BBM must stop the PI now
He alone can end this crisis, but he has shown no inclination of ending it right now.
What began as an unfortunate exchange about their alleged drug addictions — Marcos’ alleged craving for cocaine against Duterte’s admitted use of fentanyl as a painkiller — has in the last few days evolved into an entire tapestry of false news about Duterte and Marcos. The social media quoted Duterte’s former spokesman, Harry Roque Jr., as saying Duterte might be arrested by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor anytime soon despite Marcos’ pledge of protecting him from an ICC investigation. Other sources reported various activities allegedly related to Duterte’s rumored call for a secession of Mindanao.
The week came and went without any of these things happening. But the tension continues. Former House speaker Pantaleon Alvarez is reported to have renewed a previous call for the independence of Mindanao. There is no sign of a groundswell anywhere, but some sources report various groups engaged in related study sessions in various parts of Mindanao.
The Mindanao Independence Movement was launched by Datu Udtog Mataram in 1968. It splintered in 1972, with Nur Misuari leading the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) from Jolo. In 1996, the MNLF entered into a peace agreement with the Philippine government, allowing Hashim Salamat’s and Al Haj Ebrahim Murad’s Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to emerge.
But before that, in 1990, the late Reuben Canoy, my former undersecretary when I was minister of public information and a former mayor of Cagayan de Oro, together with Col. Alexander Noble, tried to launch the Federal Republic of Mindanao by issuing specimens of its national flag, currency and passport. Its leaders were disappointed when the government ignored their group, but they vehemently protested when they were detained.
The MILF quickly overtook Misuari’s MNLF. In 2014, it entered into a comprehensive agreement with the Philippine government, leading to the establishment of the current Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). A secessionist call for Mindanao will have to contend with BARMM, which has adopted its own ambitious development program for over 4 million Muslims in Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
Several Muslim leaders have called on Duterte not to pursue his call for independence. He could be persuaded to stand down: he and Marcos could kiss and make up, and dismiss their conflict as a simple “lovers’ quarrel.” But if there is any real risk of his getting arrested by the ICC, he could make a final stand. It is important that the lines of communication between him and Marcos be restored, and a possible mediator emerge. So far, the lines are still down, and no one has offered or agreed to mediate.
One way of cutting to the chase is for the President, right now, to end the conflict between the House of Representatives and the Senate on the move to amend or revise the Constitution through a “people’s initiative” (PI). By a serious oversight in finalizing the text of the Constitution, the 1986 Constitutional Commission failed to specify how the three-fourths of all the members of Congress shall vote when proposing to amend or revise the Constitution through a constituent assembly. It doesn’t say that the two houses shall sit in a joint session assembled and vote as one house or as two separate houses; it simply says, “The Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its members.”
Despite this imperfect construction, it does not alter the fact that the provision applies to a bicameral Congress, and should be interpreted according to how a bicameral Congress normally legislates. If the House and the Senate vote separately on a bill changing the name of a street, it stands to reason that they have to vote separately when amending or revising the fundamental law of the land. If they vote separately, the Senate with 24 members becomes the numerical equivalent of the House with 316 members, whereas if they vote as one, the Senate is reduced to an insignificant portion of the entire Congress.
Thus, if the House wants to change anything in the Constitution, the Congress must first be made to vote as one house.
The House will therefore exert every effort to make it appear that the “politicians’ initiative” is the “people’s initiative.”
This is the reason for our current constitutional crisis. But the President can end this crisis. He alone can end it, as two former Senate presidents have already said. All he has to do, as Sen. Francis Joseph “Chiz” Escudero has suggested, is to “rein in” House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, who is seen until now as being fully responsible for the fraudulent “PI.” The President has to end the “PI” now to avoid being suspected of using the speaker to arrange his own prime minister’s term after his presidency ends in 2028.