Charter Change - and the Philippine Bishops

CHARTER CHANGE
CBCP spokesman says solons are missing the point


By Jerome Aning
Inquirer
Last updated 06:42pm (Mla time) 12/09/2006


THE CATHOLIC Bishops' Conference of the Philippines has no official comment yet on the House of Representatives’ latest moves to revise the Constitution, saying members of its permanent council are still consulting each other for unified stand that will be released by Monday.

However, in what might be a foretaste of the influential group's reaction, CBCP spokesman Msgr. Pedro Quitorio told reporters Saturday that Speaker Jose de Venecia and his allies were missing the point by now calling for a separately elected constitutional convention to amend the Charter instead of forming Congress into a constituent assembly for the same purpose.

"These people do not get the point. The point is the people do not trust them. The people can't entrust Cha-cha [Charter change] to those that they do not trust," Quitorio said, stressing that his words were his personal reaction and not the CBCP's.

Quitorio said that he was mystified by the motivation behind the rush to amend the Charter, adding, "We have lots of problems today, such as the devastation of Bicol by the recent supertyphoon. Why don't we address these first?"

"Charter change is not the problem of the common folk; those pushing for it seem to be obsessive-compulsive in doing so. There's something wrong here, why are they so insistent?" he said.

Asked if the CBCP would go ahead with its plan to stage a rally against Charter change and the constituent assembly on Friday, Quitorio said the faithful should wait for the announcement of Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, CBCP president.

"He has not said anything about this yet, but I've been feeding him updates on the matter," he said. He added a meeting of top CBCP officials may be held on Monday to gather inputs from the CBCP permanent council members.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches said it was worried by the politicians' rush to amend the Charter and by the tension it has created.

"We are concerned with the action of the House of Representatives in pushing for a constituent assembly. In their objective to shift to a parliamentary unicameral system, they are conducting their business as if they were already a unicameral parliament," PCEC said in a statement.

While the constitutional issue of whether the Senate can be bypassed forming Congress into a constituent assembly is a matter for the Supreme Court to decide, PCEC said it believed "the welfare of the nation requires that congressmen and senators must engage in open and honest dialogue regarding all the relevant issues."

"We appeal to our lawmakers to rise above narrow, partisan and personal politics. Is statesmanship impossible in our beloved land?" it said.

The Protestant group stressed that they recognize that no Constitution is perfect, that there are many ways of amending it and that they support the shift from a presidential to a parliamentary system of government, calling the latter "more democratic and more efficient."

Like the CBCP, PCEC called on its faithful to remain "prayerful, vigilant, and sober," adding, "Let us all enter into the discussions on how to improve our Constitution. Can we do this freely and eagerly without calling each other names? Let us do so because we love our country. It is the only one we have!"