MOST or 64 percent of Filipinos oppose amending the Constitution, the latest Pulse Asia survey released Wednesday showed, prompting Malacañang and its allies in Congress to commit to a sustained information campaign to educate the public on the proposed shift to a federal system.
“This implies there is still a lot of work to be done by the government in informing, educating and reaching out to our countrymen regarding constitutional reforms,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said.
He said the administration will work to promote the workings of a federal system, a campaign promise of President Rodrigo Duterte to bring government closer to the people.
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez stressed the need for the entire national government to intensify efforts at explaining to the public the need to revise the 1987 Constitution and the proposed shift to a federal system of government.
“The survey tells us very clearly that we must come together and intensify the information, education and communication campaigns throughout the country to tell our people that we must revise the three-decade-old Constitution to make it responsive to changing times,” Alvarez said.
Of the 64 percent who are opposed the amending the Constitution, half said they are “open to Charter change sometime in the future but not at present,” while the remaining 32 percent said they are “completely opposed to any amendments, whether now or at any other time.”
The strongest opposition to Charter changes is in the balance of Luzon (75 percent), followed by Mindanao (65 percent), the Visayas (60 percent), and the National Capital Region (54 percent).
Among economic classes, Classes ABC mostly oppose the shift (71 percent), followed by Class D (68 percent), and Class E (60 percent).
A “sizable majority” or 66 percent are also against shifting from the unitary system of government to a federal system that the Duterte administration proposes.
Support for federalism is “more marked in Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao (33 percent to 42 percent)” compared to the rest of Luzon (17 percent).
Pulse Asia said support for Charter change fell 14 percentage points from July 2016. The decline, Pulse Asia noted, was strongest in Mindanao, at -23 percentage points, and among the more affluent ABC classes at -19 percentage points.
Knowledge about the Constitution remained low, with 75 percent of Filipinos having “little or almost no knowledge at all” about the Charter. Of these, 42 percent said they had little knowledge, while 34 percent said they had almost no knowledge at all.
Among the 25 percent who said they had at least enough knowledge of the Constitution, only 4 percent said they “know a great deal.”
These figures did not change significantly from July 2016, Pulse Asia said.
Almost half or 49 percent of Filipinos are aware of proposals to amend the Constitution. Only 23 percent are in favor of charter change now, the survey showed.
The survey, conducted from March 23 to 28, used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 respondents. The nationwide survey has a ±3 percent error margin at the 95 percent confidence level, while results for Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao have a higher ±6 percent error margin also at 95 percent confidence level.
Duterte and the ruling PDP-Laban believe a federal government will correct inequality nationwide, especially in Mindanao, and eventually make the country more progressive.
However, the survey showed Mindanao was the second most opposed to amending the Constitution next to Luzon.
For its part, the consultative committee tasked by Duterte to review the 1987 Constitution remained optimistic that public perception would change once they see the provisions in the new charter being drafted.
“The survey was taken at a time when the consultative committee is still formulating the proposed revisions. Once we are done and the proposed revisions are presented to the public, we are confident that the public perception will change,” ConCom chairman and former chief justice Reynato Puno said.
The Con-Com added that Pulse Asia’s presentation of the results was misleading because it counts in the “negative” those who say they are “not in favor of amending the Constitution now but at some time in the future.”
“In reality, these should be counted as ‘in favor’ of amending the Constitution—only that it should be done sometime ‘in the future.’ To their mind, the future could be next year or it could be in 2019—when the proposed revisions may be ready for submission to them in a plebiscite,” Puno said.
Alvarez said while the House is already doing its best to explain to Filipinos the benefits of the federal system over the current unitary system, the big challenge is to make the information seep down to the grassroots.
“Our advocacy of the federal system is anchored on our firm belief that by giving the regions greater leeway in terms of powers and resources, we can unleash their potential to contribute to overall economic growth and social development for the long term,” Alvarez said.
Leftist lawmakers said the survey result was a wakeup call for the government to withdraw its Charter change efforts.
“It would be well for the Duterte administration and its allies to listen to the sentiments of our people and drop this anti-people Cha-cha project,” Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate said.
Given the survey findings, ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio urged the ConCom tasked by the President to review the 1987 Constitution to stop its work.
Representatives Alfredo Benitez of Negros Occidental and Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar said the survey results were premature.
“Let us wait for the final proposed amendments before we say we do not want [Charter change],” Benitez, chairman of the House committee on housing and urban development, said.
Evardone said the issue of rewriting the 1987 Constitution is a matter of explaining to the public what is it about and how it will benefit them.
“There is a need to intensify the information drive on Cha-Cha to make people appreciate it,” Evardone said.
But Akbayan Party-list Rep. Tom Villarin said the survey results reflected the sentiment of the people against charter change.
“The growing opposition of two third of Filipinos against charter change is solid proof that Filipinos reject President Duterte’s narrative that federalism is the cure-all formula for our country’s ills. Only 23 percent support a shift, probably most of them his core supporters lured by their fake news and ‘change-scamming’ schemes,” Villarin, a member of the opposition, said.
Villarin said Duterte administration’s campaign for the shift to a federal system of government was never popular.
“Even the much-vaunted federalism campaign has not reached half of the population with only a 49 percent awareness rate. This also reinforces surveys showing that 73 percent of Filipinos have not read the 1987 Constitution,” Villarin said.
Paranaque City Rep. Gus Tambunting, for his part, said the best way to determine if there is a need for charter change is through a referendum.
“That is a survey. The best way to determine the people’s will is still through a referendum,” Tambunting said.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said the rising number of Filipinos opposed to amending the Constitution only shows that people do not see charter change and federalism as the solution to the problems of hunger, poverty, unemployment and lawlessness.
But Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said the Pulse Asia survey interpretation should be reviewed because the result for “do not amend now but ok to amend later” can also be counted as in favor of amending the Constitution.
With the Pulse Asia result, Drilon urged Congress “to heed the will of the people by prioritizing legislation that would address various pressing issues such as poverty and unemployment instead of talking about a term extension.”
“I do not see the figures changing in favor of Charter change or federalism unless the government and the Congress intensify their efforts to provide solutions to the country’s problems,” Drilon said.
Pimentel, on the other hand, said the data could also be used to show that 50 percent or even 60 percent favor amending the Constitution, if those who said they were open to change sometime in the future were counted as favorable.
“But I acknowledge that people still need to know more about federalism as the word has remained a new and still unfamiliar concept to them,” he said.
Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri said the Pulse Asia findings were an eye opener for supporters of federalism such as himself.
“As a federalist myself being from Mindanao, I find these survey numbers an eye opener to tweak the information campaign or at the very least propose piece meal amendments to the Charter that will give greater autonomy both financially and politically to local government units,” he said. With PNA