Aquino Urged to Try U.S.-Style System, Call Nov. 11 Election

Members of President Corazon Aquino’s Cabinet today urged her to end a political crisis by rewriting the Philippine constitution to create a U.S.-style bicameral system and calling general elections for Nov. 11, Cabinet members said.

Full details of recommendations submitted by a five-member ministerial committee after a week of debate were not disclosed, but officials implied that the election would require a dissolution of the unicameral National Assembly, which would then be replaced by a U.S.-style House and Senate.

Aquino today postponed a final decision on the panel’s recommendations until “early next week,” after an hourlong meeting with the committee chairman, Justice Minister Neptali Gonzalez.

Political Affairs Minister Antonio Cuenco told reporters that the committee advised against declaring a revolutionary government and suggested “transitory would be a finer term.”