Sto. Tomas, Batangas—The Southern Luzon Solidarity for Charter Change recently hosted 48 organizations under the People’s National Coalition (PNC) for Revolutionary Government and Charter Change as it bared its priority program within the next 12 months here.
Bobby Brillante, RevGov Committee Chairman and National Deputy Spokesperson, disclosed PNC’s 10-Point Priority Program “to be accomplished within one year before President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s term ends on June 30, 2022.”
The organizations present included the Federal Coalition of Filipino Tribes, Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Top of the agenda, Brillante said, was the consolidation of draft constitution transforming the system of government to a federal system with one unicameral legislative body as parliament, whose leader is the Prime Minister and his Cabinet Ministers running the day-to-day affairs of the government.
Prominent among the proposals is the constitution drafted by the Commission chaired by former Chief Justice Reynato Puno to be finalized within three months, Brillante said, after which the proposed constitution shall be submitted within the next 90 days to the people for a referendum. Then national and local elections shall be held at a scheduled date under the new constitution.
Equally important, he said, is the provision in the proposed constitution that provides equal opportunity in public service by dismantling family dynasties and a prohibition on family members in government service up to the third degree of affinity and consanguinity. Only one member of a family shall be allowed to serve in public office, the PNC proposed.
“The concentration of power in one family in every city, town and province or region allows unabated abuse of power and uncontrolled corruption to the great disadvantage of the taxpayers and people,” Brillante said.
Another urgent, the group said, is to “democratize our oppressive economic system. We must dismantle monopoly and legislate anti-trust laws to level the playing field, provide equal opportunity in business and pursue equitable distribution of wealth.”
Brillante emphasized that to stop corruption, there must be a speedy resolution of all pending cases in the Office of the Ombudsman within a 180-day period from the date of an Executive Order issued for this purpose by a Revolutionary President.
Expand the Office of the Ombudsman to every Province. Each Provincial Office of the Ombudsman shall hence be given 90-day period to resolve cases of graft and corruption from the date of filing, dismiss those without merit and file those with evidence and/or established probable cause before the Anti-Graft Court/Sandiganbayan.
Also proposed is the expansion of the Anti-Graft Courts or Sandiganbayan to all regions and allow each Regional Sandiganbayan six months or 180 calendar days to resolve corruption cases, to acquit those accused without merit or convict and send to jail those accused government officials when evidence so warrant. “No more ‘Justice Delayed, Justice Denied,’” Brillante said.
The new constitution and succeeding laws under a revolutionary government should institute the “Nakaw na Yaman” Recovery Program, PNC added.
Under this proposal, all elected and appointed government officials, including their private cohorts who have accumulated ill-gotten wealth through fraudulent practices in violation of all pertinent anti-graft laws and/or those whose wealth have become disproportionate to their salaries and legitimate income, shall be subjected to confiscation in favor of the government and shall only be returned upon submission of proof that such questioned wealth or properties have been legally and/or legitimately earned.
The group also wants to stop criminality by professionalizing and strengthening the Philippine National Police under the supervision and control of the National Police Commission (Napolcom).
“The commission shall be chaired and composed of experienced criminal lawyers and retired justices of the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court to guarantee its independence and integrity in deciding cases of corruption, abuse of authority, violations of the established rules of engagement and incompetence in the performance of duties and functions of police officers,” the 10-Point Program of the Revolutionary Government stated.