If there’s anything we might all agree on in relation to how the Duterte government operates, it’s that it has taken spin and distractions, smoke and mirrors, to a whole different level. Sometimes it’s like they’re throwing in the kitchen sink for good measure, often enough there’s some sacrificial lamb.

It is of course the President’s big mouth which does the best job of disengaging us from what matters. Take all those instances when we should be talking about something important like the killing of farmers and peasants, the failed drug war, inflation, the excise tax on oil, China’s takeover of our seas, the entry of an unbelievable number of Chinese migrant workers, the militarization of government, and count the number of times instead that the president decides to drop a misogynistic statement here, or an expletive there directed at (a) the Church, (b) activists, (c) the poor, (d) human rights advocates and organizations, (e) “terrorists” (f) critics (g) all of the above.

Which is to say that at a time like this when we have so much on our plate of things to think about given the aforementioned urgent issues, it is also pretty clear that this government, along with its puppet (or puppeteer) Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is banking on precisely these overwhelming, exhausting times so they can continue with their ChaCha moves. 

Yes, Arroyo’s ChaCha. After she said in August that there was just no time for it anymore:

It might not probably be completed in my remaining time in office, especially there will still be a plebiscite. But I hope to move it forward as far as I can during my time as Speaker and so I hope that those who follow after will pick up from where we left off in this Congress.

And so we breathed easy, and decided to focus on other things.

Then at the end of September, we heard it was in fact being pushed by Arroyo herself, along with 21 of her cohorts in the House of Representatives. With the committee on constitutional amendments filing the Resolution of Both Houses of Congress No. 15 (RHB15), their own version of charter change.

In mid-October, Buhay Rep Lito Atienza announced that ChaCha was being talked about in the HoR, but not in the way it should.

“From the signs that we see in the plenary now mga tina-take up nilang issue they’re trying to introduce the changes they have been discussing in silence and whispers. <…> “Matigas ang ulo. They are not practical enough to say what I just said with less than 40 session days we will change the Constitution impossible, impossible.”

We would also be told of a ChaCha gameplan, by no other than Vicente Veloso, chairman of the House committee on constitutional amendments.

More or less we will be back about November 12. November 12 up to perhaps the first week of December, we will already be through with this Resolution 15. Resolution 15 is the draft of the proposed revised constitution. Now here is a draft that has gone through a lot of hearings, a lot of meetings, a lot of consultations nationwide for almost 2 years now so there is nothing more that we have to add to it. In fact, we had to suspend because we had to wait for the Puno committee to finish their work. This was finished before the SONA last July 2018, almost 3 months ago. That said, timeline namin, timetable is about 2nd week of December. 

November 12. That’s Monday next week!

The Congress rep is also talking here about a December 2018 vote on ChaCha, after which a February 2019 plebiscite will be held.

Yes, Arroyo’s Congress is sounding like the Senate does not exist, and that’s because as far as they’re concerned the Senate does not matter. As far as Arroyo’s ChaCha team is concerned, when House Concurrent Resolution 9 was adopted on January 16 2018, the House already convened as a Constituent Assembly.

Of course HCR 9 was railroaded by the Alvarez-led House. And sure, Arroyo wasn’t even House Speaker then. But this doesn’t make her any less responsible for the fact that ChaCha is now being railroaded under her leadership.

Trying to give Arroyo a way out, many Congress Reps — and she herself — have said that RHB 15’s proposed new Constitution is a combination of all the federalism constitution proposals thus far, from PDP-Laban, from the Duterte-appointed Consultative Commission(ConCom), and the versions filed by ABS Partylist Rep. Eugene De Vera and Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales.

And yet it’s also pretty clear that it is Arroyo who stands to gain with this push towards changing the charter, into this specific one that has passed through the hands of Arroyo and her cohorts, a small fraction of the number of Congress Reps, and an even smaller fraction of the populace.

An important example: the No May 2019 Election proposal or No-El.

As early as July 2018, when Arroyo became House Speaker, her family friend and puppet, richest Congress Rep of a questionable, ostensibly fake partylist Mikey Romero said that his “Tita Gloria” wouldn’t get support if she pushes for a no election scenario: “Even Speaker GMA will not support <no elections>. This will be her last term <as congresswoman>.”

