2 former mayors of Oro in Concom

PRESIDENT Duterte on Wednesday appointed two former mayors of Cagayan de Oro as members of a 25-person committee that would recommend changes to the 1987 Constitution.

It would be a reunion for former mayors Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Reuben Canoy who cut off their political and even personal ties nearly 40 years ago. The reason for the breakup remains unclear to this day but it was bitter and it happened after the 1980 elections.

The last time the two were seen together in public was in 2014 when they joined former Misamis Oriental governor Homobono Adaza at a dinner thrown in their honor by the Cagayan de Oro Press Club for their contribution to the press freedom cause. They were civil with each other then but kept their distance, separated by Adaza who sat between them.

Canoy is a former president of the press club; Pimentel is a charter member; and Adaza was conferred an honorary membership award by the organization.

The three were known as the “triumvirate” that led the now defunct Mindanao Alliance that fought the Marcos dictatorship in this part of the country.

Pimentel, who subsequently served as senator for many years and, briefly, as Senate president during the Estrada administration, had kind words for Canoy yesterday.

“I feel honored to work officially with him again,” said Pimentel, adding that Canoy has “deep insights” on “possible solutions to the problems of our nation.”

He also said Canoy had “more difficult situations, politically speaking, than I really did” during the Marcos years.

“Tiaw mo, sakop siya ni Marcos apan gibiyaan niya. I salute him for that alone,” said Pimentel.

Canoy was a deputy information minister of the Marcos administration.

Canoy, for his part, issued this statement: “Although I have had personal issues with Nene, I have long forgiven him for these. For the sake of God and country, I’m happy to work with him in constituting a federal government which we both believe will solve the underdevelopment of Mindanao and other provinces discriminated against and neglected by the Manila government.”

Pimentel, 84, and Canoy, 88, are lawyers who have been pushing for federalism for at least half a century. Pimentel served as a delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention while Canoy is a broadcaster and an author of books on Mindanao.

13 Months After

Thirteen months after he created the Consultative Committee that would review the 1987 Constitution and submit recommendations on proposed amendments, Duterte named 19 of its 25 members.

Duterte signed the appointment papers on Jan. 24, just before leaving for India, Malacanang announced on Jan. 25.

As Duterte had earlier mentioned, the committee will be chaired by former  chief justice Reynato Puno.

Seven of the 19 are from Mindanao, three of them Moro: Pimentel, Canoy, Antonio Arellano, Roan Libarios,  Randolph Parcasio, Eddie Alih and Pangalian Balindong.

Six more members would be named by Duterte to complete the 25-member body.

Duterte during his campaign, pushed for a shift to a federal system of government but this would require amending the Constitution.

Duterte issued Executive Order 10 on Dec. 7, 2016 creating a 25-member Concom that would be tasked to review the 1987 Constitution and submit recommendations in six months.

The Concom is mandated to “study, conduct consultations, and review the provisions of the 1987 Constitution including but not limited to, the provisions on the structure and powers of the government, local governance, and economic policies” and submit its report, recommendations and proposals to the President in six months.

The Concom is tasked to finish its work “on or before the lapse of six months from the date it is convened” and ceases to exist “upon the President’s transmittal of the Committee’s recommendations and proposals to Congress.”

The other Concom members from Mindanao and their backgrounds:

• Arellano, 67, is a retired regional state prosecutor, a human rights lawyer under the Marcos dictatorship and a member of the government peace panel that negotiated with the National Democratic Front until Duterte called off the peace talks in November last year.
• Libarios, 59, is a former vice governor of Agusan del Norte, former representative to Congress and former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. Libarios was editor in chief of the Philippine Collegian, the campus paper of the University of the Philippines while a student at the College of Law in Diliman.

The three Moro members are Balindong, Alih and Parcasio.

• Balindong, 78, is a Meranaw from Lanao del Sur who served as a representative to Congress where he also served as deputy speaker for Mindanao.
• Alih was chancellor of the Mindanao State University in Tawi-tawi from 1995 to 2010 and management consultant of the Regional Ports Management Authority of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao since October 2012. He founded the Muslim Upliftment Foundation of Tawi-Tawi, Inc.
• Parcasio, 61, a native of Davao Occidental with Taosug-Maguindanao ancestry, served as Executive Secretary of the Armm under then Gov. Nur Misuari. He chairs the Peace Implementing Panel of the Moro National Liberation Front faction under Misuari and is a member of Lihuk Pideral.

Of the seven appointees from Mindanao, only Alih is not a lawyer.

Aside from Puno, and the seven who are from Mindanao, the other members appointed to the 2018 Concom are former associate justice Bienvenido Reyes, former Supreme Court justice Antonio Nachura, Julio Cabral Teehankee, professor and former dean of the De La Salle University’s College of Liberal Arts; Fr. Ranhilio Aquino, dean of the San Beda College of Law; former Cordillera Administrative Region representative Laurence Wacnang; and Edmund Tayao, executive director of the Local Government Development Foundation.

Also named to the Concom are lawyers Susan Ubalde-Ordinario and Rodolfo Dia Robes, businessman Arthur Aguilar, Virgilio Bautista, former president of the University of Baguio and former Bohol Gov. Victor dela Serna.

The appointment of the 19 Concom members came hours before Senate President Aquilino Martin Pimentel III and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, as well as Sen. Tito Sotto and Rep. Rodolo Farinas met and agreed to “momentarily set aside their differences and focus instead on a comprehensive consultative review of the 1987 Constitution and the finalization of specific constitutional amendments or revisions that will be proposed and presented to the people.”

“We have decided to focus on the revisions that have to be made rather than how these changes will be effected,” Pimentel said in a statement, adding the differing legal views on how to amend the Constitution “should not distract us from the crux of this exercise: to make revisions to the charter that will help improve our people’s lives.”

The Lower House passed a resolution last week to convene a Constituent Assembly to amend the 1987 Constitution and maintained the voting should be jointly. The Senate, on the other hand, said voting should be done separately.

The House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, in its Jan. 16 hearing, presented its proposed shift to federalism which would include calling off the 2019 mid-term elections and extending the terms of office of members of Congress and local elective officials until June 30, 2022.

This Jan. 17, at the hearing of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments, resource persons, among them Puno and Pimentel, said the preferred mode of amending the Constitution was through a Constitutional Convention, and in the case of a Constituent Assembly, voting should be done separately. (herbie gomez, and carolyn o. arguillas of mindanews)