Teams of the Charter Change Advocacy Commission (AdCom) will be dispatched beginning Monday (March 13) to bring the urgent issue of constitutional reforms to Baguio City, then to Zambales, Bataan, Pangasinan, and Quezon City for the rest of the week.

Similar sorties are due in the last two weeks of March in Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon as well as in the Visayas, said AdCom Secretary-General Rita Linda Jimeno.

The advocacy drive is being complemented by a similar information campaign being spearheaded nationwide by the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines or ULAP, which is the umbrella organization of some 1.7 million local government unit (LGU) officials all over the country and various sectoral groups.

"AdCom is mounting this information drive in keeping with the Arroyo administration’s commitment to deepen public understanding of, and marshal popular support, behind the systematic changes in our flawed political and economic structures that stand in the way of rapid growth with social equity," Jimeno said.

Jimeno recalled that the nationwide consultations conducted by the Consultative Commission on Constitutional Amendments (ConCom) in the last quarter of 2005 showed that an overwhelming majority of participants from various sectors favor the shift to a parliamentary form of government.

Almost 74 percent of the participants favor a parliamentary form of government, with only 18 percent supporting the retention of the presidential system, while 72 percent want a federal structure in lieu of the unitary system, said Jimeno, who was also a member of ConCom.

Following a three-month work, the 55-member Concom submitted to President Arroyo last Dec. 16 a package of proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution. These include shift to a unicameral parliamentary system, provision for greater decentralization and local autonomy leading to the establishment of a federal republic, and relaxation of "protectionist" Charter provisions that hold back the entry of foreign investments.

In a recent radio interview, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said that although her administration had already initiated an array of bold steps that strengthened the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals, the economic takeoff can be kept on track only if the country adopts political reforms through Charter change.

Former University of the Philippines president Jose Abueva, chairman of ConCom and adviser of AdCom, opened the stepped-up information campaign last weekend by appearing on the Tinig ng Bayan program of NBN-4 to explain issues and field questions pertaining to Charter change.

Today, an AdCom team will launch the provincial sorties at the Baguio City Convention Center, where barangay officials from as far as Nueva Ecija are expected to attend the forum on Charter change.

Another AdCom team will motor to Iba, Zambales, also today, to explain to the people the benefits of Charter reforms and how they themselves can directly effect such changes as provided in the 1987 Charter.

A third team will be in Balanga City in Bataan tomorrow and will proceed the next day to San Fernando City in Pampanga.

On March 16, an AdCom team will be in Urdaneta, Pangasinan. Later in the afternoon, the panel will attend a forum sponsored by the Daughters of St. Paul.

Two days later, the group will return to Metro Manila to bring their advocacy campaign to Metro Manila, starting in Quezon City.

AdCom will then split into two teams to resume its provincial sorties on March 20 with scheduled stops in San Jose, Antique and Kalibo, Aklan. In the afternoon, a separate team will fly to Lucena City for the Quezon swing of this nationwide drive.

On March 21, the group will again split into teams to resume their Visayas campaign in the cities of Iloilo and Roxas.

The following day, an AdCom team will be in Cebu City while another group will be in Tagbilaran City in Bohol to continue their campaign in the Visayas.

A third team will fly in the morning of March 22 to Sorsogon City, where Gov. Raul Lee is spearheading an advocacy campaign to gather widescale support for constitutional reforms among Bicolanos. This group will then motor to Legazpi City in Albay on the same day to cap their campaign for Charter change in Bicol.

On March 23, a team will proceed to Puerto Princesa City in Palawan.

After a three-day break, AdCom will resume its advocacy drive by splitting into five teams to simultaneously launch March 27 information campaigns in Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan, and Batangas, where participants from as far as Mindoro are expected to attend.

The final leg of the three-week advocacy campaign will culminate in Northern Luzon, where advocacy commission members will again split into two teams to explain the benefits of Charter change in the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela on March 28.

A team will then proceed to the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino on the morning of March 29.

It will later proceed to Nueva Ecija, where Gov. Tomas Joson is now at the forefront of advocacy efforts to impress upon the people the importance of Charter change as an indispensable tool to open up the economy to big-time investments and create more jobs, especially in the countryside.

The last stop of the March campaign will be in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), where the AdCom members will again split into several teams to explain constitutional reforms to the people of Abra, Kalinga, Apayao and the Mt. Province.