Our lawmakers can’t fix the country’s public railways system. After the first 100 days of Digong’s administration, the daily breakdown of the Metro Rail Transit and the Light Rail Transit continues to plague the 500,000 daily commuters in Metro Manila without any solution in sight.
Yet our congressmen are doing what they do best—railroading the onerous Constitutional Assembly or Con-Ass choo choo train that will benefit themselves but not the people. The House committee on charter change debating the issue was overshadowed by two Surigao del Sur congressmen, Reps. Robert “Ace” Barbers and Prospero Pichay Jr., who jumped ship to join the ruling party. The two nearly came to blows after Pichay sided with Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza who was stonewalling a move to rush voting favoring Con-Ass over Con-Con or Constitutional Convention of delegates elected by the people. The “supermajority” in the House is a rainbow coalition composed of congressmen from the various political parties, including the spent force Liberal Party.
“They wanted to vote on a non-specific motion other than the mode of how to amend the charter by convening themselves into a Constituent Assembly or Con-Ass,” protested Atienza, adding “this is a brazen attempt to subvert the will of the people.” He pointed out that a plenary vote would require a roll call in a House often marked by absenteeism He singled out Cebu Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia, a former Liberal Party member who was zealous in pushing for a vote on Con-Ass. Garcia, in a case filed by Ombudsman Conchita Morales, signed without public bidding, the multi-million Cebu International Convention Center in 2006 when she was then Cebu governor.
Pichay, the former head of the Local Water Utilities Administration, is involved in the anomalous buyout of a bankrupt Laguna rural bank owned by the Gatchalian family. Pichay, according to the Ombudsman, funneled P880 million in LWUA funds into a deal that allegedly made Pichay prosperous. Nearly the entire Gatchalian family, including Wellex Plastics king William Gatchalian, his wife, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian and brother party-list Rep. Wesley Gatchalian have been charged for plunder by the Office of the Ombudsman .
Atienza claimed it’s suspicious and highly irregular the House majority wanted to rush voting on Con-Ass without the issue being fully debated. He said the congressmen want to hijack the process and arrogate onto themselves the power to amend the charter to serve their vested interests. One of these needed changes is to end political dynasties in the country. But of course the congressmen will never allow any meaningful change inimical to their interests.
This is what Con-Ass is all about. The a*sholes want to con us and continue doing what they have been getting away with all these years. If not for a few decent lawmakers in the House like Lito Atienza, they would have gotten their way all the time. He vowed to take the fight to the street where he said he can whip up the outrage of a million people into a firestorm protest against Con Ass.
Atienza is one of few men standing who are blocking the Con-Ass charter train from being railroaded by the supermajority composed of opportunistic congressmen from the various parties who saw the benefits of transferring their affiliations to the ruling PDP-Laban of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Meanwhile, the so-called opposition in the House and the minority leader have been strangely silent about the whole thing. Fortunately, there are built- in mechanisms in our Constitution providing check and balance. Even if rammed through by the Con-Ass gang, the approved amendments will still have to be deliberated by the Senate which votes separately on the matter. If both chambers pass the amended charter, it will still need to be approved by the people in a plebiscite. Actually the sooner the congressional gang rams it through, the better and earlier for the people to reject a flawed new charter.
A former member of the interim Batasang Pambansa and street parliamentarian during the Marcos Martial Law years, Atienza said Filipinos should not allow the rule of a minority passing themselves off as representatives of the people but who are really brigands robbing the citizenry of their right to elect the delegates to a Constitutional Convention to amend or draft a new charter replacing the one approved in the time of Cory Aquino’s revolutionary government.
The much-abused political slogan “ time for change” must now be given its true meaning.