If you have not heard about “cha cha” or ” “con ass”, probably you are not up-to-date to the current affairs in the Philippines. Cha cha is not the ballroom dance that most baby boomers used to dance but in the political scenarion in the Philippines, it is an initiative by the lower house or commonly known as congress to implement charter change (cha cha) to move from the current form of government into parliamentary. In this way, the incumbent president of the Philippines could run as a representative in her local district and be voted later on as a Prime Minister thus a continuance of her power as president.
Con Ass is a deciet full move of CONs (CONgressmen) to ASSimilate the right of the Filipino people to select directly the leader of their beloved country. Con Ass is a “constituent assembly” meaning, the lower house will be convened into a special body embodied to implement charter change. There will be no consultation from the people. In contrast to a Con Con where the people will vote for their representatives in the Constituent Convention which has the same power as the Con Ass only that people has voted for their representative.
The Supreme Court has denied the petition of some groups against the convening of the lower house into a consituent assembly. This indicates that congressmen led by Speaker Nograles have all the means leading to charter change. Senators on the other hand, say that they will not support the initiative of the lower house. On the contrary, the senators who say that are those who has the ambition of becoming the next president. Of course, if Cha cha will be implemented, their ambitions will be blocked.
Other people’s initiative against Con Ass are:
- Signature Campaign
- Political Rallies
- Virtual Rallies