THE country’s leading business groups Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to declare as unconstitutional House Resolution 1109 which seeks to convene a constituent assembly or “Con-Ass” to amend the Constitution without the Senate’s participation.
“If and when the House is challenged for the legality of its actions, we call on the Supreme Court to strike down as unconstitutional the results of a constituent assembly that will not have included the Senate in its deliberations,” said a joint statement of the Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, Action for Economic Reforms and the Foundation for Economic Freedom released on the eve of street protests scheduled to be held starting Wednesday to denounce plans to amend the Charter through Con-Ass.
Members of business, civil society, and religious groups, including the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, have said they will participate in Wednesday’s mass action.
The NCCP is composed of the Catholic Church, Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches, Episcopal Church in the Philippines, Iglesia Filipina Independiente, Iglesia Unida Ekyumenical, Lutheran Church in the Philippines, The Salvation Army, The United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.
CEAP, the biggest alliance of schools in the country, has 1, 252 members.
Earlier, the Caucus of Development NGO Networks, which groups more than 2,000 development NGOs, also condemned the passage of HR 1109.
One June 3, lawyer Oliver Lozano and his daughter filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking to nullify HR 1109, saying the House of Representatives “railroaded” the measure to amend the Constitution to extend the term of President Gloria Arroyo.
Joint statement of the Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, Action for Economic Reforms and the Foundation for Economic Freedom:
We are appalled at the indecency and blatant disregard of the Filipino people’s will displayed by the House of Representatives in its adoption of House Resolution No. 1109 that allows itself to convene as a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution, without the necessary participation of the Senate.
The question all Filipinos should ask is: For whose interest was this action taken? Certainly not the Filipino people’s, as there is no widespread clamor to amend the Constitution, especially now that we are less than a year away from a presidential election. The resolution contains no issue of profound impact to the people’s welfare.
By this action of pro-Administration congresspersons, any remaining doubts about the determination of the Arroyo Administration and its allies in the House to manipulate our democratic processes and institutions to prolong their hold on power have been erased.
Malacañang insists elections will be held as scheduled in 2010. But unless its avowals are backed by President Arroyo’s clear and unequivocal rejection of her Congressional allies’ maneuverings and an explicit commitment that presidential elections will be held next year, Malacañang’s declarations amount to nothing but more subterfuge and double talk.
If and when the House is challenged for the legality of its actions, we call on the Supreme Court to strike down as unconstitutional the results of a constituent assembly that will not have included the Senate in its deliberations.
The election we look forward to in 2010 is an election for a new President and Congress that will restore the people’s confidence in the government. We call on the Filipino people to vigorously fight and reject this diabolical effort to destroy our democracy!
CODE-NGO statement:
We, the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO), are outraged by the shameless railroading of House Resolution No. 1109, which would empower Congress to convene as a constituent assembly (Con-ass) with the members of the two houses of Congress voting jointly instead of separately. It effectively paves the way for a Con-ass without the participation of the Senate.
In its brazen disregard of the constitution, the rules of the House, and the basic principles of fair play and due process, the House of Representatives (HoR) hurriedly approved HR 1109 in the middle of the night of June 2, 2009 without extensive discussion. The House leadership rushed the approval of HR 1109 at the committee level saying that the measure would be best discussed in the plenary session and promising congresspersons that a thorough discussion would take place there. However, after just one session day lasting only around 4 hours of plenary discussion, the Administration allies in the House cut short the discussion and rammed through the approval of HR 1109.
Why the rush? It is apparent that this is part of the unceasing efforts of the Administration, started as early as 2006, to change the constitution in order to extend their hold on power and to protect their own self-interests. House Speaker Prospero Nograles has admitted that this push to approve HR 1109 was discussed and approved in the presence of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the official merger of the LAKAS-CMD and KAMPI parties last Thursday, May 28, 2009, less than a week ago.
The railroading of HR 1109 again shows that the Administration and its congresspersons cannot be trusted to keep their word – not now and not when they convene as a Con-ass to decide on changes to the 1987 Constitution.