Posts tagged with Constitution

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July 23, 2009

Law Students Against Cha-Cha

We, law students from UP, UST, Lyceum, San Beda, PUP, Arellano, and San Sebastian, united by common ideals, do strongly voice out our opposition to charter change.

As students of the law, we recognize the supremacy of the Constitution, the highest law of the land. On it hinges the legality or illegality of all other laws.

We also recognize that it is actually us, the people of the Philippines, who are the true authors of the Constitution, and as such, any move to amend or revise the Constitution should respect the will of the people of the Philippines.

We agree that the law only authorizes three methods of changing the charter, and that it is the intent of the framers of the Constitution that any amendments or revisions must still be ratified by the citizens, thus giving to the citizens a very important role in shaping the highest law of the land.

We generally have nothing against charter change, since it is provided for in the Constitution itself. What we are against is the suspect timing of such a move, which we believe is motivated by the political agenda of those involved, especially the ones who vehemently push for the approval of a Constituent Assembly.

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July 10, 2009

Cha-Cha Beyond Term Extension Motives

Changing the constitution of different countries worldwide has been in the agenda of the lobbying efforts of multinational financial institutions and corporations the past years, in an effort to open up their national patrimonies and natural resources to foreign exploitation and ownership.

If you think it’s all about the personal and political motives of our politicians, it’s worse than you think. All charter change attempts by all Philippine presidents after Corazon Aquino have a common motif–amendments to our nationalist economic provisions, to allow the wanton foreign exploitation of our natural resources and foreign ownership of our public utilities. Even with the 1987 Philippine Constitution in place (and its 60-40 ownership restrictions in many national industries), the country’s rich natural resources have only been exploited, through legal loopholes, by local and foreign corporations for profit instead of serving its potential of lifting the millions of Filipinos who continue to suffer from abject poverty out of their tragic situation. The current attempt at changing the Philippine Constitution will not only seek to extend the Arroyo administration’s hold on power, but will also legitimize the economic plunder of our country.

All the more reasons to reject the Arroyo administration’s current attempt at Charter Change.

Faced with Recession, US at the Forefront of Amending RP Constitution

The latest report on Foreign Trade Barriers of March 2009 on the Philippines by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) explicitly states the “[aim to reduce or eliminate] the most important foreign barriers affecting US exports of good and services, foreign direct investment [and] intellectual property rights.”

Apart from Politics, Pressure from WTO, US, EU Drives Cha-Cha Bid

The political dimension of charter change has dominated the national agenda. But the constant driving force behind all the attempts since the last decade to modify the Constitution has been the external pressure coming mainly from the WTO, the US, the EU and other rich countries to create the sort of policy environment that will allow globalization to fully thrive in the Philippines.

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June 3, 2009

There’s a reason we all call it CON-ASS

Last night, I couldn’t resist the urge to drive off to Batasan and witness for myself how the Arroyo-controlled House of Representatives would pass House Resolution 1109 declaring that the House may convene itself into a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) to amend the Constitution without the participation of the Senate.

There was an apparent media blackout early in the evening. Updates on the debates in Congress were absent in primetime news. It wasn’t after a few hours later when they would air the proceedings live on cable TV. By that time, I was already in Congress.

There were more than 200 congressmen present that night, an unusually excellent attendance in a Congress that has serious problems reaching quorum during most sessions. Something, indeed, was up that night. The marching orders and the lure of bribe money from Malacanang must’ve been too irresistible.

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October 23, 2008

One extra afternoon to memorize

Our final examinations in Constitutional Law 1 is divided into two parts. The first part is an oral exam, where we would be asked, individually, to answer a handful of random-picked questions by reciting, in verbatim as much as possible, the proper provision from the Constitution. That meant we had to memorize the entire Constitution. The second part of our final exam is a five-hour written test.

The oral part was set for today. When I got to school in time for the exam, I was secretly hoping by one way or another, I would get a few extra hours to study more. I’m a hopeless crammer like that. To my disbelief, after two hours of waiting for our professor, our class president announced that the professor forgot all about our oral exams today, or that he claims that there was a misunderstanding in the schedule. So we all agreed to have it re-set for tomorrow, together with the five-hour written exam.

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