Tails Between Their Legs
Proponents of a measure to amend the Philippines’ constitution via a constituent assembly – or Con-Ass for short – beat a hasty retreat yesterday when representatives led by speaker Jose de Venecia emerged from a caucus and admitted defeat – sort of, that is, even as they announced that they will propose introducing constitutional amendments via a constitutional convention instead.
“We are not insensitive to public opinion,” De Venecia said. The shift to Con-con as a mode of revising the Charter, he said, should “put an end to this emerging division in our society.”
Insensitive, indeed, in the face of massive disapproval. As Manuel Quezon III personally observed:
The only consensus I can see is in terms of public opinion: and public opinion is more defined in terms of what the public does not want, than what it actually wants. What does the public not want? Cancellation of elections is a no-no. I sense resistance to proposals to deprive the public of the right to directly vote for the chief executive. I did sense an impatience with bicameralism until recently: the House’s moves have alarmed the public over the prospects of unicameralism. What does the public definitely want? Nothing to do with the Constitution: jobs, less crookedness, and some sort of stability.
Not everybody, however, abandoned all hope. Con-Ass will rise again, if they had their way:
But Majority Leader Prospero Nograles’ subsequent motion left open the possibility that Con-ass was alive, ostensibly as a face-saving move. He said the scheduled opening today of Con-ass had been put off to allow the House members to deliberate on Con-con.
What will happen next to de Venecia, who is perhaps facing opposition in his home district for the first time in the face of Dagupan City mayor Benjamin Lim, who is reputedly gunning for the former’s formerly uncontested seat?
Inside PCIJ clarifies some misconceptions about a parliamentary form of government; for example, it does not always entail a unicameral legislature – take a look at the United Kingdom, with its House of Commons and the House of Lords.
The court who convicted Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith in the infamous Subic Rape Case has yet to decide who gets to keep him while his case is on appeal.
Connie Veneracion has some useful Christmas shopping tips.
Promdi links to a story at Tony Abaya’s site about a reader who had a check stolen by thieves in the Philippine postal service. Together with Marc’s tale of how a friend was victimized by the same miscreants, and that of Thoughts In Binary, who both had their Google Adsense checks stolen in the mail, it’s another tale of woe in a long line of such stories. Basang Panaginip has some suggestions for Google in order to prevent this kind of fraud.
They might make it after all: Philippine car industry nears breaching 100,000-unit yearly sales mark.
This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is hosted by this is the samaBlog.
