THE 25-member Constitutional Commission will be tasked to set the transition parameters for the “modified parliamentary” system of government before eventually shifting to and going full-blast with a federal form of government, according to a multi-sectoral group pushing for Charter Change.
“President [Rodrigo] Duterte desires to drastically disturb the status quo to avoid gridlocks and delays in achieving peace and progress, but at the same time effecting the change without bloodshed or through peaceful means via Charter Change,” said lawyer Raul Lambino, convenor of the PDU30 CORE or President Duterte Call for Constitutional Reforms.
The transition from a unitary presidential to a modified parliamentary system in the next three years, Lambino said, was meant to buy time for the provinces to acquire autonomy and then to decide whether or not to become a federal state.
The provinces will be given the final decision to go for the opt-in or exit provision on federalism, he said.
Lambino, deputy secretary-general of the President’s party Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban ng Bayan, said PDU30 CORE was composed of various major political parties such as the PDP-Laban, the Nationalist People’s Coalition, the Nacionalista Party, the National Unity Party, the Lakas-CMD, the academe, business groups, sectoral groups and civil society groups.
The PDU30 CORE round-table discussion on Charter Change at the Manila Standard was the first round in a series of a nationwide information and education campaign about the Charter’s revision.
This early, former President and now House Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has thrown her support behind the transitional shift to a modified parliamentary system.
“My mind is very open. even when I was President and proposing a constitutional revision, my mind was very open to those details,” Arroyo told reporters.
“To me, what was important was the shift from unitary presidential to modified parliamentary. The House of Representatives fully supports President Duterte’s initiative to draft a new Constitution and pave the way for a major political reform, which is the shift from unitary to a federal form of government.”
Arroyo said House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez had disclosed that a draft Executive Order on the creation of a Constitutional Commission had already been sent to the President for his approval.
“That Constitutional Commission will be composed of 20 to 25 legal luminaries and that is intended for them to draft a new Constitution,” Arroyo said.
Lambino said the Constitution could not impose on one particular region to be a new sovereign state.
“The new Constitution could not dictate on other provinces or regions to simply establish federal states on their own. They can apply as federal states,” Lambino said.
“First, they have to acquire autonomy, just like the ARMM [Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao], and then the parliament could grant them autonomy and declare them a federal state when they’re ready, and that’s when the transfer of power would happen.”