GMA likely to revive Cha-cha in Congress - Recto

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo and her allies would most likely revive her dormant Charter change (Cha-cha) initiative if she were elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, former senator Ralph Recto said yesterday.        

He said if Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III wins the presidency on May 10, Cha-cha would be resurrected “the day Noynoy assumes office to undermine him.”

Recto is seeking a senatorial comeback under Aquino’s LP.

He said moves to revive Cha-cha would be “an excuse to emasculate a president with a national mandate, and to prop up a legislative leader, who is elected in the district, as the head of government (referring to Mrs. Arroyo).”

“A successful Cha-cha could evaporate a Noynoy presidency and transfer the nexus of power to the parliamentary leader,” he said.

“Although Charter change is not the urgent change we need, a minority will argue otherwise and exaggerate Cha-cha’s curative powers. Let’s just hope they’ll be convinced… that of the many ills plaguing our country, rewriting the Constitution is not the main solution to any of them,” he stressed.

Mrs. Arroyo is running for representative of Pampanga’s second district, which her son Juan Miguel or Mikey currently represents in the House.

Mikey, on the other hand, is seeking to continue his stay in the legislature as a representative of the party-list group Ang Galing Pinoy, reportedly composed of security guards and tricycle drivers.

Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone, a staunch ally of Mrs. Arroyo, said the President has enough congressional allies to elect her as Speaker.

Evardone himself is running for representative of his province.

However, Aquino has vowed to derail Mrs. Arroyo’s plans to become Speaker by moving fast to gain a majority in the House.

Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali Gonzales II, incumbent House senior deputy majority leader and who defected to Aquino’s camp last week, said it would be difficult for a congressman or congresswoman to win the speakership without the support of a sitting president.        

The Arroyo administration has been trying to push through with Cha-cha since four years ago.

When the Supreme Court junked its people’s initiative campaign in October 2006, its allies shifted to Plan B, which called for convening Congress into a constituent assembly (con-ass) to do Cha-cha even without the participation of the Senate.

Twice the House voted to meet as a con-ass without the Senate – first in December 2006 during the time of then Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., and last year under De Venecia’s successor Speaker Prospero Nograles. Both efforts did not materialize.

De Venecia said Mrs. Arroyo is the “brains” behind the persistent Cha-cha initiative in the House.

He said the President wanted to shift the nation to the parliamentary system so she could become prime minister and continue to enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution.

Recto said revising the Constitution written during the administration of Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, would not be a priority of Noynoy if he wins the presidency on May 10.

He said his standard-bearer’s priority would be to “fix the government.”

“There is a right season and right reason to revisit the Constitution, but not on the first half of the six-year term of the next president and not for the sole objective of allowing a sitting president to seek reelection,” he said.

“Let’s have a moratorium on Cha-cha (Charter change) music. Then maybe, in the second half of the next president’s term, we can explore ways of revisiting the Constitution,” he added.

The present Charter was written by the 1986 Constitutional Commission, which then President Aquino appointed. It was ratified in 1987.

If Aquino is elected president, Recto said he “it will be able to do good to the country and deliver on his promises under the canopy of the 1987 Constitution.”

“Cha-cha is not a predicate for good governance. You don’t need to rewrite the Constitution to put more cops on the streets, teachers in schools, or doctors in public pharmacies,” he said.