NextGen Day

On Thursday, one of the authors of the 1987 Constitution encouraged Congress to put the enactment of an anti-dynasty bill ahead of any attempts to change that document.

It is a “lame excuse,” according to attorney Christian Monsod, to blame the Constitution for the deteriorating impacts of firmly established political dynasties when Congress hasn’t passed an anti-dynasty statute in 35 years, he claimed during a House hearing on motions seeking constitutional reform.

Why don’t our legislators pass an anti-dynasty law of 4 degrees for the barangay elections this year instead of rushing to change the Constitution?, Monsod asked.

According to him, corruption and a “feudalistic structure of dynastic families that has been resilient to reform for generations” are to blame for the nation’s issues with widespread poverty and socioeconomic inequities.

As he put it, “Real change cannot occur unless we attack the roots and not the branches of this system.”

He claimed that the Constitution was not to blame for the underdevelopment of Manila’s outlying areas, the issue of extreme poverty and inequalities, or the weakening of institutions, but rather for the government’s failure to fully carry out the Constitution’s requirements, particularly in the areas of social justice and local autonomy.

He declared, “The Constitution is not the problem; it is a component of the solution.

“Our Constitution is not perfect, no constitution is, because it was written by imperfect people,” he continued. “But before it was written, we conducted consultations throughout the country and the people, by a wide margin, preferred the stability of familiar structures – a democratic and representative presidential system, with checks and balances, separation of powers, and the rule of law. And, by a wide margin, they wanted the power to directly elect their president.”

On Thursday, the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments met for the first time in public to discuss bills recommending constitutional reform. Rufus Rodriguez, a representative from Cagayan de Oro City, serves as the committee’s chairman.

Rodriguez announced there will be a series of nationwide public consultations on all the referred policies in his opening remarks.

He stated that the following questions would need to be addressed during the first public consultation: 1) Is it necessary to change the constitution at this time? 2) If so, what is your preferred method of amendment? 3) What specific amendment if any, have you proposed?

Rodriguez said to the panel that the purpose of this exercise this morning was to help the committee and Congress gain a sense of how the public feels about the crucial issue of constitutional revision and how it affects their lives.

“There will be grassroots consultation in line with these participatory or inclusive democracy concepts. We are traveling outside of Metro Manila to three regions of our nation—Visayas, Luzon, and Mindanao—to learn the local barangay captains’ perspectives on the three issues.

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