EDITORIAL – Shifting gears

As proponents of Charter change pondered the wreckage of the people’s initiative, President Arroyo is reportedly preparing to convene the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council. The meeting aims to remind Congress about the legislative agenda, which is being overshadowed by the debacle over the people’s initiative and early political posturing for the midterm elections next year.

The President said she wanted to see the passage of the Biofuels Act. The Chinese are interested in investing in the emerging biofuels industry in the Philippines. But lawmakers may be too distracted for the task. They have not yet passed the national budget for 2007, though they were quick to restore the congressional pork barrel to the level before it was cut amid warnings about a looming fiscal crisis.

The counterterrorism bill is another measure that requires urgent attention. As terror attacks around the world have shown, terrorists simply bide their time. In countries such as the Philippines that have suffered from previous deadly attacks, there should be additional urgency in adopting new measures to deal with the threat. Such measures need careful deliberation to strike a delicate balance between civil liberties and public safety. Instead lawmakers are burying their heads in the sand, hoping the terrorist threat will go away by itself. It won’t, and the consequences for the nation will be tragic.

There is no sense of urgency even in legislating reforms in the electoral system. With the elections just a little over six months away, lawmakers appear determined to maintain the defective status quo in the way Filipinos cast and count their votes.

The only urgency is in the area where haste can lead to missteps with ugly consequences for the nation: changing the Constitution to shift to a parliamentary system. This effort now stands derailed because of the undue haste and sloppiness in carrying out the people’s initiative. Yet Charter change remains the chief preoccupation of many lawmakers. Even the LEDAC may fail to compel Cha-cha proponents to shift gears.