2 ex-Chief Justices divided over Cha-cha under Aquino

(Updated 7:41 p.m.) Two former Chief Justices on Tuesday expressed different opinions on a proposal to amend the Constitution under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III. Reynato Puno (Dec. 2006 to May 2010) said he thinks the Aquino presidency provides a “perfect time" to review and change some provisions in the 1987 Constitution. “You cannot charge the President with any ill motive. The President is enjoying a very high trust rating, and he himself has seen some of these difficulties in his first six months in office. I’d like to think that we can address these difficulties by amending some of the provisions in the Constitution," he told reporters on Tuesday. In a speech he delivered after he was conferred with an honorary doctor of laws degree by the University of the Philippines College of Law, Puno enumerated some provisions of the 1987 Constitution that he thinks need to be reviewed. Among those is the provision for the country’s presidential and representative system of government. “Our elections are not yet free, fair and honest. It is not issue-oriented and more of a popularity contest among the unenlightened electorate," Puno said. Puno described the country’s legislature as “the domain of elites and dynasties," and proposed to give the judiciary complete financial independence and to depoliticize appointments to the Supreme Court. “Unless we can remove this virus of partisan politics, molecule by molecule, to disinfect appointments to our judiciary, our system of checks and balances will never fully work," he said in his speech. Another former Chief Justice, however, expressed apprehension over proposals to amend the Constitution while Aquino is still in power. Hilario Davide (Nov. 1998 to Dec. 2005), a member of the commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution, said he thinks the Charter is still very much effective more than two decades after it was ratified. “For myself, having been in constitutional commission, I feel there is no need to amend it yet because there are many provisions there which can be implemented by law," he told reporters on Tuesday. Davide, however, said some of the provisions in the current charter can be further improved. He cited as examples the provisions on the finances of the judiciary, as well as the different modes for citizens’ participation in governance. He did not elaborate. The issue on Cha-cha once again reached headlines after Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said over the weekend that now is the best time for Charter change debates because Aquino has vowed not to run for any elective post in 2016. Malacañang officials and Congress leaders, however, said that Cha-cha is not a priority of the Aquino administration. Earlier in the day, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said those pushing for Charter change should sway Aquino to their side in order for them to have the backing of the executive branch. The 1987 Constitution was crafted under the administration of Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, following the two-decade rule of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos. During the time of former Presidents Fidel Ramos and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a number of their political allies tried but failed to amend the Charter. - KBK, GMANews.TV