2 constitutionalists say cha-cha not imminent

Two of the country's noted constitutionalists sees no time for the new system of government to be implemented within the year because of the legal questions on how it should be done and the proximity of the next elections.

Fr. Joaquin Bernas, one of those who framed the 1987 Constitution and dean emeritus of the Ateneo De Manila University Law School, said that there is no more time for the system of government to change this year.

Bernas' statement came amidst the optimism of the prime movers of charter change like House Speaker Jose De Venecia, who recently said during his visit to Cebu over the weekend that there is going to be an interim parliament already by October this year.

Bernas, in an interview over dyLA, said that it is not surprising for De Venecia to display such optimism because he has always been like that. However, he said the current situation wherein the House and the Senate disagrees on the mode to adopt makes it more difficult to effect the change.

He added that the people's initiative that the group Sigaw ng Bayan is initiating cannot be considered a legal mode to effect the change because of the absence of the enabling law. The only valid options to effect the charter change for the moment are the Constituent Assembly, wherein the members of the House and the Senate convene to form the assembly, and the constitutional convention, wherein delegates are elected.

But, the Senate has expressed its disinterest in joining the rush. The Constitution provides that Congress, by a vote of three-fourths of all its members, sits as a Constituent Assembly. The group of De Venecia contended that they House and the Senate are to vote as one to obtain the needed number to convene, however, the Senate contended otherwise.

Bernas supported the stand of the Senate on the matter saying that the two chambers should vote separately.

Bernas added that the proponents of charter change cannot advance the initiative because there is a permanent injunction that the Supreme Court has issued in 1997 in the case of Santiago versus Comelec. Initiative, Bernas said, can only be used to introduce amendments and not revisions.

Former Governor Pablo Garcia is also using the same argument. The shifting of the system of government from presidential-bicameral to parliamentary-unicameral is not a simple amendment of the Constitution but rather a revision because two articles of the 1987 Constitution will be abolished, Article VI-the legislative department and Article VII-the executive department.

Garcia said it is not also good to rush the implementation of the new system because it cannot be fully implemented until the term of President Gloria Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro expires on 2010.

Bernas and Garcia agreed that the right time to start working for the shifting of the new system of government is after the 2007 elections.

"Let's prepare for the 2007 elections because this would serve as a referendum on the performance of the present government," Bernas said. - Fred P. Languido