The largest Catholic peace movement in the Philippines, comprised of Church leaders from five religious federations, including the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), has expressed its disapproval of President Rodrigo Duterte’s proposal for a shift to a federal system of government.
The Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum (EBF), in a statement, raised alarm over what appears to be a nasty effort to change the form of government through Charter change or Cha-cha.
Cha-cha, according to the EBF, may only be used as a way to establish one-man rule and disregard the democratic and humanitarian principles of the 1987 Constitution.
“There is a monstrous threat to democracy and human rights unfolding in our midst. This comes as President Rodrigo Duterte’s government forcefully rams into the Filipino people’s throat the proposed federal (system) that will supersede the 1987 Philippine Constitution,” it said.
The organisation added that amendments to the existing Charter will merely grant Duterte a monopoly over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government, guaranteeing a dictatorship.
The EBF called on the president to stop the alleged public deception, urging him to come clean on Cha-cha’s “pernicious effects on our nation’s interest and the people’s welfare.”
“We cannot say ‘Amen’ to the confluence of powers in the hands of a strongman or at the sight of a blasphemous leader attacking our sovereign rights as a nation and people,” it said.
In the Senate, the chamber’s leader also on Thursday said he would call for an all-senator caucus to discuss how they could include in their legislative calendar deliberations on the proposed shift to federalism.
The Senate and the House of Representatives are expected to open the third regular session of the 17th Congress on July 23 that will coincide with the third State of the Nation Address (SONA) of the president.
The Consultative Committee, led by former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, on Wednesday gave to Senate President Vicente Sotto a copy of the proposed federal Charter that the ConCom had crafted for the shift in government system.
“I would be calling for an all-senator caucus to discuss the possibilities and how to go about this and how to include this in our schedule,” Sotto said.
“It will be a lot easier also for us if we are able to review it already on our own when we discuss it,” he said in a briefing.
Puno noted that the draft already incorporated Duterte’s request to include provisions disallowing him to serve as president of the transition commission and disallowing him to run for president under the new Charter.
“The change that he requested is that we should make it very specific in the draft Constitution that he is not running in the 2022 presidential elections,” he said also in a briefing.
Puno added that the president’s second instruction is to put a provision calling for the election of a transitory president and transitory vice president.
“They will be the ones to oversee the transitional period as we shift from a unitary to a federal form of government. We finalised the transitory provision. We incorporated this to fulfil the instructions of the president,” he said.
“We thank our Senate President for receiving us and for the assurance that this draft Constitution will be properly considered as inputs when Congress hopefully convenes as a Constituent Assembly (ConAss) and consider revising our Constitution in order to effect the shift from a unitary government to a federal government,” Puno added.
ConCom member and former Senate president Aquilino Pimentel Jr said, “As a final word I want everyone to know that there is nothing personal here for any of us. This is for the Filipino people.”




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