Solon decries railroading of Cagas 'cut-and-paste' proposal

*From the Office of Anakpawis Representative Crispin B. Beltran *
Reference: Rep. Crispin Beltran (+63)927.871.1080
Lisa C. Ito, Public Information Officer (+63)927.796.7006
Tel. # (+632) 931-6615 Email: crispinbeltran@gmail.com
URL: http://www.geocities.com/ap_news



*NEWS RELEASE*

*February 2. 2006*

**

*Solon decries railroading of Cagas 'cut-and-paste' proposal, *

*says decision to promote parliamentary gov't rash and unstudied*



"Why the rabid haste to tinker with the Constitution without the benefit of
a debate and public scrutiny?"



Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran today decried the Committee on Constitutional
Amendments' "shameless and uncritical railroading of Davao del Sur Rep.
Douglas Cagas' motion to change the system of government from
bicameral-presidential to unicameral-parliamentary" yesterday, lamenting
that "pro-Arroyo solons are manifesting a gross lack of respect for their



"The Committee is tasked to patiently scrutinize and deliberate on the
proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution, not to just fling
hastily-proposed fundamental changes into the Plenary as if it were an
inconsequential and trivial matter," Beltran said.



"Arroyo's allies in the Committee have recklessly and callously ignored
calls for debate and patient study, and have, instead, pushed for this shift
to a parliament even without the benefit of a full accounting for the pros
and cons of the Cagas proposal," Beltran observed.



"An initial survey of the Cagas' approved motion will show that the majority
of the Committee members were not bothered by the fact that the draft is a
sloppy 'cut-and-paste' proposal that can be easily misinterpreted. It shows
the Committee's brazen disrespect for the procedures and processes even at
this basic level of legislative probing," Beltran added.



"The debates at the Committee level are just starting, but they have
nevertheless railroaded some unstudied proposals such as this shift to a
parliamentary form of government. Pro-Arroyo solons are forgetting that in
their haste to ram Charter Change through the House, they are only exposing
themselves as interested only in political exigency and not the peoples'
general welfare," Beltran added.