BY GERARD NAVAL

A CATHOLIC yesterday dared President Arroyo to put in writing her declaration that she will not spearhead any effort to extend her term beyond 2010.

"Isa iyan sa mga effort na dapat niyang gawin. Pero hindi sapat iyun. Isulat man sa dugo niya, kung kulang siya sa sincerity, wala pa din mangyayari," Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez said at the sidelines of an anti-Charter Change rally at the Andres Bonifacio monument in Balintawak, Quezon City led by the multi-sectoral group Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomiya (KME).

The rally organizers expected 5,000 but only 2,000 showed up. Police estimated the crowd at around 300.

Arroyo, on Dec. 30, 2002, stunned the nation by saying she would no longer run in 2004 but backtracked on her decision in October 2003.

Malacañang officials have repeatedly declared that Arroyo will step down from office in 2010.

"Ang impediment o obstacle sa kanya ngayon ay yung kanyang credibility. That’s why kung talagang seryoso siya, she has to make an extra effort para maging credible siya. Kung talagang magbabago siya, that’s very good. Pero it remains for us to see," said Iñiguez, head of the public affairs committee of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

KME’s Jaime Regalario said it is imperative for the Filipino people to do everything to ensure that the administration will not succeed in extending its tenure.

"Among the groups at the rally were Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Akbayan, Bisig, Lupa, Partido Manggagawa, Kilusan Para sa Demokrasya, Kaisaka, Isulong ang Maralitang Pilipino at Alab Katipunan.

Another group, led by party-list group Anakpawis, also held an anti-Charter change rally at Plaza Miranda.

Senators urged Arroyo’s House allies to drop their efforts to amend the 1987 Constitution through a Constituent Assembly or through joint voting of the Senate and House of Representatives.

Minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said the administration wants the two chambers of Congress to vote jointly, instead of separately, on amendments so that its numerically superior allies in the House can railroad the approval of amendments that will enable Arroyo to stay beyond 2010.

"What they did to the impeachment case by using their numerical superiority, they will also do on the proposed extension of terms," he said.

Pimentel said the insistence of administration congressmen for joint voting is patently unconstitutional, against parliamentary tradition and simply illogical, even as he pointed out that the House has at present 229 congressmen compared to only 23 senators.

"If we vote jointly, we will always be overwhelmed and outnumbered by the House," he said.

Pimentel said Arroyo’s House allies are pursuing this devious scheme on the presumption that when the issue of its constitutionality is raised before the Supreme Court, their position will be upheld by the tribunal.

However, he said he believes that the Supreme Court, even if packed with Arroyo appointees, will resolve the issue according to the rule of law and the paramount public interest, and not to please the appointing authority.

Pimentel said the administration game plan was pried open when it was discovered that the House committee on constitutional amendments had started discussion on Resolution 550, authored by Batangas Rep. Hermilando Mandanas, to extend the term of all elective public officials from June 30, 2010 to June 30, 2011.

But the principal objective of the administration, according to Pimentel is to adopt a parliamentary system where the constitutional ban against the reelection of the incumbent president will be rendered inoperative.

This will enable Mrs. Arroyo to run for Member of Parliament in Pampanga and subsequently for prime minister.

Sen. Mar Roxas said forcing the Filipino people to accept a "Gloria Forever Constitution" will backfire and condemn the Arroyo administration as history’s most power-hungry and inept government.

"This is why Filipinos eagerly await the elections in 2010 rather than the impending Charter Change moves in Congress by President Arroyo’s allies who want a "Gloria Forever Constitution," Roxas said.

He said that instead of engaging in programs to cater to the "real" needs of the people, "the government is busy being corrupt."

Sen. Loren Legarda said that instead of being preoccupied with Cha-Cha, the Arroyo administration should focus on strengthening the economy through a "fiscal stimulus package" in the face of the global financial crisis.

Rep. Roilo Golez (Ind., Parañaque), minority bloc spokesman, said the Cha-Cha initiative "is a dead deal from the outset" because of the Senate’s opposition to it.

"It doesn’t really matter whether the (Camarines Sur Rep. Luis) Villafuerte group gets 99 percent of the House. The Senate will never vote for it so it was a dead deal from the start," he said.

The two parallel draft House resolutions authored by Speaker Prospero Nograles and Kampi president Luis Villafuerte do not provide for Arroyo’s term extension but this does not stop any such proposal once the proponents muster the required three-fourths vote or 196 of all members of Congress.

Golez said it would also be an "insult to the members of the Supreme Court, present and future to hope and pray and even second guess that they would declare Constitutional a one-chamber approval of Cha-Cha."

The Constitution provides that any revision or amendment may be proposed by a vote of three-fourths of all members of Congress.

However, since it does not specifically mention "both Houses," some lawmakers interpret this to mean that the House can introduce proposed changes even without the participation of the Senate.

Speaker Prospero Nograles assured he is against any move to extend the President’s or any one’s term of office or even postpone the 2010 elections.

"We will not extend her (President Arroyo) term. Period," he said, noting that the House is merely putting flesh to its duty of tackling proposals to amend the Constitution.

Rep. Victor Ortega (Kampi, La Union), chair of the committee on constitutional amendments, urged those opposing Cha Cha not to derail legitimate moves to examine if there is a need to amend the Charter.

"We are not going to extend the term of office of public officials, including the President," he said.

President Joseph Estrada said the only solution to poverty is a change in leadership of the administration.

"The Philippines will not progress as long as it has a president who not only fails to understand the plight of the impoverished but who refuses to extend true compassion for the poor. As long as this is the kind of leader that the Philippines has, we have no hope for a better tomorrow. Our countrymen will remain hungry, our farmers will remain oppressed, and the nation will not progress, he said in his speech at the national congress of his party, the People’s Movement Against Poverty, at the San Juan Arena.