Parliamentary system proposed

A network of groups is leading a move to overhaul the constitution and is proposing a shift to the federal and parliamentary system of government.

The group, called National Movement for Federalism (Kilusang Pideral Pambansa) advocates charter revision or Chare, which it hastened to add, is different from the self-serving initiatives of politicians to lift the term limits such as the Charter-change (Cha-cha) move of the Ramos administration or the constitutional change for development (Concord) of deposed president Joseph Estrada.

Jose Abueva, former president of the University of the Philippines, believes charter revision should only be done after the 2004 presidential elections. He said the referendum for the new constitution should be held between 2005 and 2006, well before the 2007 local elections.

Abueva said the group will have more time to undertake further studies and consultations nationwide on how the new constitution should be drafted with the period it has in mind.

"We should be very deliberate in rewriting the 1987 constitution. We need time for our people to study our experience under it. We should not repeat the haste and pressure that marked the making of our present constitution," Abueva said in his paper entitled "Toward a Federal Republic of the Philippines with a Parliamentary Government by 2010."

Abueva said after consultations with various groups all over the country, the National Movement for Federalism has reached a consensus that revising the constitution should not be left to congress.

"There's a lack of respect for congress to amend the constitution," Abueva said during a Luzon-wide conference at a hotel in Manila yesterday.

The House of Representatives has been slowly moving to agree to amend the constitution despite opposition from President Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo. Some senators are also reviving the initiative in the senate.

Rey Magno Teves, executive director of a Mindanao-based non-government organisation, said the 1987 constitution, designed for unitary and presidential government, makes decision-making so highly centralised that regional development is being neglected.

"We're taking care on how we can provide a setup not from the standpoint of Metro Manila without having to secede from this country," Teves said.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., a staunch advocate of federalism, believes that the federal system is the answer to the security problem in Mindanao. In his paper, Abueva also stressed that federalism "is no panacea for solving our problems of governance."

"But it offers a higher probability than our unitary system of enabling the people and the nation-state to realise the advantages and benefit of adopting the federal system.

A federal republic will improve governance, empower the people and hasten our country's development," Abueva said.