House panel OKs resolution on amendments to Constitution

By Maila Ager
INQ7.net
Last updated 08:50pm (Mla time) 09/05/2006

(UPDATE) A RESOLUTION containing a package of amendments to the 1987 Constitution has been approved by a committee at the House of Representatives tasked to deliberate on the issue.

Voting 30-7 on Tuesday, the committee on constitutional amendments, dominated by allies of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, passed House Resolution 1230.

The opposition called the approval a “farce,” “shame,” and “mockery of the House rules and the Constitution.”

Some the amendments include:

• Shifting from the present presidential system to a parliamentary form of government to be headed by a Prime Minister as “chief operating officer of the government” and a President as head of the state.
• Extending the term of elective local officials to five years from the present three-year term.
• Providing for an impeachment process under a parliamentary system to allow for the removal of a prime minister by a vote of at least two-thirds of all its members.
• Empowering the Prime Minister, under Article IX of the Constitution, to appoint the chairman and commissioners of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) “for a term of seven years without immediate reappointment.”
• Allowing foreigners to own industrial and residential lands in the country, revising Section 12 of Article XII in the Constitution on national economy and patrimony that barred such ownership.

Hence, the provision would read, “Citizenship restrictions are hereby lifted relative to the ownership and lease of alienable lands of the public domain, which include agricultural, residential, commercial and reclaimed lands, development of natural resources, ownership of franchises and of public utilities, mass media, education, insurance, and advertising unless otherwise provided for limited foreign ownership in regard to franchises granted to corporations involving public utilities of large scale.”

Under the transitory provisions, the present members of Congress will automatically become members of an interim parliament until June 30, 2007 except for senators elected in 2004, who shall continue their service until 2010, the resolution also said.

The interim parliament will set the first elections under the new system, although the incumbent President will continue her term until 2010, as provided under the Constitution, according to the resolution.

Cagayan Representative Constantino Jaraula, chairman of the committee, declared the approval of the measure a “triumph of the Filipino people.”

“With a vote of 30 in favor 7 against the motion to approve House Resolution 1230 is hereby declared approved overwhelmingly,” Jaraula said.

Those who voted against the resolution were opposition members --Deputy Minority Floor Leaders Roilo Golez and Teofisto Guingona III, Bayan Muna Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño, Akbayan Representatives Loretta Ann Rosales and Mayong Aguja, and Gabriela Women's Party-list Representative Liza Maza.

The committee also approved in principle a report on the committee's passage of the measure.

“I don't consider it a moment of triumph even as I am chairman of the committee. It's a triumph of the committee and of the Filipino people,” Jaraula told reporters after the hearing.

Golez and Maza strongly objected to the hasty approval of the resolution.

“This is railroading,” Golez said during the voting.

“This is very undemocratic. This is a farce,” Maza said

Gloze said the passage was the “lowest point in the history of the House” when the committee approved in “no more than a minute” a 61-page “expanded resolution.”

He noted that when they first tackled the measure last May 23, it was only 21 pages long but it was expanded to 61 pages without any consultations with members of the committee.

“It's a disgrace, it's a shame and I said that straight in the face of chairman Jaraula. We witnessed not a railroad but a bullet train driven by powerful hands,” Golez added.

Mariano described the deliberations as a “gangster-type and brazen” approval of the committee.

“It smacks of mockery and disrespect to the rules of the House, to the Constitution, and to the genuine will of the people,” he said.

With 30 “yes” votes and one abstention, the committee also adopted an amendment of Camarines Sur Representative Luis Villafuerte to the title of the resolution.

At the start of the hearing, Davao del Sur Representative Douglas Cagas demanded that the committee chairman disown speculations that their decision to resume deliberations on the issue was directed by either Malacañang or the President.

Cagas even threatened the committee with the withdrawal of his and nine of his colleagues’ signatures on the resolution if his request was granted.

Jaraula granted Cagas’s request and denied that the committee was under anyone’s influence.

The deliberation, which lasted two hours, was also stalled by questions regarding Concurrent Resolution 26, which calls for a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution.

The measure had been passed by the House but remaines pending at the Senate.

Committee members raised the need to withdraw the resolution first before proceeding with a new measure. They fear that that the pending resolution may be used by the Senate against the House.

Villafuerte then moved for the abrogation of HR 26 but later withdrew his motion after conferring with his colleagues.