ULAP, LPP push for ConCon

CONCON is the way to Chacha.

This is the happy compromise that the 1.7-million strong Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) and the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP) both headed by Gov. Erico Aumentado are advancing to once and for all resolve the conflict on Charter change. After the Supreme Court nixed Chacha by people's initiative and after the Catholic Church is organizing a nationwide massive prayer rally on Dec. 15 to oppose the House of Representatives' version of amending the Constitution by convening itself into a Constituent Assembly (Con-ass), Aumentado is rallying them instead to support a win-win solution – via a Constitutional convention (Con-con).

“We need to understand that it is only now – under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo;s leadership that the nation is progressing. The peso is now P49.50 to the US dollar, our international reserve is now US$22 billion – the country's highest since we became a nation,” Aumentado said. With this backdrop, infrastructure projects will continue especially for Bohol with President Arroyo's goal of plucking the country out of poverty.

“A Constitutional convention is the key to a unified House of Representatives, Senate and Executive Department hence it would be the better alternative towards pushing the change from the presidential to the parliamentary form of government,” he said. As things are, government leaders, the society and the Church are at loggerheads with each other. “So, ULAP and LPP are asking Senate President Manny Villar and House Speaker Jose de Venecia to pass concurring resolutions that would be the happy compromise in finding change,” he said.

Aumentado also intimated that in his one-on-one conversation with Villar, he sensed that the latter is amenable to Con-con. Also, before leaving the Capitol yesterday where he convened the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC), the governor got a call from Rep. Jurdin Jesus Romualdo of Camiguin. He asked the House spokesman to invoke Speaker de Venecia's statesmanship to go Con-con instead of Con-ass to Cha-cha, adding that this is also the President's intention. “I suggest that we elect the Con-con delegates together with the 12 senators and local officials during the May 2007 elections,” he said.

He called on the militant and labor groups, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines , the El Shaddai, Jesus is Lord, the United Church of Christ of the Philippines and other movements to scuttle the planned demonstrations to start on Dec. 15 and support Con-con instead. “The future of our nation and the next generation is at stake here. Let us refrain from anarchy otherwise the momentum of progress and development we are experiencing now will grind to a standstill,” he said. Besides, it is Christmas. It is time to reconcile and harmonize conflicting positions. ULAP and LPP support a happy compromise; I hope that the House of Representatives, the Senate, civil society and other groups will support such a compromise, too,” he said.

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