convene Congress as a constituent assembly (Con-ass) to tinker with the 1987 Constitution, and draft key amendments likely to lead to a shift to a federal form of government and relax economic provisions restricting entry of foreign investors.
“I think, the consensus is there is a need, after 30 years, to review the Constitution,” Sen. Franklin M. Drilon told reporters, after presiding over a Senate hearing on pending Charter-change proposals. “Some quarters are saying we should review its provisions; others are saying we should review the form of government; and others are on the economic provision.”
Asked about the preferred mode for tinkering with the so-called Cory Constitution, which was ratified after former President Corazon C. Aquino took power in 1986, Drilon said the emerging consensus favors a Con-ass where senators and congressmen will do the task, instead of electing delegates to a Constitutional Convention (Con-con). “Yes,” Drilon said. “If it is a Con-ass as a mode, the Congress should vote separately. That’s the consensus.”
He recalled that President Duterte, during the last National Security Council meeting in Malacañang, “also agreed with the proposition that Congress should vote separately.”
At the Senate hearing of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea, when asked about the Palace position on the Charter-change (Cha-cha) issue, said the Duterte adminstration fully supports the proposal.
“[On] the first query: is there a need to revise/amend the Constitution? We answer that the Office of the President finds the need for a revision of the Constitution in the light of his [Duterte] public statements on the desirability of adopting a federal form of government, among others,” Medialdea told senators.
As to what parts of the Constitution should be amended or revised, the Palace official said: “We would like to invite the attention of the committee that the President issued the other day an executive order creating the committee for consultative study of the Constitution.”
Basically, he added, “it is a consultative committee to review the 1987 Constitution to be composed of 25 selected individuals whose names will be later on submitted.”
Medialdea also affirmed the Palace preferred position on the question of crafting the amendments either through elected Con-con or by Congress itself convening as Con-ass. “The President has posited during that NSC meeting that it be done through a Constitutional Commission.”
The Palace official clarified the President’s preferred mode of doing it “should be a Con-ass citing efficiency, cost and credibility of results and to the matter of voting.
“We confirm that during that NSC meeting, he [Duterte] believes that both Houses should vote separately, but we would require further legal study to determine the intent of the framers of the Constitution,” he added. “Those are the positions of the Office of the President on the matter.”
He informed Drilon that the President has signed an executive order, to be released Thursday, creating a 25-member panel to study the Cha-cha issues, adding that the panel was given a six-month time frame to submit its findings.
“As to the mode the Office of the President [OP] has expressed its preference for Con-ass,” Medialdea told senators, prompting Drilon to ask, “What, then, was left to be studied by that study group?”
The Palace official replied the study group was tasked to focus on “the particular provisions which are to be amended [and] among those involves the change to federal form of the government.”
He told Drilon that Duterte’s EO also gave “specific instruction that names should be already given to the OP as to who would compose this particular committee…so there will be nominations from different sectors of society.”
Senate probe
Meanwhile, Senate probers, after confirming thousands of cases of extrajudicial killings (EJK) under the Duterte administration, admitted they failed to find proof the so-called EJK cases involving drug suspects were committed as part of a State-sponsored policy.
A 100-page report submitted by Sen. Richard J. Gordon, after presiding over a joint inquiry of the Committees on Justice and Human Rights and on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, said the Senate investigation “showed there is no evidence that there is a State-sponsored policy to commit killings in the eradication of illegal drugs.”
After conducting six public hearings, Gordon suggested it is time for the government to move in and conduct a “vigorous investigation” and immediately render a report, saying the “absence of clear and quick action to resolve such killings has resulted in an apathetic, passive and indifferent citizenry who blame the government for such inaction.”
At the same time, he noted, the police, who are in charge of crime prevention and law enforcement, “seem to be in total disregard of the need to continuously improve the solution rate for killings.”
“Many killings with impunity through the years up to the present have not been resolved by the police, leaving our people feeling unprotected, insecure, fearful and cynical about the ability of the police to protect and serve them. There is an urgent need to undertake reforms in law enforcement and strengthen the criminal justice system to fortify the rule of law,” Gordon’s report added.
The report also cleared Duterte, stating that evidence presented to the Committee “failed to prove the existence of the Davao Death Squad, much less provide a direct link to Duterte, then Davao City mayor.”
But while the Senate probers failed to prove that Duterte authorized recent and rampant killings, Gordon said they found it necessary to advise the President that, “while he has the country’s best interest at heart when he waged the war against illegal drugs and criminality, Duterte should seek to epitomize a man of the law, and be an exemplary role model.”
“The President needs to be mindful of his role as head of State and be careful with his words, avoid inappropriate statements, lest they be construed as policies of the State. There may also be accusations of tolerance hurled against him because of the overwhelming support he gives to the police, manifested by his colorful language against drug pushers, may be perceived as a condonation of the violations of human rights and due process that the police are committing, in the guise of putting an end to the drug menace,” said Gordon, also a former city mayor.
Gordon warned that the immutable and universal principles that respect human rights must be instituted in law enforcement. “Thus, the police and other law- enforcement officers, through Project Tokhang, or any similar program, must be admonished and refrained from urging “surrenderees” to sign “voluntary surrender certificates” in violation of their Constitutional rights, particularly the rights of the accused.”
The Gordon report was, likewise, emphatic that in order to effectively put an end to the killings with impunity, “people must be part of the process of change; the people themselves should be empowered to help transform their respective areas into drug-free neighborhoods where their families may safely reside.” It also pressed the need for key measures, such as amendments to existing laws, creation of new laws, a more effective reporting system to ensure fast action on investigations so that crime investigation and deterrence will be more effective.