Article 53. There shall be an Auditing Commission in Parliament composed of 15 members with the duty to audit all the accounts of Parliament and all income and expenditures of the Federal Government and its instrumentalities.
Ten of its members shall belong to the minority parties as may be defined by the Constitutional Tribunal and the remaining five to the majority party. Parliament may increase the membership of said Commission, but the proportion shall remain the same. By a decision of the majority of its members, the Commission shall have the power to prosecute a public official or a civil servant, provided that for an impeachment of a constitutional officer, the vote of two-thirds plus one shall be required.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
It is important to distinguish the Finance Commission of Parliament (Article 58), the Auditing Commission in Parliament (covered in this Article) and the Commission on Audits covered in Article 56. What are their different jurisdiction?
The Finance Commission shall exist in Parliament and in the five State Assemblies. The majority of their members shall belong to the opposition. Their function shall be likened to that of an external auditor in private corporations.
The Auditing Commission of Parliament will limit its functions to the accounts of the Parliament and will not cover the accounts of the other Departments, Commissions, and Authorities of the Government.
The Commission on Audits will perform functions likened to that of the internal auditor in private corporations. The Commission on Audits is a Federal office with jurisdiction not only on Federal accounts but also State and local Government accounts. All these offices shall have prosecuting powers including that of impeachment.
Article 54. An Act of Parliament shall prescribe the Charter of the Federal Civil Service Commission and of the State Civil Service Commission, the Commission on Elections, and the Commission on Audits.
Two-thirds of the members of the Federal Commissions shall be appointed by the Chief Magistrate of the Constitutional Tribunal with the consent of the said Tribunal. One-third of the members shall be appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, with the consent of the said Court. Their members shall hold office for nine years.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
The charter of these three Commissions will be the subject of an Act of Parliament, which will specify the number of members of the said Commissions. Of the three Commissions mentioned in this Article, only the Civil Service Commission shall be supported with a State Civil Service Commission. Its charter will be uniform for all the States and shall be the subject of an Act of Parliament.
QUESTION: What is the reason for allowing the creation of a State Civil Service Commission and not for a Commission on Elections and the Commission on Audits?
ANSWER: Civil Service by its nature should be decentralized. The supervision of elections rather than electoral processes and the internal auditing processes by their very nature should be centralized.
Article 55. The Commission on Elections shall have exclusive jurisdiction to organize all elections, including those of the State and local levels of Government.
The first election in the Federal and State governments shall be held during the first year after this Constitution has been approved. The Federal elections to precede the State elections. The elections for each State shall take place during different months of the same year. The provincial and municipal elections shall take place in the second year, on different days, as much as possible. The barrio elections shall take place during the third year to be held on different days, as much as possible.
Election inspectors shall be apolitical, and the two big political parties shall not have the right to appoint any election inspector with per diem from the Government.
Candidates who have lost in an election are disqualified to become candidates in the election at a lower level of Government during the three years of their failure to get elected.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
This Article will do away with the present practice of having the elections in all levels of Government held in one day, in most cases, every two years. This system is very strenuous to the Commission on Elections. Furthermore, issues in the different levels of Government get confused.
The second paragraph of this Article cancels the special privilege granted in the 1981 amendments to the Constitution, to the two big political parties to have the government supply them with an apolitical leader in every precinct. This does not eliminate the temptation for the said inspectors to overlook the votes received by a candidate of the third party, which has no inspector.
The privilege which the 1981 amendments has elevated into a Constitutional provision will not provide stability to the Republic. It will disenfranchise the electorate who do not belong to the vested interest of the two well-established political parties. They might, in the end, be tempted to find redress by violent action.
Article 56. The Commission on Audits shall have exclusive jurisdiction to audit all the Federal, State, and Local Government accounts. It shall have prosecuting powers.
Article 57. The Civil Service Commission in the Federal Government shall supervise the local Civil Service Commissions in the different States.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
These Articles are self-explanatory and have been discussed previously in relation with other Articles.
Article 58. There shall be a Blue Ribbon Commission in Parliament and in the State Assemblies. The chairman and two-thirds of its members shall belong to the opposition party or parties. It shall investigate violations of law and cases of graft and corruption. It shall have the power to institute criminal, civil, administrative, and impeachment proceedings.
The impeachment of any Federal official shall be decided by the Constitutional Tribunal.
There shall also be a Finance Commission in Parliament and in the State Assemblies. The chairman and two-thirds of its members shall belong to the opposition party or parties. The Finance Commission in the Parliament shall have access to all the financial records of their respective State Assemblies and of the State Authorities created to support the secretariat of departments.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
This Article creates two constitutional Commissions in Parliament: the Blue Ribbon Commission and the Finance Commission. The Blue Ribbon Commission of the Senate was limited to investigate anomalies and scandal in the Government but had no authority to file any action much less an impeachment proceeding in line with its findings.
The two Commissions created in this Article give the minority parties the power to clean the Government since they are vested with prosecuting power to institute criminal, civil, administrative, and impeachment proceedings against any guilty party as a result of their respective investigations. Their area of action, however, is limited to officials of the Federal Government.
A parallel Blue Ribbon Committee and Finance Committee shall be created in each of the five State Assemblies to handle dereliction of duty cases in the respective States. (To be continued/PN)
