Nothing grips the people nationwide than the issue on Charter Change though the people's initiative being pushed by Sigaw ng Bayan despite warnings that there is not enough enabling law to hold it. Notwithstanding the issues on whether the Constitution can be changed by the initiative of the people minus the enabling law, it is proper that every Filipino should take part in the discussion and making of decision on the issue.

The matter that is being decided involves the life of the country and its government. It is only proper that every one must get involve, as his life will eventually be affected by the kind of government that the country has. Whether one is for or against charter change, he must come out to voice his views. Only in doing so does one is able to make a well-informed decision when the time comes to make it. That time to make the decision through the plebiscite is, to say the least, eminent, if not inevitable. I say this in the face of even a strong sentiment among some sectors of society against it in view of and among others, the Supreme Court ruling against the mode without an adequate enabling law. Under any form of government, the Supreme Court is the last interpreter of the law. But even the Supreme Court is not above the people. In a democratic system of government, the voice of the people “est suprema lex.”

It is clear that even the Constitution recognizes the fact that in a Republican State , power resides in the people and all authority emanates from them. How else was President Marcos removed from office? How else was President Estrada removed from office? Even if the Supreme Court says that R.A. 6735 is not enough to consider people's initiative to change the Constitution, but if the majority of the people will clamor for it, it will be done because all authority emanates from them.

In the case of President Marcos and President Estrada, it was not even the majority of the people who asked that they step down from office as only those in Metro Manila took the streets to air their sentiments. The people's initiative being pushed by the Sigaw ng Bayan is not just coming from the Metro Manilans. The sentiments, thru their signatures are coming from every congressional district of the country. It cannot be gainsaid anymore that it is not the sentiments of the majority.

And even if we consider the ruling of the Supreme Court on the Pirma petition, the fact remains that the vote was 7-7 and it was only the tie-breaking vote of Chief Justice Hilario Davide that favored the ruling of inadequacy. It means therefore that the ruling had so many grey areas that can be debated again. I am not saying this because I am for the people's initiative as a mode of changing the Constitution. I need to further weigh things down too. But what I am saying is that the probability of a plebiscite is an eminent one and therefore everyone must be on his toes and learn as much about the present form of government and the parliamentary form that is being proposed by the Sigaw ng Bayan.

Where do we take cue from in considering the likelihood of the people's initiative succeeding? Well, for one, Pres. Arroyo already expressed her support for it. That is the only cue the local government units (LGUs) are waiting so they, too, can move. With the LGUs moving, who else will doubt whether the people's initiative can succeed? As in my previous column on Charter Change, the questions to be asked now should include: 1) what are the fundamental defects of the Presidential form of government that cannot be corrected by legislation? 2) If we change to Parliamentary, will these fundamental defects be corrected, and how? 3) Can we apply the experiences of the successful Parliamentary governments to the Philippine setting? Given the answers, the people should be fairly ready for the plebiscite.