President Arroyo yesterday created the Charter Change Advocacy Commission (CCAC) aimed at securing public as well as congressional acceptance of the move to rewrite the 1987 Constitution, notably the shift to the parliamentary-federal system of government.

The President issued Executive Order 495 creating the CCAC as part of the consensus reached during the four-hour meeting of the Council of State attended by former President Fidel Ramos, Congress and Cabinet officials and private sector leaders at Malacañang yesterday.

"There is a need for information and so we are proposing the convening of a Charter Change information group made up of nonpoliticians," she said in a press briefing.

While many Filipinos are said to favor Charter change, Senate and House leaders greatly differ on whether Constituent Assembly or Constitutional Convention should be the proper mode by which to effect changes in the Constitution.

Under EO 495, the CCAC is specifically assigned to conduct a nationwide information dissemination, education and advocacy on the contentious issues of Charter change, including proposed shift from the presidential to parliamentary form of government.

Its work will also focus on the proposed shift from unitary structure of government to autonomous territories/federal states, and the proposed liberalization of the country’s economy as recommended by the Consultative Commission (Con-com).

With an initial budget of P5 million to be sourced from the budget of the Office of the President, the CCAC will be composed of 15 members to be selected from the Con-com and representatives of the various sectoral groups who attended the meeting.

Aside from the creation of CCAC, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said it was also agreed that Congress leaders will convene a Senate-House bicameral meeting to iron out their differing views – and reservations – on Con-com’s recommendations.

Among these contentious issues include the proposed scrapping of the May 2007 national and local elections to allow incumbent elective officials become automatic members of the interim parliament until 2010.

Bunye explained that majority of those who attended the Council of State meeting, notably the five senators present, have expressed their opposition to the proposed scrapping of the May 2007 elections.

"They think it is not appropriate, it is not timely," he said of the consensus reached during the "freewheeling" discussion among Senate and House leaders on the proposal to scrap the May 2007 elections.

Senators present were Francis Pangilinan, Juan Flavier, Miriam Defensor Santiago, Ralph Recto, Richard Gordon, and Edgardo Angara.

Former President Ramos reiterated his previous stand that the proposed scrapping of 2007 elections is a "national disaster waiting to happen" even as he underscored the need to change certain provisions in the 18-year-old Constitution.

Meanwhile, Vice President Noli de Castro yesterday told the Council of State meeting that "it is time we study the feasibility of Charter change," adding that for it to be meaningful "there must be greater or more extensive public debate."

The Vice President stressed that public information is important because the key to a successful healing process is understanding the defects of the system and collectively proposing solutions, saying that "the people must understand what ails our country and it is best if they have a more meaningful participation in the cure."

At the start of the meeting, De Castro called on all participants to have "sincere openmindedness and to act on the many national concerns that urgently need to be addressed."

"We should no longer be engaged in political bickering. The healing process must begin," he said.

Also yesterday, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago and Rep. Teodoro Locsin, Jr., pushed to kill Charter change and the no-election initiatives proposed by some participants at the Council of State meeting.

In their successive remarks, Santiago and Locsin both implied that certain politicians are pushing for Cha-cha to advance their own personal political interests.

The two opened the debate, following the ceremonial remarks by President Arroyo, Vice President De Castro, Speaker Jose de Venecia, and former President Ramos.

They stressed that there is no need to change the Charter.

Santiago and Locsin also insisted that President Arroyo should finish her term of office as president until 2010, asking that those who support her should do so without bringing in the issue of cha-cha.

Meanwhile, Sen. Mar Roxas said pressing economic issues should have been given more priority at the Council of State meeting instead of divisive political topics such as Charter change and the scrapping of the 2007 elections.

Roxas, chairman of the Committee on Economic Affairs, said ordinary Filipinos would appreciate the holding of a leaders’ meeting that would produce a clear and specific plan on how the government intends to improve the people’s living conditions.

President Arroyo’s allies in Congress yesterday said opposition leaders failed a crucial test of statesmanship with their absence in which they passed on the chance of helping government formulate a common agenda.

The opposition’s boycott, according to Lakas-CMD Reps. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City) and Lorna Silverio (Bulacan) only highlighted the opposition’s continued refusal to work with the administration for national unity and stability.

They also criticized as unfair Sen. Joker Arroyo’s statement that the council meeting was only for show.

As this developed, members of the House panel on Charter change yesterday arrived at a consensus to re-assert the country’s claim to territories also being contested by neighboring countries.

In its second hearing for the year, the Committee on Constitutional Amendments agreed to restore the phrase "and/or historic right or legal title" in the definition of the national territory provided in Article 1 of the 1987 Charter.

Reps. Luis Villafuerte (Kampi, Camarines Sur) and Jose Solis (Kampi, Sorsogon) said that in effect, the restoration of the phrase has clarified that the Philippines still asserts as part of its territory the Kalayaan Group of Islands off Palawan.

Villafuerte explained that the phrase was originally included in the 1973 Constitution but was stricken off by framers of the 1987 Constitution.