And yet this is the transitory provision in RBH 15 that will ensure Arroyo and her minions can stay in power until 2022, and that’s because there won’t be any 2019 elections (screencap from document itself):

And guess what? Not only will Arroyo be allowed to stay on for another three years until 2022, she will also be allowed to run forever and ever and ever, because no term limits for positions other than President and Vice President in this terrible Constitution. Here’s a comparison of pertinent sections between the 1987 Constitution, and the Arroyo-Duterte proposed Charter.

For term limits for Senators:

1987 Constitution, Article VI:

Section 4. The term of office of the Senators shall be six years and shall commence, unless otherwise provided by law, at noon on the thirtieth day of June next following their election. No Senator shall serve for more than two consecutive terms. Voluntary renunciation of the office for any length of time shall not be considered as an interruption in the continuity of his service for the full term of which he was elected. <end of section>

2018 Arroyo-Duterte Charter, Article VIII:

Section 7. The Members of the Senate shall be elected for a term of four (4) years which shall begin unless otherwise provided by law, at noon on the thirtieth day of June next following their election. Voluntary renunciation of the office for any length of time shall not be considered as an interruption in the continuity of service for the full term of which he or she was elected. <end of section>

For term limits for Congress Reps:

1987 Constitution, Article VI:

Section 7. The Members of the House of Representatives shall be elected for a term of three years which shall begin, unless otherwise provided by law, at noon on the thirtieth day of June next following their election. No Member of the House of Representatives shall serve for more than three consecutive terms. Voluntary renunciation of the office for any length of time shall not be considered as an interruption in the continuity of his service for the full term for which he was elected. <end of section>

2018 Arroyo-Duterte Charter, Article VIII:

Section 4. The Members of the House of Representatives shall be elected for a term of three years which shall begin, unless otherwise provided by law, at noon on the thirtieth day of June next following their election. <end of section>

As you can see: Arroyo’s chacha has everything going for it. It can get the Senate to agree to railroading charter change, because it means that the current set of Senators can stay in their positions — no elections in 2019 means staying until 2022. Even those who are on their last term stand to gain: they can just wait it out until 2022, and run again!

Arroyo’s playbook is so obvious, it also reveals how little she thinks of Congress Reps and Senators, how she thinks all of them are like her, hungry for power and wanting to stay no matter what.

My hope is in the Senate of course. We need to hear ALL OF THEM SAY that they do not care for the no election scenario even if they stand to gain from it. Which means it’s even more important that we hear from Sonny Angara, Bam Aquino, Nancy Binay, JV Ejercito, and Grace Poe. And we need to hear all of them say they will NOT stand for this railroading of Charter Change, even when they will gain from a no election scenario. An aside: this is why I stand against the vilification of Senators who voted yes to TRAIN. That’s is a terrible way to assess what they’ve done in the Senate, which is push back often enough, but that’s stuff for another essay. End of aside.

And here is how we might win versus Duterte. We need to call on our re-electionist Senators to stand against these chacha moves. We hope of course that Senators like Chiz Escudero and Loren Legarda, who are running for local positions, can actually take the same stand.

Charter change is what Duterte has always wanted. And while there are undoubtedly many reasons to revise the Constitution, certainly we all need to agree it should not be done in a rush, without proper information dissemination to the public, and without the proper discussions. Certainly we can all agree that disenfranchising the voting public from choosing who their next 12 Senators will be, who our local government officials will be, is to disrespect our basic right to vote.

We win versus Duterte by getting the Senate on our side, including re-electionist and outgoing Senators, who stand to gain by siding with Duterte-Arroyo and her band of minions. We ask the Senate to pushback, and pushback strong, against voting on ChaCha in the HoR in December, and against a plebiscite in February. This is a waste of time and public funds; it is also an affront to the Senate, the people, and the electorate.

It bears repeating that Arroyo is notorious for trying stunts like this. We should tell her yet again that we will not allow her. ***