MANILA, 16 October 2007 — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday revived plans to rewrite the Philippine Constitution, but said any change could come only after she leaves office in 2010.
She also expressed preference for a federal form of government as advocated by some opposition leaders.
In a speech at the regional workshop on the Establishment of National Human Rights Institutions in Asia in Manila yesterday, Arroyo said she has formed a government panel to draft plans for the establishment of a federal form of government in 2012.
“We are hereby forming a panel to draft a roadmap to federalism by 2012,” Arroyo said, adding the measure would also help address the issue of insurgency in the southern Philippines.
Arroyo first raised her plan for a federal form of government in 2005 in her State of the Nation Address. “Perhaps, it’s time to take the power from the center to the countryside that feeds it,” she said.
Federalism was part of her proposal to change the present presidential form of government into a parliamentary system and from a unitary to a federal system.
Senate Minority Floor Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. had said that the establishment of a federal system should be the “long-range and ultimate political solution” to the incessant Muslim rebellion in the South. He said Muslim dissidents in Mindanao would stop clamoring for a separate independent republic if their aspirations for genuine autonomy in the form of a Bangsamoro Federal State would be fulfilled.
Arroyo said the measures would eventually result in changes to the 1987 constitution.
Talk of changing the constitution died down late last year after the powerful Catholic church opposed attempts to hold a referendum on the issue. Many viewed the move as an attempt by Arroyo to stay in office beyond 2010, when her constitutionally mandated term of office ends.
In December 2006, Arroyo was forced to retreat from pushing efforts to amend the constitution and shift to a parliamentary form of government after the church threatened to mobilize street protests.
Diversionary Tactic?
Political analysts, however, believe Arroyo’s announcement to revive the issue could be an attempt to deflect attention away from bribery scandals that have hit her administration in recent weeks.
“It’s more of the talk than the walk,” said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms.
Leftist militant groups slammed Arroyo’s renewed charter change plan and said they will do all they can to stop it, particularly the inclusion of economic provisions that would allow foreigners to fully own land and operate companies in the country.
“She is really trying to divide the country by foisting charter change to cover the many issues of corruption plaguing her regime,” said Rafael Mariano, head of the Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP).
Last month, Arroyo’s husband Mike was named in a kickback scandal involving a multi-million dollar broadband project and his golfing buddy — the head of the elections commission — quit his job.
Last week a senior official of Arroyo’s political party, Kampi, was fired after he allegedly offered bribes to opposition lawmakers to support a weak impeachment complaint against her, shielding her for at least 12 months from any similar motion.
Yesterday, a Roman Catholic priest who was elected governor of Arroyo’s home province claimed to have received half a million pesos (about $11,365) after Arroyo met lawmakers and local officials to discuss her impeachment case in Congress. “The president was obviously trying to hit two birds with a stone on her latest pronouncement,” Casiple said, adding she was wooing support of local officials who favored the federal system and appeasing House of Representatives Speaker Jose de Venecia, a known supporter of constitutional change.
Relations between Arroyo and de Venecia have been strained recently because his son named Arroyo’s husband in a Senate inquiry into the $330 million broadband deal. (With input from agencies)
