By Ade Fajardo
Rodrigo Duterte backed changes to the 1987 Constitution even before he became President.
In 2015, he toured the country talking to people about his desire to shift to a federal system of government — part of a campaign strategy built on the promise of a new Philippines, and anchored on Davao’s vaunted success as the citadel of law and order.
Duterte lambasted “imperial Manila” and stridently pushed for decentralization because this was purportedly the key to peace in Mindanao.
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This weekend, Duterte threatened Mindanao’s secession should the administration insist on charter change.
He said the actual movers behind “cha-cha” are House Speaker Martin Romualdez and First Lady Liza Marcos, giving less credit to the President whom he labeled as a “drug addict.”
“What were you thinking? There’s nothing wrong with the Constitution now that the environment in the Philippines seems to be positive,” he said.
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Politicians and their soundbites are constantly a function of personal needs presented as public sentiment.
Duterte said, “If I do return I will arrest all of you for the swindling of the Filipino people. You committed fraud. You wasted our money. People’s Initiative should not involve buying the votes or signatures of the Filipino people.”
Not a very credible position considering Duterte’s previous initiatives on cha-cha.
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Charter change is a difficult undertaking.
The 1987 Constitution was born to address an urgent concern — that of restoring the rule of law after a revolution.
All subsequent attempts to amend, revise or replace it have been unsuccessful because they are suspected to either prolong a sitting president’s term of office or remove term limits for elective officials.
Such fear has helped preserve the Constitution which is designed to have a much longer shelf life than ordinary legislation.
All legislation must conform to the Constitution. Laws are unstable if standards for their validity are constantly moving goalposts.
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This recent effort to change specific provisions of the Constitution through a People’s Initiative has provided an excuse for the Duterte camp to openly perorate against the Marcos administration.
Surely people are aware of the antecedents:
The House of Representatives removed Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds, amputated Polong Duterte’s pork barrel funding, and heard resolutions urging the executive department to cooperate with the International Criminal Court in its investigation of alleged crimes against humanity committed by the Duterte administration.
Duterte’s known factotum Pastor Apollo Quiboloy and his media network have suddenly become fair game to the administration’s regulators.
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Signs abound that the President and “the demons surrounding him,” in the words of Senator Imee Marcos, are out to decapitate the Duterte dynasty way ahead of the 2028 presidential elections.
In the meantime, the Commission on Elections announced that it is suspending all proceedings on the people’s initiative to introduce amendments to the Constitution, right after the civil war between factions of the Uniteam was detonated.
This has momentarily doused the simmering animosity between the Senate and the House. Is the administration stepping back to preserve alliances while it is fighting a hegemon from the south?/WDJ