Philippine Congress receives “People’s Draft” petition

 

Philippine Congress receives “People’s Draft” petition

The two houses of congress recently received a petition to revise the constitution with a “People’s Draft”, signed by various organizations and some individuals. The Philippine Senate received the petition two days ago while the House of Representatives also received the same petition a day later.

According to Atty. Dindo Donato, general counsel of Tangulang Demokrasya (TanDem) – lead proponent of the People’s Draft, the petition seeks action from our lawmakers to deliberate, approve, adopt and endorse the draft to the Commission on Elections for the conduct of a plebiscite “simultaneous with the national and local elections” next year.

“TanDem has initiated the framing of the People’s Draft four years ago and has had consultations with various groups and individuals to write the draft reflecting the desires of ordinary Filipinos”, said Donato. “Concerns voiced through those consultations include the creation of more meaningful and decent jobs in the country, the perennial fight against corruption, the need for better election process and the distribution of economic gains to the poorest of regions”, he added.

Still according to Donato, the result is a draft which seeks to promote “free and open competition in the economy through foreign investment liberalization, subject to safeguards and reciprocity; participation and consensus in governance through ’collegial rule’, vesting ultimate political power in the national assembly and the local councils; fair and equal opportunity in local governance through multiple ‘single-member districts’; immediate accountability for chief executives through removal by ‘vote of no confidence’; regional empowerment through delegation or devolution of major ‘decision-making powers’; and inclusive society of Christians, Muslims and Indigenous Peoples for national unity.”

Among the groups who signed the People’s Draft petition with TanDem include the Center for Preservation of Historical Rights of the Sulu Archipelago – an unincorporated people’s organization that advocates the preservation of the “History and Rights of the Sulu Sultanate”, and the CoRRECT (Constitutional Reform & Rectification for Economic Competitiveness & Transformation) Movement – a broad unincorporated alliance of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), local employees, professionals, entrepreneurs, and the youth, that advocates the “Three Point Agenda” common among “constitutional reformers” (i.e. economic liberalization, evolving federalism, parliamentary system).

Also among the petitioners are the Kapatiran Party (or Alliance for the Common Good) – a national political party registered in the Philippines since 2004, and the Lumad Mindanaw Peoples Federation (LMPF) – a people’s organization registered as a non-stock corporation promoting the interests of the Indigenous People in Mindanao.

The individuals who signed the petition are political analyst Ma. Lourdes N. Tiquia, and former Congressman Wilfrido B. Villarama.

For its part, TanDem (Tanggulang Demokrasya) is a people’s organization of concerned citizens organized in 2010 under the guidance of its advisor, the late Fr. Romeo “Archie” J. Intengan, S.J. It was officially registered in 2012, with Mrs. Evelyn Kilayko as Chairperson and Mrs. Teresita Baltazar as President. Among the other advocacies of TanDem include transparency in automated elections as it supports the Hybrid Bill that calls for the manual counting or audit of votes cast, combined with the automated canvassing of precinct results.

There are several moves to reform the constitution already resulting in several drafts in the past. Most recently, there are the Bayanihan Draft written by a constitutional committee formed by President Rodrigo Duterte and the PDP Laban Draft written by members of the political party to which the president belongs. However, the People’s Draft is the only one that claims to be crowd-sourced, having gone through different revisions over the years from comments and suggestions from “crowds”. The People’s Draft is also the only one that comes from the ground up, meaning it is not initiated by government officials or institutions but by ordinary people, hence its name. - S. A. Mable
Mai News, 24 September 2021 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=4383590078345013&id=452401011463959