TWO committees of the House of Representatives are eyeing the approval this week of the resolution recommending constituent assembly (Con-ass) as the mode of amending the 1987 Constitution.
The Con-ass is also seen as a venue for restoring the death penalty for heinous crimes.
Liberal Party Rep. Roger Mercado of Southern Leyte, chairman of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, said his committee will proceed with the voting this Wednesday on a motion to constitute Congress into a Con-ass.
“We will proceed with the voting before we adjourn this week, because this is a very important proposal,” Mercado said.
Last week the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments started hearing at least 29 measures seeking to overhaul the 1987 Constitution.
But the hearing was ended after near fisticuffs between Rep. Robert Ace S. Barbers of Surigao del Norte and Rep. Prospero L. Pichay of Surigao del Sur following their debate whether to vote on a motion to constitute Congress into a Con-ass.
PDP-Laban Rep. Alfredo B. Benitez of Negros Occidental, author of a resolution calling for the Con-ass, said the advantage of a Con-ass is there is no need for another costly elections.
“There has been a clamor for change in the system of government, a shift to a federal form of government, provision of more autonomy and empowerment of the local government, less restrictive economic policies and other proposals that necessitate in the present Constitution,” said Benitez, a senior vice chairman of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, during his sponsorship speech.
Benitez added the resolution proposes convening the Congress into a Con-ass to introduce and adopt revisions and/or amendments to the Constitution as it is the most expeditious and less costly than the other modes for Charter change.
Benitez, chairman of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development, said despite the country’s economic growth, uneven development and poverty are still among the main problems of the Philippines, as development and social services have been centralized in the National Capital Region.
He also added that inclusive growth has not been achieved, that’s why the Philippines needs to change its government structure.
“There is glaring disparity between the share of NCR and other regions in the GDP [gross domestic product]; 37 percent of the GDP in 2014 is concentrated in the NCR,” he said.
There are three modes of amending the constitution—through Con-ass, constitutional convention (Con-con) or a people’s initiative.
Meantime, after its investigation on the alleged proliferation of illegal drugs inside the National Bilibid Prison (NBP), the House Committee on Justice is also eyeing the approval of a report recommending the imposition of the death penalty for heinous crimes.
In a radio interview, PDP-Laban Rep. Reynaldo V. Umali of Oriental Mindoro, the panel chairman, said his panel is set to approve this week a report recommending the restoration of the death penalty “to raise the level of fear among criminals.”
After the committee approval, Umali said he will sponsor and defend the committee report for plenary approval before Congress goes on Halloween break on Wednesday.
“We’re almost ready to submit our report to the committee on Monday for deliberation and approval. Hopefully, within the week, before we close and go on a break, we would have gotten the approval also of the plenary on this committee report,” Umali said.
Umali said the leadership of the lower chamber will not recommend the prosecution of any individual, including Sen. Leila de Lima, but will craft new laws to stop or prevent illegal-drugs trade inside the NBP.
He added that the panel will reopen the House probe once Ronnie Dayan appears before the committee. Dayan is allegedly the senator’s bag man for drug money collected inside the NBP.
2 comments
“Con-ass”?!? Come on now. Enough with the acronyms and abbreviations. It’s overkill already. Besides, most people don’t know the meaning of most acronyms anyway, so to overly use them is to further deteriorate an already rough communicating situation in the Philippines.
Con-Ass(Constitutional Assembly) = members of both House and Senate are mandated to revised the Constitution.
Con-Con(Constitutional Convention) = House and Senate will nominate and vote for the members of the convention. Voted members of the Convention are mandated to revised the Constitution.
People’s Initiative is also a way to revised the constitution where in major factions in the country can recommend any Law they wish to implement. Other countries mainly use Referendum to allow all people to either vote or no vote to any major proposals to the Government.
The way I see in the Philippines is that many people outside of Manila might support Federalism because they want more autonomy to their region. Many people outside Manila feels unfairness in the distribution of wealth, services, opportunities and many feel uncomfortable to the influence of Manila people. So to solve internal conflict a Federalism is a solution tot their concern.
Manila people on the other hand might resist Federalism as they are heavily dependent to the resources of these regions and higher benefits they get from the Central Government.
Considering that Manila Population is only 12% of the entire country. Federalism might be highly supported by majority of the people. But everybody should know that changing the constitution is indeed very expensive, and it may cost the new Federal Government into huge deficit or debt in World Bank. Educating the people about the new constitution is also a concern and it may entail cost as turn around of understanding the new constitution might take years to compliment.
But also people who are initiating Federalism concern is its better to change the constitution now than sooner, Philippines was built from different ethnicities and they have never been a central government until Spain conquered the country. People from these major ethnicities wants to preserve their culture, beliefs and their way of living, beside for their concern that only Manila is taking all the benefits that they should also have. Nonetheless, they should be aware that is their region are prepared for autonomy? So I guess they should design the regions that ensure that they have complete arsenal to be autonomy.