Charter Change was laid to rest Monday night after President Rodrigo Duterte failed to mention it in his fourth State of the Nation Address, which he said became its “resting place.”
Drilon said this means Cha-Cha is no longer a priority of the Duterte administration.
But Senators Manny Pacquiao and Win Gatchalian expressed contrary views.
Pacquiao believes the President no longer needed to mention it in his SONA because the people were fully aware that he has been the one pushing Cha-Cha.
He also said Cha-Cha would need long debates and time to talk about.
Gatchalian, on the other hand, said it’s a silent message that cha-cha is off the agenda, all the other bills must be forgotten because debates on it would be long.
“Just look at the bills that he mentioned, Land Use, rightsizing is also controversial, creation of different departments is also controversial because you are now creating new bureaucracy in government—all of these demands time to debate and time to study and if we now inject cha-cha definitely all these bills that were mentioned will be very difficult to pass,’’ Gatchalian said.
Gatchalian reiterated he is not for Cha-Cha, especially for the next three years.
However, while Cha-Cha was laid to rest, the death penalty is being resurrected, receiving a big push from the President during his SONA.
But the Senate has remained firm, reiterating that the four-member opposition in the newly-opened 18th Congress will fight it “tooth and nail.”
According to Drilon, what’s more telling in the President’s speech is not what he said but what he did not say.
“That speaks volumes,” Drilon said, referring to the non-mention of federalism and Charter change, one of the President’s top campaign promises.
The President’s post-SONA press conference confirmed Drilon’s observation, where the President conceded that Cha-Cha won’t happen during his time.
“Hence, those who have plans to revive it this 18th Congress should better think twice. It will be an exercise in futility,” Drilon said.
Earlier, House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said he would push to extend the term of office of lawmakers.
The Palace, however, said that the President, has not yet given up on his proposal for federalism and Charter change, and instead its fate lies on the hands of Congress.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said that the legislative branch has the power to amend the 1987 Constitution.
“He wants it but he is not the one who will decide. If he has a joint legislative and executive power, there’s no problem. He just have to say that. But since he is bound by the constitutional restraints, he cannot do that,” he said.
“If it is not clear in the Congress, it is also not clear to the President. Because the lawmakers will decide, not the President,” he added.
Panelo also said that the Congress remains an independent institution albeit Duterte’s allies were dominant in both legislative chambers.
“It doesn’t mean that the President will just dictate what he wants to his allies. The lawmakers have their own conscience, independence of mind. They have to decide on their own,” Panelo said.
In an interview after the SONA, Duterte told reporters that “it is not the proper time” to discuss the issue.
Panelo said the Chief Executive meant that the lawmakers should resolve their differences first before issuing a joint statement on how they will amend the Charter to avoid stirring confusion.
“What he’s saying is, ‘Stop arguing about this, you cannot even agree among yourselves. Just talk within yourselves and then come out with a joint statement on how you will go about amending the Charter,’” Panelo said.
Duterte, the first chief executive from Mindanao, has made federalism one of his major campaign promises in the 2016 elections.
He said an overhaul in our current political system will bring long-lasting peace in Mindanao.
Last year, the President formed a consultative committee that drafted a Federal Constitution and the government has allocated millions of pesos for an information-drive campaign.
But Duterte changed his tune last month and scrapped federalism, saying it was unlikely to happen. He has since then pushed for Charter change.
Taking a cue from the President, Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Federalism and Constitutional Reform said that the administration will instead push for reforms in the 1987 Constitution.
Among the proposed changes are banning political dynasties, reforming the party-list system, and strengthening political parties.