‘Shift to parliamentary system won’t solve RP problems’

The proposed shift to the parliamentary system would not be the solution to the country’s political and economic problems, opposition congressmen said yesterday.

Minority Leader Francis Escudero said a new form of government with President Arroyo still in power would mean that the nation would still have to grapple with the present political crisis it is facing.

"Mrs. Arroyo, who has failed our people’s expectations of good governance and good government, is perceived as the source of all our troubles. She can either shorten her term once a new system of government is in place, or resign," he said.

He said if Mrs. Arroyo stays in power as head of state and head of government under a parliamentary system as her House allies are proposing, "the nation will be listless and going around like a headless chicken until 2010."

Escudero was commenting on the reported agreement among Mrs. Arroyo, former President Fidel Ramos and Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. on the holding of parliamentary elections in 2007, which won’t affect the President’s term of office, which expires on June 30, 2010.

For his part, Deputy Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said even if Mrs. Arroyo promises to shorten her stay in office, the people won’t believe her.

He said the President had in the past made so many promises that she later broke, including her nationally televised announcement more than two years ago that she was not running in the May 2004 presidential election.

He said Mrs. Arroyo’s "half-hearted I’m sorry confession" in June, in which she apologized for talking to an unnamed election official, is one proof of her "insincerity."

Cayetano stressed that as long as the President faces the "moral issues of lying, cheating and stealing, the political crisis hounding her will not go away."

Another opposition congressman, Rep. Joel Villanueva of the party-list group Citizens Battle Against Corruption, said Mrs. Arroyo is fond of "urong-sulong" announcements.

He said in at least one television interview, the President has indicated that she was willing to shorten her term to end the political crisis but that she later reversed herself in another interview.

He noted that Mrs. Arroyo has not publicly commented on the Ramos proposal for her to cut short her term and has left the job of commenting on the former leader’s insistent appeal to her underlings.

This means that she would hold on to power as long as she can, he added.

The reported agreement among the President, Ramos and De Venecia could expedite the Cha-cha (Charter change) initiative.

The House is set to begin floor debates on Cha-cha measures when Congress resumes its session next week.