WITH members likely to display stubbornness against political pressures, a constitutional convention will be a more difficult proposition for the Arroyo government and its political allies if a Charter Change (Cha-cha) is again pursued within the next three years, according to a drafter of the 1987 Constitution.
"The best way for a Cha-cha is Con-Con. Pero hindi sila sigurado kung mahahawakan nila ang Con-Con (But they are not sure if they can control Con-con)," Christian Monsod said during a recent round table discussion on the agrarian reform agenda and Cha-cha. "The Con-con members will have a mind of their own," he added. (more…)
Farmers, fisherfolk, labor, urban poor, indigenous peoples, women, youth, and NGO leaders critiqued the research papers commissioned by the Coalition for a Citizens’ Constitution (C4CC) and presented in a series of nine round table discussions held in the months of July and August 2007. Given the President’s political survival context which has recently undermined a more participatory and democratic process, all agreed that any charter change, if there is one, should happen only after the term of the Arroyo Administration. Except for the labor group which proposed a people’s initiative not to revise but only amend the Constitution, most groups agreed to a Constitutional Convention with many of them expressing the importance of the presence of a progressive national government leadership before attempting to change the social justice-biased and protectionist 1987 Constitution.
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