FERDINAND MARCOS (Ikaw-18 na Bahagi)

WALANG saligang batas ang Filipinas noong kolonya ito ng Espanya. Ngunit pinamahalaan ito ng mga batas na gawa sa Espanya. Unang nagkaroon ito ng konstitusyon noong 1899 nang itatag ang Unang Republika ng Filipinas, o ang mas kilala na Republika ng Malolos. Hindi naipatupad ang Saligang Batas dahil bumagsak ang Republika na itinatag ng puwersa ni Emilio Aguinaldo.

Binalangkas ang 1935 Konstitusyon matapos itatag ang Commonwealth. Pansamantalang pinalitan ang 1935 Konstitusyon ng saligang batas sa ilalim ng mga Hapon noong 1943, ngunit ibinalik ang Saligang Batas ng 1935 nang lumaya tayo sa Japon. Ito ang Saligang Batas hanggang nagdeklara si Ferdinand Marcos ng batas militar noong 1972 at palitan ito ng panibagong konstitusyon noong 1973.

Itinuturing na kolonyal ang Saligang Batas ng 1935 dahil nabuo ito noong kolonya tayo ng Estados Unidos. Ipapalit sana ang saligang batas na pinapanday ng mahigit 300 delegado ng isang convention noong 1971. Ngunit inagaw at binaboy ni Marcos ang saligang batas upang maging blueprint ng kanyang diktadura. Ito ang Saligang Batas ng 1973. Nagpulong ang convention ng mahigit dalawang taon, ngunit nawala ang mga minutes ng plenaryo sapagkat nasunog umano. O ipinasunog ni Marcos?

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Halaw ang mga sumusunod sa isang aklat na aking tinatapos tungkol sa diktadura ni Marcos.

BLUEPRINT OF MARTIAL LAW GOV’T

The 1973 Constitution contained several objectionable provisions. Two provisions were in Article 25 of the Transitory Provisions, Section 1: “There shall be an interim National Assembly which shall exist immediately upon the ratification of this Constitution and shall continue until the Members of the regular National Assembly shall have been elected and shall have assumed office following an election called for the purpose by the interim National Assembly. Except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, the interim National Assembly shall have the same powers and its Members shall have the same functions, responsibilities, rights and privileges, and disqualifications as the regular National Assembly and the Members thereof.”

Section 2: “The Members of the interim National Assembly shall be the incumbent President and Vice-President of the Philippines, those who served as President of the nineteen hundred and seventy-one Constitutional Convention, those Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives who shall express in writing to the Commission on Elections within thirty days after the ratification of this Constitution their option to serve therein, and those Delegates to the nineteen hundred and seventy-one Constitutional Convention who have opted to serve therein by voting affirmatively for this Article. They may take their oath of office before any officer authorized to administer oath and qualify thereto, after the ratification of this Constitution.”

It could not be established with certainty because of the absence of official records if Marcos and Macapagal entered into a deal any day between Sept. 24 and Nov. 29, 1972. It was claimed that Marcos cajoled Macapagal to submit the copy of the draft constitution, where members of the 1971 Constitutional Convention and Congress would constitute the unicameral Interim National Assembly in the transition from presidential to the much ballyhooed parliamentary or semi-presidential under its Transitory Provisions. This was the essential come-on for the lawmakers to complete the charter because they were the ones to comprise the transitory legislature. Who asked Macapagal to include the two provisions and how did the Convention come with those provisions were unclear. How the Convention delegates took them and if there were debates and division of the house were similarly unclear. But Pimentel, in his book, said Macapagal went around to the delegates, enticing them to sign it. Many delegates obliged, believing Macapagal on his promises. Macapagal himself was confident that should Marcos convene the Interim National Assembly, he would have a glorious political comeback to occupy a major post under the 1973 Constitution. It did not happen though.

