House leader: ‘No-el,’ term extension remain dead

Proposals to scrap the 2007 elections and extend the terms of office of senators, congressmen, governors, mayors and other local officials are now in the legislative graveyard and have not been resurrected, House leaders said yesterday.

Majority Leader Prospero Nograles said the no-el (no elections) plans for 2007 and term extension scenarios "remain dead and exist only in the minds" of those who see malicious motives behind Cha-cha, or Charter change.

He said the proposals had been killed by the committee on constitutional amendments, and there has been no decision to revive them.

Representatives Exequiel Javier of Antique and Douglas Cagas of Davao del Sur shared Nograles’ insistence that the no-el and term extension proposals were dead.

"We already decided to junk no-el and nothing has changed in our decision. If the House really wants a sneaky no-el, then Speaker (Jose) de Venecia and other House leaders would not put it in the draft provision in question," the two, who are members of the constitutional amendments committee, said. On Thursday, five House members belonging to the Liberal Party (LP) revealed that the majority bloc had included no-el and term extension language in Section 1 of its revised version of the Transitory Provisions of the proposed new Constitution.

At Malacañang, officials admitted yesterday that the no-el proposal would still be presented to the people in the form of an information drive of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and an advocacy group created by President Arroyo to promote Charter change.

"Our preference is to facilitate the discussions and definitely the DILG will be the key agency... But it’s never envisioned that DILG would limit the freedom of choice of the people as far as Charter change is concerned," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.

Bunye said it will be the people who ultimately decide on which amendments to the Constitution will be made and how they will be carried out.

"The principal instrument, if you follow the mode of constituent assembly, will be Congress so we’d rather that they do their job," he said.

Section 1 of its revised version of the Transitory Provisions of the proposed new Constitution.

"The Unicameral Parliamentary System and the Parliament provided herein shall begin immediately after ratification of these amendments, with the present Congress converted into the Interim Parliament and all members thereof shall become automatic members of the Interim Parliament until June 30, 2007, except for the senators elected in May 2004 who has serve as members of Parliament until June 30, 2010. The Interim Parliament shall set the first elections under the new system and synchronize therewith the elections for all local officials, except those of the barangay."

The second sentence of the original Section 1 as proposed by the committee on constitutional amendments chaired by Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Constantino Jaraula set the "first elections of the members of Parliament and of all local officials nationwide… on the second Monday of May, 2007."

The committee released its revised version of the Transitory Provisions last Tuesday minutes after De Venecia, Nograles, Jaraula and other House leaders announced that they would join the campaign to gather 195 signatures to bypass the Senate on Cha-cha.

LP lawmakers led by Nereus Acosta said by not setting the date for the next elections and giving the Interim Parliament the discretion to schedule it later, "sneaky no-el has been restored."

"What if they set the elections sometime in 2010 or beyond?" they asked.

They claimed that President Arroyo’s allies in the House are offering no-el and term extension as "incentives" for those who support their resolution to bypass the Senate on Cha-cha.

For his part, Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr., a vice chairman of the Jaraula committee, said he smelled "trickery" in the ambiguity of the second sentence of Section 1.

"But I don’t believe that House leaders would stoop that low to trick our people," he said.

It was Locsin and Rep. Roilo Golez of Parañaque who presented the motions last Jan. 31 for the rejection of no-el and term extension, including a proposed extension of the retirement age of justices and judges from 70 to 75. The constitutional amendments committee voted overwhelmingly to approve the motions. Nograles conceded that the disputed sentence could be interpreted in the way Acosta and his LP colleagues understood it.

"Yes, it may cause such interpretation, especially if you put malice in it. That’s why in return for their support (for Cha-cha), I am asking them to submit their amended version to clear the air. It’s important that they propose and we accept," he said.

He did not respond to a query on why the Jaraula committee revised the second sentence of Section 1. Jaraula could not be reached for an explanation as he is in the United States. The STAR texted him but he did not respond. He will be back on Feb. 26.

Cagas said the sentence in Section 1 questioned by LP lawmakers "only gives the Interim Parliament the leeway to decide on the date of the election."

"Thus, it was probably left open in the draft, but this does not necessarily mean to cancel the election process next year," he said.

He said the House leadership had no intention of deceiving the public about Cha-cha.

"It is unthinkable for the Speaker and other House leaders to have restored no-el just like that without anyone from our committee (on constitutional amendments) noticing it," he added.

In a related development, Golez, who had joined the minority last year after calling for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation and later voting for her impeachment, said the opposition led by Minority Leader Francis Escudero would definitely frustrate the majority’s Cha-cha initiative.

"I can say definitely that we have breached the fortress of Lakas and its allies," he said.

He said many administration allies do not support the proposition that the House can bypass the Senate on Cha-cha, "believing that that is unconstitutional."

"What is apparent is that the Arroyo administration is willing to commit constitutional vandalism, to go to the brink, to pursue its self-serving political agenda," he added.

Meanwhile, Philippine Councilors League national president Carlo Fortuna decried attempts by opposition congressmen to raise the ghost of a "no-el" scenario in a desperate bid to sabotage snowballing moves to amend the 1987 Constitution.

Fortuna, the topnotch councilor of Mandaue City and leader of the 18,000-strong councilors organization nationwide, said resurrecting the no-el issue was very clearly an attempt to sway the public away from supporting the constitutional reforms needed to perk up the economy through liberalization. — With Aurea Calica