Two blockbuster events today:
At 5 p.m., President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the First Lady Louise Araneta-Marcos inaugurate the new Philippine International Convention Center.
The renovation makes PICC world class again. Why?
The Discayas were not the PICC contractors, unlike the new NBI building on Taft and the Film Heritage building, both of which have the Discayas as contractor and both of which are delayed and are being constructed badly, per the Discaya standard, which is substandard.
At 6:30 p.m., DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon is guest of honor and speaker of the Manila Overseas Press Club’s ‘Infra Night’ at the Raffles and Fairmont Hotel ballroom. Vince is expected to update a select group of businessmen, professionals and senior journalists on the latest in the P1-trillion flood control scam or flood-gate, who have been charged and who are facing arrest and who are being investigated.
Reservations for Vince’s MOPC appearance have more than doubled in recent days after shocking revelations on how senators helped themselves, making insertion or amendments in the P6.326-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA).
The insertions were between P103 billion (flood control alone) and P142 billion, the total insertions then SP Chiz Escudero was supposed to have masterminded.
Congressmen also make insertions and commissions. But our senators are held to a higher bar of integrity and performance. Each senator is reckoned as presidential material. Our senators disappoint.
Senate Blue Ribbon committee chair Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson says ‘almost all’ senators made insertions in the 2025 GAA.
We have 24 senators, so P103 billion divided by 24 is P4.29 billion (some senators, Ping says, got P10 billion). The standard senatorial ‘cut’ or commission is 25 percent. So 25 percent of P4.25 billion is P1.0725 billion. Our good hardworking senators ran away with over one billion pesos of taxpayers’ money, a single deal, in a single year. That is from flood control alone. They also made insertions in the budget of other Cabinet departments.
If stealing or malversing P8.8 million is a non-bailable crime and subject to life imprisonment and if, indeed, nearly all our senators are corrupt, then we don’t have a Senate to speak of. ‘Almost all’ of the senators should resign. Forthwith.
With ‘almost all’ senators gone, the Senate will effectively be abolished. Without a Senate, the Philippines will be left with just one legislative house, the House of Representatives. Of course, not all our 315 congressmen are thieves; only some, not ‘almost all.’ That leaves a fully functioning House.
The House has always dreamed of making constitutional amendments, without the Senate. That time has come. The House can amend the Charter forthwith.
The 1987 Constitution offers three modes:
Constituent assembly (con-ass)
Congress, the Senate and House of Representatives, not necessarily in joint session, act as a constituent assembly.
Congress can propose amendments or revisions by a vote of three-fourths of all its members.
People’s Initiative
Section 2, Article XVII, the Constitution allows amendments through a People’s Initiative.
The people can directly propose amendments to the Constitution. It requires a petition signed by at least 12 percent of the total number of registered voters, with each legislative district represented by at least three percent of its registered voters. Last year, then speaker Martin Romualdez got this done, legally, until the public got cold feet with it.
People’s Initiative can only be used for amendments, not for revisions. I suggest two: define what is a dynasty (up to fourth degree of consanguinity) in the anti-dynasty provision of the Constitution. And second, abolish the party-list system. These two amendments will be a sea change and will wash the nation into the fine earth of good governance.
Constitutional convention (con-con)
Congress may call for a constitutional convention for the purpose of proposing amendments or revisions.
A constitutional convention will consist of delegates elected by the people and tasked solely to amend the Constitution.
Congress can either call for a con-con by a two-thirds vote of all its members or submit the question of whether or not to call a con-con to the electorate for a majority vote.
While the House is doing reforms, President Marcos Jr. can cash in on the climate of reform by declaring a state of emergency.
With his commander-in-chief and emergency powers, Marcos Jr. can order the arrest of the ‘nearly all senators’ who made GAA insertions and freeze their assets and deposits. He can order the arrest of all other people involved in the P1-trillion flood-gate and freeze or seize their assets and cash.
On Sept. 25, Orly Regala Guteza, a so-called ‘Marines’ intelligence, was brought to the Senate by Sen. Rodante Marcoleta as a witness against former speaker Romualdez. He was a polluted source, to say the least.
Guteza claimed to be among a group of 90 ‘Marines’ (wow, that many?) assigned to Congressman Zaldy Co, our premier and the most corrupt contractor-politician (he got P86 billion worth of DPWH contracts). Guteza’s job as a ‘security consultant’ was to be a ‘garbage’ collector for suitcases of cash. Each Rimowa suitcase contained P48 million. One million cash is one kilo. So 48 million is 48 kilos. There is no Rimowa that can carry 48 kilos; 32 kilos is max.
Guteza claimed to have brought 46 suitcases of cash (P48 million in each Rimowa) to the 56th floor penthouse of Co in Taguig. That’s 2,288 kilos or 2.4 tons – the weight of a truck. Of the 46, 35 Rimowas were brought to the house of Romualdez on 42 McKinley, Taguig (wrong city). Having 35 suitcases with 48 kilos each is like carrying 1.85 tons – the weight of a small truck. Guteza alone carried it. Not even Tom Cruise can claim such lifting powers.