SHOULD THE 1987 Constitution be amended now? Asked Pulse Asia Inc. in a survey conducted June 15-21 throughout the archipelago.
A resounding NO! came the reply from 67 percent of the 1,800 respondents.
A timid yes squeaked 18 percent.
The don’t-know-can’t-say constituted 14 percent.
While 30 percent of the nayers said the charter could be changed in some future time, the larger 37 percent held it should not be changed “now or any other time.”
Are they in favor of a shift to federalism? Sixty-two percent said they were not in favor.
Twenty-eight percent said they were in favor.
Ten percent said they didn’t know or couldn’t say. Of those who were not in favor, 34 percent said the system of government shouldn’t be changed “now or any other time,” while 28 percent said it might be changed “sometime in the future.”
Noting that the survey was conducted two weeks before the consultative committee created by President Duterte submitted the draft federal Constitution to his offi ce and that the proposal had not been publicized at the time of the survey, it is the survey results could not be deemed definitive.
Still, the lines are clearly drawn, if only in the sand, so to speak.
