Poll: Six of 10 Pinoys favor shift to parliamentary form

Six out of 10 Filipinos are in favor of amending the Constitution through the more direct people’s initiative mode.

A recent survey released by the Center for Issues and Advocacy (CIA) also showed most of the respondents wanted a parliamentary type of government patterned after the French unicameral system that would still allow voters to directly elect their national leader.

In the CIA survey conducted on May 15 to 29, about 77 percent of the 2,400 respondents from all social classes wanted to liberalize the so-called "protectionist" economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.

People’s initiative advocate Raul Lambino said the survey results clearly showed the successful joint advocacy efforts of the Sigaw ng Bayan movement, the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) and the Charter Change Advocacy Commission (AdCom).

Lambino said their efforts paid off when the survey showed the people are realizing the merits of a unicameral government through a more direct people’s initiative mode in amending the Constitution.

"The survey clearly indicates that the people’s initiative is now unstoppable and irreversible," stressed Lambino, spokesman for Sigaw ng Bayan coalition.

Lambino announced the survey results before the conference of the Association of Law Students of the Philippines (ALSP) held at the Bataan Technopark in Morong town.

Lambino said the survey results virtually validate the 8.9 million signatures of support gathered by Sigaw volunteers.

He said the survey "should now prompt us (in Sigaw) to refocus our efforts on the looming plebiscite for the proposed parliamentary shift."

AdCom member Romela Bengzon said the survey also reflects the growing clamor of the people for sweeping constitutional reforms.

Survey director Ed Malay said the poll was conducted only to registered voters. He said the survey showed that 64 percent or 1,536 of those polled now favor amendments to the Constitution through a people’s initiative because of their increasing frustration over the executive-legislative gridlocks that have stalled the passage of reforms necessary to ensure stability and jumpstart economic growth.

Malay stressed the majority of those surveyed favored the people’s initiative mode as against the constituent assembly (con-ass) and constitutional convention (con-con) because this process presents an opportunity for the people to decide on the form of government they wanted.

"A majority of those polled have lamented the disunity and differences that separate the two legislative bodies, which has stifled efforts to put the Philippines at par with the rest of its ASEAN neighbors whose economies are moving at a fast clip," Malay said.

He said that of the 64 percent who favor constitutional amendments, 87 percent of them are in favor of adopting the French-type of parliament where the President is directly elected by the people and shares powers with the Prime Minister.

He also pointed out that 77 percent of those polled or 1,848 are in favor of expanding the scope by which foreign direct investments will be allowed in the country.

This favorable response was particularly high in Mindanao where almost 83 percent of the 540 respondents in the region said they want Charter change.

An even higher percentage of them have also expressed their preference for a unicameral parliamentary type of government, Malay said.