House scraps public hearings on Cha-cha

MANILA, Philippines – The House committee on constitutional amendments reversed yesterday its previous decision to consult the people on Charter change (Cha-cha) proposals through nationwide public hearings.

The committee scrapped the hearings because the House lacks funds for the planned consultations.

But opposition Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who proposed the consultations during a meeting of the committee two weeks ago, said the panel’s turnaround “is a Malacañang initiative to railroad Cha-cha.”

He said such initiative would suffer the fate of the failed Cha-cha effort in 2006 since people generally do not want the Constitution to be rewritten at this time.

He said the scrapping of the hearings means that the committee would now vote on Cha-cha proposals without asking the people whether they favor amending the Constitution and what amendments would they support.

“This is a clear case of railroading,” he added.

Two weeks ago, the committee voted to hold nationwide hearings before deciding on pending Cha-cha proposals.

Deputy Majority Leader Jesus Crispin Remulla took exception to Rodriguez’s claim that Malacañang was behind the committee’s decision to reverse itself on the public consultations that it had agreed to conduct.

He asked the committee to erase Rodriguez’s remarks from its record of proceedings, a move that the Cagayan de Oro lawmaker and other opposition representatives opposed.

“What portion of those statements should be stricken off the record?” asked Rep. Teodoro Casiño of the militant party-list group Bayan Muna.

“That we are Malacañang stooges!” Remulla shouted.

“But that’s true!” Casiño shot back.

Cooler heads intervened before their heated exchange could deteriorate.

Casiño said he could not believe that the House has no funds for public consultations.

“The House has just been through a P200-million renovation and yet they claim that we have no funds for such an important undertaking as seeking the people’s views on Cha-cha,” he said.

Rep. Liza Maza of the party-list group Gabriela offered her pork barrel allocation to finance the planned consultations.

However, she said the committee has to plead with Malacañang to release such allocation.

Maza also belongs to the militant group of Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, which includes Casiño, who do not receive their pork barrel funds.– Jess Diaz