Senate sends House Cha-cha to the graveyard

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate has killed the effort of the House of Representatives to fulfill President Duterte’s 2016 election campaign promise to shift the nation to the federal system through Charter change (Cha-cha).

Senators sat on Resolution of Both Houses No. 15 until Congress adjourned its third and last regular session on Tuesday. They made good their promise to send the Cha-cha measure to the graveyard upon arrival in their chamber.

The resolution contains the congressmen’s version of a federal Constitution. The House approved it in December last year and promptly sent it to the Senate.

In a letter to Senate President Vicente Sotto III on May 21, Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reminded senators that 11 priority administration measures the House had approved were pending with them.

She said her chamber would “await the action of the Senate and stand ready to adopt the Senate version in the interest of speedy legislation.”

The pending measures included the resolution “proposing the revision of the 1987 Constitution.”

Of the 11, senators approved only one – the bill increasing the excise tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products. The House adopted the Senate version on Tuesday before adjournment.

The House version of a federal Charter retains the present presidential system of government but with the president and vice president elected as one ticket, similar to the practice in the US.

It scraps the term limits for House members and other local officials in the present Constitution.

It does not immediately create federal states, leaving that power to Congress, which would be mandated to pass an enabling law upon petition by any interested region.

One of those who voted against the proposed federal Constitution is Rep. Lito Atienza of party-list group Buhay.

“There’s absolutely no reason to rush this very important measure that will impact all of us. Let us not be like blind cows being stampeded over a cliff. We should study this issue very thoroughly,” he told his colleagues.

He said federalism is not the solution to the nation’s problems.

He stressed that the defect lies more in the country’s leaders than in its political system.

President Duterte has not repeated his advocacy of federalism in recent months.

According to some federalism advocates in the House, pushing for the federal shift would now be more difficult during the remaining half of Duterte’s term.

They said people would suspect that lawmakers would aim to lift the terms limits if they revised the Constitution.

They said no administration since the late president Corazon Aquino has succeeded in its Cha-cha effort in its last years in office.