Prioritize more urgent concerns, not Cha-cha—Congress told
Upon reading Leila B. Salaverria’s report on the latest proposal to amend the Constitution (“Cha-cha debates to begin in May,” Second Front page, 3/7/14) I said to myself, “Here we go again!” For me, Charter change, Constitutional Convention or any such creature is not important as of this moment. The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines may already be old, but this doesn’t matter: For as long as it is faithfully honored and followed by our lawmakers, we will go a long way in our pursuit of a fruitful and wealthy country.
What is/are the plans of the Cha-cha proponents? I am not against Cha-cha or Con-Con, but I am against the timing of this latest Cha-cha proposal. Have the proposed Charter amendments or the appropriate law establishing the Con-Con already been drafted? We have more need of many other legislative measures or initiatives which, for which need they should be prioritized. For example, as Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares said, we should focus on repealing the Electricity Power Industry Reform Act because it has not spared us the high electricity rates it was supposed to prevent.
—LUIS G. ASUNCION,
