Longevity, thy name is Gloria

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

11/23/2008

How can anyone be expected to believe Malacañang, or even Gloria Arroyo and her son Mikey, when they claim that they have nothing to do with the Charter change (Cha-cha) along with the claim that this has nothing to do either with extending her term of office?

Apart from the fact that they are certified congenital liars, logic dictates that the move to change the Constitution is definitely geared to extend the term of Gloria and not for any other reason.

It is being claimed that it is only the economic provisions in the Charter that are to be tackled and nothing else, while at the Senate, what Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel wants, through his resolution, is a shift to the federal system, ostensibly the solution to the Mindanao problem.

Yet it cannot be denied that once a constituent assembly is convened, whether through joint or separate voting, the congressional floor is wide open for any and all changes in the Charter and there is no one — whether senator or congressman — who can stop another from introducing other features, including term extensions for them and Gloria on a transitional basis, or the lifting of term limits that would allow incumbents whose terms are up, to become eligible for reelection under a new Charter.

But why is there that rush on the part of Gloria and her allies to get the Cha-cha train going at this time when she has only a year and a half to go? To get foreign investments popping up all over the country with the Constitution granting 100 percent equity to foreigners in the business of exploiting the country’s natural resources and other businesses where the foreigners are not allowed to own majority shares?

Hello. The world is on a recession and worse, it may be going into a depression. Already, jobs are being lost in the United States, the country’s trading partner, along with other countries in Europe and Asia. Factories are closing shop. Business is bad all over. So why would foreign investors even bother with the Philippines merely because the strict economic provisions banning foreigners from owning 100 percent, or at least the majority control, will be lifted?

Direct foreign investments were pouring into the country years ago, even with the Charter having those economic provisions. If it worked before under this 1987 Constitution, what makes Gloria and her allies think that a change in the Charter would bring the foreign investments in? Besides, if one talks about the mining business, that has already been thrown wide open to foreigners, despite the Charter ban, thanks to a Supreme Court that is influenced by Gloria.

Truth to tell, foreign investors can live with nationalistic provisions. What they don’t like are flip-flopping policies of an administration, and of its changing the rules of the game at mid-stream. Neither do they like the Supreme Court changing the rules through its illogical decisions. And they don’t care for too much corruption in facilitating a deal, from high to low in the government.

But if it is the economic provisions that are at the heart of the Cha-cha move by the House, why can’t these changes wait for 2010, since it is only a year and half more to go for Gloria in Malacañang, less, if one counts the campaign period, where she becomes a true-blue lameduck.

With the world in recession, there will be no big foreign investments made in this country in 2009, that’s for certain. Even exports will suffer. And in 2010, with a new administration, there may just be a better climate with investments, and a change in the Charter.

On the matter of a shift to the federal system at this time, this is just as silly, considering the fact that the nation simply cannot afford a federal system at this particular time and even if Mindanao becomes a state, the Moro problem is certainly not going to go away because the Moros want an independent Islamic state, not an autonomous state.

But just where will the country get the money to effect a federal system, which calls for federal offices in all states, plus a system that calls for a state within a state, which means each state having its own legislative, judicial and executive branches of government? Then think of federal taxes that will be slapped on the Filipinos, apart from state taxes. Then too, not all regions that will be turned into states can survive on their own.

Given all these problems, why are Gloria and her allies insisting on getting the Cha-cha train going, if not due to the fact that they crave political longevity?

What is clear is that Gloria does not want to go in 2010 and neither do her congressional allies for the simple reason that they know that if the Constitution is not changed, she will have to go, and as they in Gloria’s government, know, they have no strong presidential candidate that can win the race and protect them after 2010.

Gloria and her allies are better off quitting while they are ahead.

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