Consumers Domain
Cha-cha moves, Trapo grooves
Tell me something, my friend. You ever dance with the devil by the pale moonlight?
--By The Joker
It's the season to be jolly, indeed. I'm saying this not because its Christmas season, but more so because of the groovy maneuvers of the trapos (traditional politicians) for self-preservation. It's fun watching those clowns in the Lower House, especially the way the Master Clown wags his ears and how it command awe among the other clowns. Hmmm, maybe those ears have magical super trapo powers! Anyway that's another story worthy of deeper analyses.
Now, going back to the circus, how these trapo clowns push for Charter change (cha-cha) is such a fantastic show. It is a package presentation of all their talents and creativity! In other words, the show for all seasons!
If you remember, these efforts earlier were coursed through a sham signature campaign. Aimed at packaging the Cha-cha drive as a peoples' initiative, the biggest dilemma is that the effort doesn't even resemble as one. Initiated by the same trapos, spearheaded by the Trapo Queen in Malacañang, the drive mobilized their cohorts in the local government units (LGUs) and the government agencies such as the DILG.
They gathered signatures as if they are gathering shells by the seashore. Most did not even understand what they signed for. Some even think their signature will be converted to a kilo of rice. Well, the Supreme Court shot down that drive, as it was clearly a trapo's initiative.
Then suddenly in recent developments, De Venecia, the Master Clown, announced that they are fast-tracking their efforts to convene Congress into a Constituent Assembly even without the participation of the Senate. Hmmm, sounds fantastic, right? They want to change the Constitution by first ignoring the same Constitution. Is this a joke?
The legislative system that we have is bicameral, which means we have two chambers doing legislative functions -- the Senate and the Lower House. Bills become laws only if it passed the two chambers.
To fit their objectives these trapos try to skew the essence of the Constitution's provision for constitutional amendments. According to the current 1987 Constitution: "Any amendment to, or revision of, this Constitution may be proposed by: (1) The Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its Members;."
This could indeed be misconstrued as if the vote requirement is three-fourths of all members voting as one. But the thing is, we have a bicameral Congress! How could they vote as one? If that is the intent of the Constitution, it could have stipulated on how to convene Congress as one when there is an effort to change the charter.
If simply changing of the name of a national road requires the two chambers to vote separately, how much more in changing the Constitution itself -- the highest law of the land! This clearly violates the Constitution.
But of course, only the trapos can pull that joke. They have mastered the art of pretending as if they know everything when in fact most of them are plain stupid. And some play stupid simply to make their pockets heavier.
Now, that there is strong public opinion against the moves of the Cha-cha clowns, Gloria Arroyo, De Venecia and company cooked up another awesome formula. They say that they will temporarily stop their efforts to push on with their new-fantastic-version of a Constituent Assembly if the Senate agrees to a Constitutional Convention.
Simply put, a blackmail! And the funny thing is that the leverage in the blackmail is a big joke, an unconstitutional circus.
It seems that more entertainment and laughter is to come in this holiday season! I'm so excited to hear the next punch line.
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