A senator on Wednesday insinuated that Malacañang announced its support for the Senate's Joint Resolution 10 without thoroughly reading the document while at the same time saying that charter change should not be done at the end of an administration’s term.
"Let's clarify this with Press Secretary Jesus Dureza, he should read the resolution. It said [Charter change moves] would be subject to timing and content," Sen. Francis "Chiz" Escudero told ABS-CBN's Umagang Kay Ganda as he insisted that debates for a shift to a federal form of government should not begin at the end of an administration's term.
"It seems you have not talked with the main author, Senator Aquilino Pimentel," Escudero told Dureza. "When I signed the resolution, I thought this would signal the studies for a possible shift to federalism, but this should be done after President Arroyo's term."
The senator said even Pimentel was suspicious with Malacañang's sudden throw of support to the resolution. He added that the veteran senator was sure that his resolution is not the same with the Arroyo administration's Charter change moves.
Escudero also raised doubts about Malacañang's announcements that it is supporting the Senate resolution to pave the way for a long lasting peace in Mindanao.
For his part, Dureza said he was dismayed by the senators' sudden turn around. He said he thought it was "all systems go" because the 16 senators who signed the resolution seemed determined to push for federalism through a Constituent Assembly.
Dureza said he will have to change his statement to "all systems stop" if the senators will continue to "flip flop" on the resolution.
"The [moves for a shift to federalism] is all systems go if the senators, including Senator Escudero, will not flip flop," he said, adding that all the while he thought the senators were sincerely pushing for federalism.
He also explained that the concept of achieving peace in Mindanao through a federal form of government has been discussed years ago.
"It is all the while our trajectory for the negotiations with the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front)," Dureza said.
11 federal states
The resolution proposes a shift from a unitary to a federal system of government. One of the 11 component federal states will be the Bangsa Moro Federal State.
The Senate resolution dovetails with the plan of government and MILF peace negotiators to give Muslims in the south wide economic and political powers starting with the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) that was set to be signed August 5.
But the Supreme Court stopped the signing in Malaysia when it issued a restraining order August 4 in response to petitions by local officials that they were not consulted on the agreement.
A three-fourths vote of both chambers is needed to pass the resolution. Constitutional experts believe this vote must be done separately by both houses, an opinion which has been sustained by the Supreme Court. The proposed changes in the Constitution must be approved by voters in a plebiscite.
"We are putting our support to the Senate, which already mustered a substantial number of senators who affixed their signatures to the resolution," Dureza said.
"We expect that a similar move in the House of Representatives will snowball to concur with the Senate's overwhelming support to the move. This is our way forward in the effort to set up a federal system in Mindanao to respond to the aspiration of our Muslim communities in the south," he added.
"Black Friday" protest vs cha-cha
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) meanwhile announced Wednesday that its "Black Friday" protest actions would resume but this time would not target another oil price increase as before. It would instead be launched against Malacañang’s moves for "cha-cha".
BAYAN, in a statement, dismissed the moves for "cha-cha" as actions "that aim to prolong Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s stay in power."
The activist group even linked the current skirmishes between the military and Moro Islamic Liberation Front forces in North Cotabato and other areas to the ongoing moves for "cha-cha"
"We condemn the maneuvers of the Arroyo regime, starting from the botched peace process up to its escalation of the armed conflict in Mindanao and this, the current push for charter change. The regime is using the armed conflict to pressure Congress into railroading charter change and open the doors wide open for Arroyo to stay in power beyond 2010," Renato Reyes Jr. BAYAN secretary general said. "That she would do all this at the expense of 130,000 internally displaced refugees is truly abominable."
The activist group believes however that the moves for charter change would face rough sailing in the Senate even as it vows to launch protests against the moves.
"While it is true that the Senate will resist charter change moves, the people must be at the forefront of the resistance. The broad anti-charter change untied front or religious, opposition and progressive groups that mobilized in 2006 must again be re-activated," said Reyes said. "There must also be increased pressure on the government to cease military offensives that have displaced thousands of civilians in North Cotabato," he added.