Ronnie Puno must be day dreaming, when he predicted that the next president would just be a "transition president" since calls for charter change will intensify shortly after the 2010 elections (see story here). He said that this was actually the agreement between Mrs. Arroyo and Fidel V. Ramos when the latter agreed to support her run in 2004. Mrs. Arroyo was supposed to be the "transition" president but things did not go as planned since Mrs. Arroyo proceeded ahead without cha-cha going anywhere concrete.
Who among the contenders for the presidency would agree to cut short his or her term to accommodate a shift from presidential to parliamentary? Its only former president Joseph Estrada who is more than willing to cut it short to just three years. I have'nt heard of Mar Roxas or Manny Villar or even Chiz Escudero agreeing on a Puno daydream. These people worked so hard and spent so much on their respective campaigns for the presidency that for sure, they'll not agree on cutting short their terms just to accommodate the caprices of a few power-hungry elites.
There is also a possibility that the next president would use the cha-cha train to amend certain provisions of the charter, especially that of term extensions or re-election. Surely, the next president would be in the better position to espouse it since the Lower House already initiated cha-cha and demands for it would, as predicted by Puno, intensify shortly after the polls. Yet, I don't think that these shouts for cha-cha would lead towards a monumental change in the political system, no, not yet. Traditional forces are stronger than New Money and the possibility of the next president agreeing to a preposterous Puno proposition is simply nil.
“Charter change [Cha-cha] advocates still have enough time by our calculations and create a parliament,” he told reporters here.
ReplyDeleteShould this happen, Villar said in Filipino, “I will then run for Congress in Las Piñas so I may run for prime minister.”