(Eagle News)–The National Union of People’s Lawyers has assailed the federal charter proposed by the Consultative Committee, saying it “falls into the bait or trap of strongman rule.”
According to the NUPL, this was because even if there were “progressive” provisions in the draft, it “effectively grants the incumbent authoritarian powers,” allowing him to appoint “all the members of the independent Constitutional commissions and practically thousands of government officials, which could include the judiciary, while exercising both executive and legislative powers.”
It said the draft also gives “his” Transition Commission the “legislative powers to promulgate laws and decrees.”
“The Con-Com draft Constitution unfortunately and wittingly or unwittingly even grants greater and more emergency powers to the next Commander in Chief, tilts in favor of the oft-abused mantra of national security, dilutes certain civil and political rights and freedoms, and reinvents government into a labyrinthian maze where the people will get lost and lose,” the NUPL said.
According to the group, the shift to the kind of federal system of government will “entail the creation of a massive and convoluted bureaucracy, with the creation of new federal regions, aside from existing local government units, not to mention the apportionment of judicial power to several superior courts instead of one Supreme Court.”
“Is this all necessary?” the NUPL asked.
The Con-Com was tasked to review the 1987 Constitution and come up with a draft of the federal charter.
On Wednesday, the bicameral conference committee approved a proposed federal charter, for submission to President Rodrigo Duterte, who is expected to sign it before his third State of the Nation Address.