MANILA, 22 November 2006 — The Supreme Court yesterday reaffirmed its earlier decision to junk a move by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her allies to rewrite the Philippine Constitution by means of a “people’s initiative.”
With a vote of 8-7, the court ruled with finality that the people’s initiative petition spearheaded by the Sigaw ng Bayan (People’s Cry) and Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) was not valid because no law exists that would allow it.
Although people’s initiative is one of the three modes provided by the Philippine Constitution in amending the same charter, Congress has not enacted any law enabling such process.
Last Oct. 25, a scathing decision adopted by the Supreme Court said the Sigaw ng Bayan and ULAP petition not only suffered a legal defect but was also surrounded by irregularities.
The decision, penned by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, called the manner used to gather signatures for the people’s initiative a “grand deception,” citing that signatories were not really informed of the real objectives of the petition.
The ultimate objective of the petition is to rewrite the constitution to replace the US-style presidential system to a unicameral parliamentary setup.
President Arroyo has championed an historic switch to end deadlock between the legislature and the executive and both houses of Congress but many ordinary Filipinos distrust her motives, believing she wants to extend her term of office.
Her allies have said they will now try to create a parliamentary system by convening both houses of Congress to rewrite the constitution, but such an attempt is unlikely to succeed without the support of most of the Senate. Senators are largely opposed to changing the political system because their chamber would be abolished and even Arroyo’s allies in the lower house are starting to focus their energies on preparing for next year’s congressional elections.
“We respect the Supreme Court decision,” Arroyo’s spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, said in a statement. “It will not stop us, however, from our advocacy that we need fundamental reform in order to remove the remaining stumbling block toward our competitiveness.
High Distrust Rating
Yesterday, private pollster Pulse Asia said Arroyo’s distrust rating increased by 4 percentage points to 48 percent following her campaign to create a parliamentary democracy. Despite a rosier economic picture, Arroyo has failed to win over ordinary Filipinos amid lingering accusations she cheated in the 2004 presidential election.
Her allies in the lower house have twice defeated impeachment bids against the former economist over the vote-rigging allegations and her political future could be in jeopardy if they lose their majority in next May’s elections. Rumors of coup plots have periodically hung over the administration but it has said the political climate will be more certain after the capture last week of Gregorio Honasan, the alleged mastermind of a plot to oust Arroyo in February.
Honasan appeared at a Manila court under heavy guard yesterday but his arraignment on charges of involvement in a 2003 coup bid were postponed.
Critics said Arroyo, who has failed to shake suspicion she cheated in the 2004 presidential election, was promoting the political switch to stay in power after 2010, when she finishes her last term as president.
Political analysts said Arroyo’s continued failure to gain support from the country’s poor would impact on the chances of her candidates to win seats in the two chamber Congress and in 17,000 local positions.
The survey of 1,200 people, conducted between Oct. 21 and Nov. 8, has a margin of error of three percentage points, Pulse Asia said. (With a report from Reuters)
