CON-CON PROPOSAL TOO LATE - PIMENTEL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said the new move in the House of Representatives to call a Constitutional Convention with elected delegates from all congressional districts could have been a workable compromise to pursue constitutional reforms.

However, Pimentel said he is afraid that the resolution on Con-Con, which has already been approved by the House committee on constitutional amendments, came too late and is unlikely to materialize.

Based on the House Resolution, the delegates to the Con Con will be elected by district in May 20l0 or simultaneously with the regular election for national and local government officials. The idea is to save government from huge expenses that will be incurred if the election for delegates is held separately.

Pimentel said there is little time for Congress to tackle Charter Change before it adjourns in February for the long election recess.

"At this time, I think the lawmakers in general are not inclined to engage in long and divisive debates over Charter Change. They are wary of Charter Change because they do not want to be distracted from the election campaign which understandably will be their principal preoccupation," he said.

Pimentel said full-blown debates on the Con-Con proposal will prejudice the deliberations on the 2010 national budget and other important legislative measures.

In fact, he said there is a lot of apprehensions that because of time constraints, Congress will not be able to approve the budget bill before the end of 2009 like what happened in the past for such measure. He said the lawmakers are in fact bracing for the likely possibility that the old budget will again be reenacted.

Ideally, Pimentel said the budget bill should be passed by Congress before the November 30 deadline for the filing of certificate of candidacy.

Even now, he said the House is already having problem mustering a quorum, adding that this problem will worsen after the congressmen shall have filed their certificates of candidacy.

Pimentel said another stumbling block to the Con Con proposal is the objection of the Commission on Election to the addition of the names of convention delegates to the list of candidates because this will further lengthen the official ballots.

The Comelec will have to redesign the ballots to be used for the automated elections and possibly hamper preparations for the whole exercise.

The minority leader said it is inadvisable to hold the election of Con Con delegates simultaneously with the election of national and local government officials because this means that constitutional issues will be mixed with election campaign issues which will be confusing to voters.

Pimentel said the Con Con scheme seems to be favored by a growing number of people because they are afraid that if it is by Constituent Assembly, composed of members of Congress, that will be used to pursue the self-serving agenda of Malacañang, which is to allow President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to stay in office beyond 2010.

"I would have preferred a Constituent Assembly because it is faster and less expensive. After spending for the election of Con-Con delegates, you have to provide them with their staff, pay for their salaries and allowances, provide them with office and convention hall," he said.

He lamented that the law credibility of Congress in the eyes of the public has doomed the Constituent Assembly proposal.