*Ann Caña

	Web www.visayandailystar.com

This nation has seen three changes in its Constitution since its birth as a republic. There was the 1935 Constitution, which gave way to the 1973 Constitution, which gave way to the 1986 Constitution.

If we have to count the Malolos Constitution, this country boasts of four constitutions in its historical file. What a record.

And if progress is only based on the number of Charter changes that a country has, the Philippines would have outranked America by now. America's Constitution is, I think, about 200 years old. It has seen many amendments but it has never been changed. America has seen the rise and fall of its presidents but its Charter has withstood the vicissitudes of time and politics.

The Americans see nothing wrong with their Charter. If they see corruption and scandal in government, they change their leaders, not their Constitution.

I guess it is only here in the Philippines where the Constitution is blamed for every ill and curse that befall us. Our leaders, led by the President, want charter change because they want to implement electoral reforms and eradicate corruption in government, or so they say. They are gripped with a sense of mission to reform government but they want to task the very same people, who killed the impeachment complaint through legal gobbledygook and technicalities, to frame the new charter. What logic.

If our leaders can only pause and meditate for a while, they will realize that the problem is not the constitution. The problem is talking to a COMELEC Commissioner to ensure victory in the elections. If they can only pause and think for a while, they will know that the problem is not the Constitution. The problem is their obsessive desire to stay in power, doing everything in their power, to ensure their hold on that power.

If the problem is the constitution, we would have hit the right one after several misses. I guess the disease that debilitates us is not our charter but our character. We have instituted so many changes in our Constitution and created so many laws, too numerous, in fact, that some are never implemented, but corruption has remained unabated. In fact, we have become so comfortable with it that we no longer feel any sense of shame when we are caught.

If our Constitution -past and present-can only speak, I wonder what it would say to us.

The Constitution is not the problem; the problem is our character. And unless we reform, the curse in our land will never be broken.

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