Retired SC Justice Carpio on ChaCha: “it’s a fraud … we have to oppose this”

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews) – The aim of those who want to change the 1987 Constitution is political rather than economic and this “fraud” must be exposed in various fora and in campuses, retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said on Sunday.

“It’s a fraud. That’s why we have to oppose this,” he said.

“We will go to the campuses to explain. Certainly, we will go to the campuses if the House does not back out,” Carpio told a “Public Forum on Charter Change in commemoration of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution” at the MIC Cursillo House on Sunday afternoon, the 38th year after People Power ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., father and namesake of the incumbent President.

Carpio said that even if the House of Representatives did not succeed in its attempt to change the 1987 Constitution through an alleged “People’s Initiative” that turned out to be politicians’ initiative, “we have to be on guard” as proponents of Charter Change (ChaCha) will find other ways.

ChaCha proponents “have a high mountain to climb. That’s why, they are changing their position now.

But we have to be on guard,” he said.

He cited the three modes of changing the Constitution – by Constitutional Convention, by a vote of three-fourths of the members of Congress and by People’s Initiative. In the case of the latter, amendments must be “directly proposed by the people,” not by any member of Congress.

Carpio said that it is not constitutionally possible for proponents to proceed with an initiative because People’s Initiative can only introduce amendments but not revision.

He said the Constitution cannot be “revised” through a People’s Initiative, explaining that it is “revision” if the scope of the changes is “so broad that substantial changes are made in several provisions of the Constitution” as compared with “amendment,” which introduces a simple change that “does not affect the basic or fundamental principles of the Constitution like the checksand-balances or the separation of powers.”

No enabling law Carpio said another reason why the People’s Initiative will not succeed is that it has no enabling law.

He said Republic Act 6735 or the “Initiative and Referendum Act” was declared “inadequate” by the Supreme Court in the 1997 landmark case of Santiago vs. Commission on Elections.

Congress has yet to pass a new law, he said.

Carpio noted that ChaCha proponents in the House want