Former Senate President Franklin Drilon urged the public on Saturday to remain vigilant against any attempt at Charter change (Cha-cha) in a bid to extend President Arroyo’s stay in power.

Drilon, who is national chairman of the Liberal Party, said the move of administration allies in the House of Representatives to amend the Constitution through a resolution calling for a constituent assembly (Con-ass) is not to be trusted.

He said the resolution, authored by Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte, president of the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi), seeks to gather 197 signatures for a “House-alone Con-ass.”

He said this was part of a “grand deception plan designed to install President Arroyo as prime minister even after the holding of the 2010 elections.”

The Con-ass resolution, according to him, was intended to provide a “justiciable issue and secure a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court to pave the way for early implementation of Charter change right after the 2010 elections.”

“We will oppose and campaign against the Villafuerte resolution. We must win this battle,” Drilon told reporters after he spoke at the weekly “Kapihan sa Sulo” news forum in Quezon City.

House Speaker Prospero C. Nograles earlier said the Con-ass resolution was already signed by 175 congressmen and was only 22 signatures shy of the required 197, which represents three-fourths of the combined membership of the House and the Senate.

Drilon said the President’s congressional allies must be prevented from gathering 197 signatures so they cannot proceed with their plan to amend the Charter and change the form of government to a parliament even after the 2010 polls.

“We will exert effort to prevent them (administration allies) from reaching the 197 signatures. We will exert pressure on the remaining congressmen who have not signed the resolution. We will support them to stay that way,” Drilon said.

“For those who have already signed the resolution, I hope some of them will still change their minds,” he added.

United Opposition (UNO) spokesman Adel Tamano, who was also present at the Sulo forum, said Drilon’s revelations give the public more reason not to vote for the administration’s presidential candidate.

He said it is only through an election victory for the opposition that the “grand deception plan” of the present administration as alleged by Drilon can be averted.

“That’s why we really have to try our best to be united,” Tamano said, as he noted that the opposition has no clear presidential candidate yet.

Tamano said former President Joseph Estrada is working very hard to unite the opposition forces so that they will come up with a lone standard bearer in the upcoming presidential elections.

Drilon said the administration’s grand plan is for Mrs. Arroyo to run for Congress next year and campaign hard for the election of a “sympathetic president” and a House dominated by Kampi, the political party she founded in 1996.

“Then right after the 2010 elections, the Arroyo-controlled president and the Arroyo-controlled House will push for Charter change and shift to a parliamentary form of government so that she can now aspire to be prime minister and rule the country beside her now-ceremonial president,” Drilon said.

He said this was precisely the reason why Villafuerte and the President’s congressman son, Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, have asserted that any amendment to the Charter will be done after the 2010 elections.

“But for now, what they need is to secure a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court stating that the House alone can initiate Charter change through a constituent assembly and effectively bypass the Senate. That is the reason for the Villafuerte resolution: to provide a justiciable issue for the Supreme Court to act on the matter,” he pointed out.

He said once the High Court upholds a “House-alone Con-ass” process, “then there is no stopping President Arroyo from holding on to power for as long as she wants.”

During the forum, Drilon said the Villafuerte resolution was “deceptive” when it vowed that the process would not extend the terms of office of the President and other elective officials in the country, that the terms of office of the 12 senators who were elected in 2007 for a six-year term ending in 2013 shall not be shortened and they shall be allowed to finish their terms, and that there shall be elections.

“Of course, under the Kampi plan to install President Arroyo as prime minister after 2010, all those conditions will mean nothing. It is all a grand deception plan designed to install President Arroyo as prime minister even after the holding of the 2010 elections. This deceptive plan will pave the way for a Gloria Forever Constitution,” he warned.