ULAP'S PLAN TO RELAUNCH PEOPLE'S INITIATIVE TO ABOLISH SENATE DENOUNCED BY PIMENTEL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today denounced a move of pro-administration local chief executives to relaunch people's initiative to amend the Constitution with the objective of abolishing the Senate.

Pimentel vowed to block a reported plan of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) to revive people's initiative for Charter Change by proposing the conversion of the two-chamber Congress into a unicameral legislature while retaining the presidential system.

He said the proponents of the proposal apparently aim to hit two birds with one stone: the dissolution of the Senate and allowing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to stay in power beyond the 2010 end of her term.

"It's an old ULAP off-tune song they are trying to revive, hoping the people will sing along with them," Pimentel said.

"The people won't support such proposal because it's a ploy to perpetuate GMA in power."

Bataan Governor Enrique "Tet" Garcia, leading advocate of the proposed constitutional amendment, said the merging of the present Senate and House of Representatives into a unicameral body is supported by a vast majority of the Filipino people who have grown weary of the legislature gridlock.

However, Pimentel said the people are apprehensive of the phasing out of the Senate and the shift to a unicameral legislature because this will make it easier for the administration-dominated body to approve measures that will remove the stumbling block to President Arroyo's continued stay in power.

Indeed, Mrs. Arroyo will be the ultimate beneficiary of such odious scheme, he said.

Pimentel said that while he is in favor of amending the Constitution, it should focus on the adoption of a federal system of government.

He said the federalism proposal is intended for three goals: 1. to resolve the recurrent Muslim separatist conflict; 2. to address the chronic grievances over the disparity in the distribution of the national wealth among the various regions; and 3. to accelerate the country's economic growth.

Pimentel said that while he is batting for the shift from the existing highly-centralized unitary system to a federal system characterized by the dispersal of government powers among the component federal states, the presidential system with a bicameral Congress will be retained.

Pimentel said although the best mode for amending the Constitution is through Constitutional Convention, it is an expensive, long and even unwieldy process.

Aside from this, he said it would be difficult to impose a limit to the scope of the amendments that can be undertaken by Con-Con once it is granted plenary powers to overhaul the fundamental law.

Pimentel said the most convenient - and least expensive - way to amend the Charter is by converting Congress into a constituent assembly by imposing a limit to the scope of amendments that it is authorized to tackle.