Killing the Senate, living longer in Malacañang

Killing the Senate, living longer in Malacañang EDITORIAL 08/06/2008

She certainly is not about to give up power, and despite her claim of stepping down by 2010, Gloria Arroyo is hanging on to Malacañang, again using duplicitous means, such as getting the Constitution revised to fit her plans of staying longer in power and position.

Gloria is using the agreement on the ancestral domain of the secessionist Moro group as justification for Charter change (Cha-cha), claiming this will bring peace in Mindanao, but the real intent is for her to stay beyond 2010 and as prime minister under a parliamentary system which will come about through a constituent assembly (Con-ass), after a people’s initiative (PI) calling for a single amendment but important one if the amendment is adopted.

As constitutional things stand, no Con-ass is possible, nor even a constitutional convention (Con-con) due to the fact that the Senate refuses to budge from its position barring Cha-cha at this time, preferring changes to occur after 2010.

To get around this, Gloria and her trusted aides have set up clandestine meetings with equally loyal and trusted local executives to come up with a PI that will introduce one simple amendment to the constitutional proviso that will effectively obliterate the voting power of the Senate as a body, by mandating both the House of Representatives and the Senate to vote as one body in the matter of amending and revising the Charter.

Gloria’s PI this time is expected to be upheld by the Supreme Court, even if flawed by way of manufactured Commission on Elections district count approvals to get the required 12 percent vote per district nationwide. She has, after all, the majority of justices in the high court under her thumb, as has been proved too many times over.

Part of the reason the PI in the past did not pass muster in the high court was that the PI had too many amendments, such as a parliamentary system installed, which any idiot knows would need a revision of the Constitution.

This time around, the local executives pushing Gloria’s PI will merely introduce that one important amendment.

Once that PI amendment is in force and effect, it will be easy for a Con-ass to come to pass, with whatever changes Gloria desires. The Senate, reduced to a miniscule number in a body of over 230 congressional members, will no longer be a stumbling block to Gloria’s plan to stay in power beyond 2010.

Think about it: Why should there be that urgent need to amend the Constitution merely to accommodate the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) aspirations for an Islamic state?

What’s so special about the MILF being granted the status of an independent Islamic state and ceding territories and resources, plus diplomatic powers?

True, the United States has been pushing the agreement and for its own interests — and they are myriad, whether in natural resources found in Mindanao’a land and sea , and in Palawan. But trust Gloria, even under pressure from the US, to also cash in on her own interest, which is to stay longer in power to ensure her lifetime immunity.

Marcos granted himself and his aides lifetime immunity through changes incorporated in the 1973 Constitution. So will Gloria through a parliamentary system. With her ways of bribing congressmen who will now be members of the new parliament, there will never ever be any no confidence vote that will pass to oust her from the premiership.

Still, there should be enough provinces and cities nationwide that will ensure the defeat of the PI, just as they did some two years back. But the difference today is the composition of the present Supreme Court, whose majority members uphold even unconstitutional measures, prostituting themselves before Gloria’s altar of partisan politics and closing their eyes to law and justice.

But there also is another difference that may play a major role in crushing Gloria’s plan to stay in power longer: A bigger number of congressmen-allies who are clearly against becoming part of the MILF’s ancestral domain and under the MILF control.

Gloria is playing with fire, if she does not know it yet. She may yet be impeached and by her allies.

source: http://tribune.net.ph/commentary/20080806com1.html