Miriam: Cha-cha should eliminate ‘idiots’ in national govt

Although she is not in favor of amending the Constitution soon, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago on Friday said she wants the changes to the Charter to include educational requirements for national officials.

In an interview, Santiago, who chairs the Senate committee on constitutional amendments, said she wants the Constitution to require candidates for president, vice president and senators to be at least college graduates.

“Right now, there is not even an educational qualification. Right now, in our statutes books, people who want to become policemen must be college graduates. There is no similar provision for presidential candidates. Any idiot can run for president,” Santiago told reporters in an interview.

She added that this educational requirement can also cover candidates for members of the House of Representatives.

The 1987 Constitution sets citizenship, age, residency and literacy requirements for national officials.

Santiago also said that she wants the provision against political dynasties in the Constitution to be “self-enforcing instead of leaving it to Congress to pass a law.”

No limits to Cha-Cha

Earlier this month, the House committee on constitutional amendments approved a resolution, filed by House Speaker and administration ally Feliciano Belmonte Jr., seeking to amend economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution.

In his proposal, Belmonte inserted the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law” to certain portions of the Constitution to indicate that the current restrictions will remain in place until Congress acts to amend them.

Santiago, however, said that Charter change cannot be limited just to economic provisions.

“Once you change the Charter, you cannot, by law, limit the change or amendment to just a particular point. There are opinions, rulings of the Supreme Court that once Congress decides to open the Charter to change, you cannot say, just limit it to economic provisions,” she said.

She further said that she is against changing limits to foreign ownership of land and corporations enshrined in the 1987 Constitution, since other countries have achieved industrialization without making such changes to their charters.

President Benigno Aquino III has repeatedly rejected moves to change provisions in the 1987 Constitution, which was drafted and approved during the incumbency of his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino.

Last week, Sen. Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. said he received reports from an unnamed source on the Aquino's administration plan to extend term limits in the 1987 Constitution through Charter change. — Andreo Calonzo/KBK, GMA News