Charter Change
TheBurning Issues
By: Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J.
Forum on Charter Change: CHACHA for what and for whom?
Organized by: PASCRES, C4CC,PHILCOS and AKBAYAN
27 April 2006, Institute of Social Order, Ateneo de Manila University
Two Kinds of Change
✏ Amendment
✏ Revision
Three agents of Change
✏ Constitutional Convention
✏ Congress
✏ Initiative and Referendum
✏ (I shall come back to these)
The Controverted Issues
✏ Should we move from “presidential” to “parliamentary”?
✏ Should we move from bicameral to unicameral?
✏ If so, how is it to be achieved?
✏ Shelved for the moment: Federalism
The Forms Being Proposed
✏ As gathered from current drafts being considered
Parliamentary v Presidential
Two Ways of Horizontal Sharing Power
Presidential
✏ Division of powers among of President, Congress and Courts
✏ Theoretically equal but President is dominant
✏ Fixed term
✏ Elected at large
✏ We have had it since turn of the century
Parliamentary System
✏ Supremacy of an elected Parliament
✏ Members elected by Districts
✏ Elects Prime Minister
✏ All or most of Cabinet are Members
✏ May recommend removal of Prime Minister
Main Actors
✏ The Parliament
✏ The Prime Minister
✏ The Cabinet
✏ The President
The Parliament
✏ Membership
✏ Term of Members
✏ Qualifications
✏ Disqualifications
✏ Unicameral or Bicameral
Role of Parliament
✏ Makes laws; overrides veto
✏ Chooses/fires Prime Minister
✏ Chooses Cabinet
✏ Judge of Impeachment
✏ Forms Electoral Tribunal, Commission on Impeachment, Commission on Appointments
Rules of Procedure
✏ Same as now
The Prime Minister
✏ How chosen
✏ Qualifications
✏ Term
The No­Confidence Vote
✏ Grounds
✏ Procedure
✏ The Prime Minister’s Response
Powers of Prime Minister
✏ He is Chief Executive with same Powers as President now
✏ May veto bills
✏ Appoints and heads Cabinet
✏ Accountable to parliament
✏ Representative to international orgs
The Cabinet
✏ Appointed by resident
✏ Assists the President
The President
✏ Qualifications
✏ Head of government
✏ Largely ceremonial
Role of Political Parties
✏ Decides party leadership
✏ Majority party decides head of government
✏ Minority party “fiscalizes”
Advantages of Parliamentarism
✏ Avoids gridlock between legislature and executive
✏ Easier to change head of government
✏ NOTE: Parliamentarism requires a working political party system.
Vertical Division of Power
✏ Unitary: Central government holds all
✏ Federal: Power divided between central and local governments
✏ Confederation: Agreement for specific tasks. E.g., EU
Traditional Unitarism
✏ Power concentrated in central gov’t
✏ We had this until 1987
✏ Local governments only had delegated powers
✏ Therefore removable by central gov’t
Mitigated Unitarism: 1987
✏ Limited constitutional empowerment of local governments
✏ Encouragement of local autonomy
✏ Two Autonomous regions authorized
✏ Power of local taxation
Federalism in general
✏ What is federalism?
✏ Vertical sharing of power.
✏ What basic principle underlies federalism?
✏ Subsidiarity
Who exercises what?
Federal: interstate relations, matters national in scope, foreign relations: ✏ CONCRETELY: defense, foreign affairs, currency, customs, federal budget and taxes,immigration, citizenship, national territory
✏
Who exercises what?
✏ States usually have the following:
✏ Local government, state budget and taxes, education, law and order, state level planning, public works, environment, natural resources.
Who exercises what?
✏ Possible concurrent powers:
✏ Agriculture and fisheries, energy, trade and industry, tourism, labor and employment, communication, science and technology, culture, social welfare and development.
How Federalism Arises
✏ By “coming together”
✏ United States, Switzerland, Australia
✏ By “splitting and holding together”
✏ India, Belgium, Canada, Spain
What holds them together?
✏ A Federal Constitution superior to state constitutions.
Criteria for Division
✏ Culture and language
✏ Geographic contiguity
✏ Economic viability
Form of federal government
✏ Either parliamentary or presidential
✏ Either unicameral or bicameral
How Divide Nation into States?
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3: Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao
5: Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, Bangsa Moro, Cordilleras
7: South Luzon, Central Luzon, North Luzon, Visayas, North Mindanao, South Mindanao
12: The existing Administrative Regions
Supposed Benefits of Federalism
✏ Empowerment of local communities
✏ Motivating local communities
✏ Accountability of local officials
✏ Hastening of development
When Will it Come, Or Will it Come?
✏ ? ? ? ? ?
How Change Happens: The 1987 Text
✏
Section 1. Any amendment to, or revision of,
this Constitution may be proposed by:
✏ (1) The Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths
of all its Members; or
✏ (2) A constitutional convention.
✏ Sec. 2. Amendments to this Constitution may likewise be directly proposed by the people through initiative and referendum . .
Constitutional Convention
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How formed: Congress calls it by a vote of 2/3 of all its Members.
Members of Con Con are elected
They propose eithr amendmens or revision
What was it like in 1971?
Will we have a Constitutional Convention?
Congress as Constituent Assembly
✏ May propose amendment or revision by a vote of 3/4 of all its members
✏ Do the two Hose vote jointly or separately?
✏ What are the chances that this can happen?
Intitiative and Referendum: Two Steps
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A power for the people, not government
Initiative: (1) formulation of the proposed amendment and (2) gathering of signatures
Number of signatures needed: 3% of registered voters in a district and 12% nationwide.
Only amendments, and not revision, may be proposed.
Obstacles to Initiative and Referendum
✏ No enabling law. (Santiago v Comelec)
✏ May propose only amendments and not revision.
✏ Switching to parliamentary system from presidential system is a revision.
Moral Issues in Current Signature Campaign
Initiative belongs to the people, not to government.
Lack of information on what is being offered.
Parliamentary system is being touted as panacea for our ills, but no indication of how.
✏ Who will really benefit from the change?
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When Changes Take Effect
✏ When ratified by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite called for the purpose
✏ The strange case of the 1973 Constitution
✏ A product of fait accomplie