Manila Panel Approves Draft Constitution, Schedules Elections

A special commission Sunday approved the final draft of a constitution that gives Philippine President Corazon Aquino a six-year term, sets legislative elections for next May and contains safeguards against authoritarian rule.

The long-awaited draft also grants the legislature an unprecedented say over the future of U.S. military bases in the Philippines, sets up a bill of rights and a human rights commission, condemns abortion and abolishes the death penalty except for “compelling reasons involving heinous crimes.”

The draft, which was approved 44 to 2, will be presented to Aquino on Wednesday and will be submitted to the voters for ratification in January, 1987. One commission member was ill and did not vote.

Commission members bowed their heads in prayer after panel chairman Cecilia Munoz Palma announced the vote. The document was completed after more than 130 days of often bitter debate.

Aquino was attending a prayer service and could not be reached for comment Sunday. However, presidential spokesman Teodoro Benigno said the president is confident that the draft will win popular approval.

In downtown Manila, about 5,000 followers of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos braved rain to attend a rally and call for Aquino’s ouster. A speaker asked the crowd if they would vote for the constitution, and the people shouted, “No!”

After assuming the office of president in February in a civilian-backed coup that ousted Marcos, Aquino abolished his 1973 constitution, which allowed him to govern by authoritarian rule. She then appointed the commission to create a draft of a new constitution. In the meantime, she has ruled by decree under an interim charter.

The draft provides for six-year presidential terms, allowing Aquino to stay in office until June 30, 1992.

It calls for a 24-member senate and a 250-member lower house. Other provisions prevent the president from imposing martial law for more than 60 days without congressional approval and forbid the president to abolish congress.

Marcos ruled the Philippines under a martial law decree for eight years until 1981.

The draft also states that after the U.S. lease on military bases expires in 1991, no other foreign bases will be allowed in the country except under a treaty approved by the senate.

Under the present treaty, signed in 1964, the United States is allowed to operate Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base in the Philippines.

Some commission members had called for the bases to be abolished. Aquino has said she will respect the bases treaty until 1991 and will keep her options open after that.