MANILA – Congress approval of the controversial Charter-change (Cha-cha) resolution will not stop the holding of the May 2010 elections, the country’s chief election official assured.
Retired Supreme Court justice Jose Melo, the chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) made the assurance amid warnings from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) that the issue could again result in a “People Power Revolution” that saw the ouster of two Philippine presidents – Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada – in 1986 and 2001, respectively.
The resolution, sponsored by Speaker Prospero Nograles of the House of Representatives, called for the chamber to constitute itself into a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) in order to amend the 1987 Constitution even without the participation of the Senate.
However, Melo pointed out that Con-Ass could not be made as a vehicle to postpone or cancel the 2010 polls in which voters are to elect the successors of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro whose terms expire next year.
Also at stake are thousands of elective positions such as 12 senators, provincial and local officials like governors, congressmen, mayors and councilors.
Melo said the most he could see is that if Con-Ass is pursued, the proposed amendments to the Constitution would be subjected to a plebiscite, which could be included in the ballot to be used in next year’s polls.
This means, he said, that aside from choosing their president, vice president as well as the other elective officials, the voters will also decide whether they are for or against the proposed amendments to the Constitution.
Besides, Melo said, Cha-cha could further be delayed if the Supreme Court would be asked to rule on the legality of the resolution because of the exclusion of the Senate from the Con-Ass.
Lawmakers and legal experts have pointed out that the resolution violates a provision in the Constitution which states that Congress is composed of two bodies – the Senate and the House.
In this light, they insisted that the House, under the resolution, could not go it alone to introduce amendments to the Constitution without the participation of the Senate.
As Senator Francis Escudero said, if the House is required to transmit to the Senate for concurrence a local bill renaming a street in a town or city, the more reason the Senate should be involved in a major issue like amending the Constitution.
This developed as the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) said they have not monitored any threats to national security due to the approval of the Cha-cha resolution, which sparked outrage from the opposition, militant organizations as well as civil society and religious groups.
For the AFP, a spokesman said all intelligence indicators have not shown any significant level of concern over the resolution which was rammed through the House by administration lawmakers during a marathon session before midnight on Tuesday.
“For now, we don’t see any threats to national security that could arise from the move for Con-Ass,” the spokesman said. “We have no intelligence reports or any indicators that there will be trouble and, as such, there is no reason yet to raise our alert level.”
But he added the military and the police are not letting their guard down and have, instead, taken a vigilant stance despite the absence of threats to national security.
The spokesman was reacting to warnings from the opposition as well as concerned sectors and groups that the passage of the Cha-cha resolution was a “political time bomb” that is about to explode.
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