In what could be regarded as an act of treachery, Marcos never convened the Interim National Assembly as stipulated in the 1973 Constitution. He replaced it in a constitutional amendment in 1976. The amended charter mandated the creation of the Interim Batasang Pambansa (IBP) as the new legislature. The IBP was different from the Interim National Assembly because it did not require the inclusion of all Members of Congress and Constitutional Convention. Prior to the 1976 amendment and after the dubious ratification of the 1973 Constitution, Macapagal, for his part, nagged Marcos to convene the Interim National Assembly as the legislature under the 1973 Constitution. Marcos did not oblige, causing Macapagal to lose face before the delegates whom he encouraged to sign the constitution. It was perfidy, plain and simple. Macapagal hardly recovered from the machinations. The relationship between Marcos and Macapagal deteriorated to an alarming level to the point that Macapagal made the audacious but extreme move to defect to the U.S. Embassy in Manila on April 7, 1976. That was after Macapagal got threats of arrest when he wrote and published a book, accusing Marcos of “dictatorship.” The U.S. Embassy did not give way to his political act after Marcos assured the Americans he would handle Macapagal with moderation.

Marcos also succeeded to provide a mantle of legality to all legal orders he issued under the martial law government. The Transitory Provisions had Article 6, Section 2, Paragraph 2: “All proclamations, orders, decrees, instructions, and acts promulgated, issued, or done by the incumbent President shall be part of the law of the land, and shall remain valid, legal, binding, and effective even after lifting of martial law or the ratification of this Constitution, unless modified, revoked, or superseded by subsequent proclamations, orders, decrees, instructions, or other acts of the incumbent President, or unless expressly and explicitly modified or repealed by the regular National Assembly.”

Marcos hoodwinked the traditional politicians. He enticed them to bite his bait to comprise the Interim National Assembly, but he treacherously eased them out of the political equation by amending the 1973 Constitution and replacing the Interim National Assembly by the Interim Batasang Pambansa, a new body. But not all delegates approved the constitution. Scholar Jonathan Sutton had a term for it: “personal autocracy,” where Ferdinand Marcos was the lord and dispenser of all power and patronage within the Philippines. Iit should be noted that not all delegates signed to approve the draft constitution. Among those delegates, who refused to sign it included Pimentel, Nolledo, Lichauco, Rondon, and the lesser known Rolando Piit.

After Macapagal submitted the draft constitution, Marcos issued Presidential Decree 86[24] on December 31, 1972 that called for the creation of citizens’ assemblies, or barangays, ostensibly “to broaden the base of citizen participation in the democratic process and to afford ample opportunities for the citizenry to express their views on important national issues.” Marcos did not identify the national issues. There was no mention of the draft constitution in his decree, but each citizen assembly would be composed of all residents in a barrio, municipality, city, and provinces in the country. Marcos’s definition of citizens’ assemblies was so broad, causing unmitigated confusion among many citizens.

Realizing the mistake, Marcos issued an addendum five days later to the earlier presidential decree. Presidential Decree 86-A defined citizen assemblies, or barangays, that would form “the base for citizen participation in governmental affairs and their collective views shall be considered in the formulation of national policies or programs.” Then, Marcos lowered the boom by saying these new bodies would consider issues: first, holding a plebiscite on the new constitution, evidently the draft constitution submitted by Macapagal to Marcos; and second, the continuation of martial rule, and third, the convening of Congress on Jan. 22, 1973, and new elections in November 1973. The Marcos decree mandated the holding of a referendum “between January 10 and 15, 1973” on the draft constitution.

Marcos foresaw a direct ratification by the Filipino people of the draft constitution through the traditional processes as based on election laws was bound to fail. He used instead the citizens’ assemblies presumably to ratify the new charter, which was later called “the 1973 Constitution” to distinguish from any other constitution, including the 1935 Charter. This was a contentious issue in the country’s political history, as many people and sectors opposed it. Its ratification issue was raised before the Supreme Court but its decision in the Javellana v. The Executive Secretary landmark decision ruled that although the 1973 Constitution was not validly ratified, it did not have judicial impediment on it. Legal scholars were divided on the Supreme Court’s opinion penned by the outgoing Chief Justice Roberto Concepcion. Hence, the claimed ratified 1973 Constitution served as the Marcos constitution that gave the mantle of legitimacy to the authoritarian government. (Itutuloy)