Through the electronic media, we learned of the House resolution calling for the convening of the Constitutent Assembly minutes after it was passed when we arrived in Singapore from Bangkok.

Yes, Mike. We were in Thailand and Singapore last week for an official "stormy" trip.

Stormy because we were sent off by Typhoon "Reming" and welcomed back by Typhoon "Seniang".

At any trip, we're back to the cave beating for the deadline last night.

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Back to the ConAss, it was the political storm that the opposition was referring to when the ASEAN summit in Cebu City was cancelled by the organizing committee last Friday.

When we flew in from Singapore to the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark, Pampanga last Friday afternoon, there was no sign of any typhoon coming.

The same is true when we took the early morning flight from Manila to Tagbilaran yesterday morning. We cannot even imagine the hold order for fast crafts and inter-island vessels starting last Friday afternoon.

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It is our considered opinion that the foreign advisories cautioning a visit to the Philippines amid the mounting protest against the convening of Congress, which would be boycotted by the senators, next week, as a constituent assembly is the main reason for the ASEAN summit cancellation.

The gang of Speaker Jose de Venecia did it in a very wrong timing and gauging from the reaction of the President in her dialogue with the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines late last week, the cute chief executive is apparently not happy with the machinations of JDV and the administration allies in the Lower House.

It is too much to force an issue.

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Time and again, we have already amplified our stand supporting the move to amend the constitution. And may we add, even for the abolition of the Senate whose members have only one political agenda: to become President or at least Vice-President.

There is so much power being vested by the present Constitution to the Presidency that is why all political animals in this country cannot even wait when the term of a sitting President ends. Make the Office of the President plainly ceremonial equivalent to a symbolic head of state and voila, these senators will stop grand standing to position themselves for the next presidential elections.

Why do we have the likes of a Peter Cayetano and a Chez Escudero in the House? They are also eyeing a Senate seat next year and hoping to be counted as among the presidentiables in the future.

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But to amend the fundamental law of the land just as the May 2007 election is fast approaching is definitely bad timing. The repercussions are simply beyond imagination.

Last Friday's decision of Oakwood mutiny leader Antonio Trillanes to join the Senate race next year banking on his school boy complexion was a welcome note only to be muddled by the ConAss resolution. Even the limping Gringo Honasan would be more than willing to join the fray again.

There is still time for de Venecia's gang to save an imminent political eruption next week. We may not agree with the Speaker's politics but we definitely respect the statesman in him by preventing the country from being annihilated into another political oblivion. We have been there for several times already and its not easy to get back into the main stream. We have been lagging behind other countries in Asia. Its definitely too much.

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INBOX. We have this reaction about our piece on Czar Amonsot from Nonoy Pontrias send through his e-mail address at pontrias@yahoo.com.hk.

Nonoy wrote:" Please tell him (Amonsot) not to hang up his gloves. I know he has a killer punch power and I admired him before when I was an official boxing judge back home in the Philippines. That's all. My regards to all my relatives in Quijao, Ubujan and Manga.."

We reiterate our warning to e-mail users not to fall prey to those crazy announcements of winning in lotteries and our invitations for a business deals which continue to flood our e-mail addresses below.

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For comments and suggestions, just e-mail to the following e-mail addresses: obiter@boholchronicle.com