Quimbo: Charter change ‘necessary but not sufficient’ to curb corruption

Marikina City Representative Stella Quimbo said Saturday that amending the 1987 Constitution would be “necessary but not sufficient” to curb corruption in the country.

Quimbo was responding to a question on how changing the Constitution will address the problem of corruption in the country during a public consultation on constitutional reform in San Jose Del Monte City, Bulacan.
 
“It is necessary, but not sufficient. Hindi ibig sabihin na kapag inamyendahan natin ang Constitution magically mawawala ang lahat ng problema ng ating bayan. Hindi kami delusional dito na ganoon ang mangyayari, ang sa amin lang it is really the first step,” said Quimbo, senior vice chairperson of the House appropriations committee.
 
(It is necessary, but not sufficient. It does not mean that when we amend the Constitution, all the problems of our people will magically disappear. We are not delusional here that it will happen that way, but we think that it is the first step.)

“It is really opening the doors and giving them the opportunity to actually come in and participate in our economy and find marketing opportunities and at the same time by doing so we benefit, so ganoon po ang direction ganoon ang iniisip natin sa paghain ng panukala (so that's the direction, that's how we thought when we made the proposal),” she added.
 
The lawmaker acknowledged that corruption is a huge problem in the country, saying that the Congress can also pass laws to resolve it.
 
“Yung corruption malaking problema, sa ngayon we have the Office of Ombudsman. But there could be other laws that Congress can pass, kapag kulang pa [yung] enabling laws na related po dito kung saan matutuldukan natin ang corruption,” she said.
 
(Corruption is a big problem. Currently, we have the Office of the Ombudsman. But there could be other laws that Congress can pass if the enabling laws related to this are still lacking so that we can stop corruption.)
 
“Sa totoo lang po hindi sa pag-amyenda ng Constitution ay talagang masosolusyunan yan directly,” she added.
 
(To be honest, amending the Constitution is not going to solve it directly.)
 
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. earlier said Charter change was not a priority of his administration, even as House committee on constitutional amendments panel chairperson Rufus Rodriguez indicated that public consultations would continue with Congress being “an independent branch of government.”
 
The panel had also held public consultations in Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, and Pampanga. — VBL, GMA Integrated News