By ERWIN COLCOL, GMA News
Published January 14, 2021 2:31pm Crossing party lines, leaders of various political groups and blocs at the House of Representatives signed a manifesto supporting Speaker Lord Allan Velasco s proposal to amend the restrictive economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution to help the economy recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that now is the most opportune time to resume the deliberation on the amendments to the economic provisions specified under Resolution of Both Houses No. 2 for the primary purpose of mitigating and providing lasting solutions to the devastating economic effects brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, read the manifesto.
President Rodrigo Duterte said he is determined to leave Malacañang in 2022 even amid the possibility of a term extension due to the revival of charter change talks in Congress.
ACT Teachers party-list Representative France Castro
The Makabayan lawmaker said there is no way to control nor prevent both houses of Congress from inserting political amendments to the 1987 Constitution, including term extension.
“Kung halimbawa po ang Senate na ngayon ay nagsasabi sila hindi lang economic provision, on party-lists, maybe on terms, anong mangyayari, Mr Chair? Halimbawa ito lang ang pinagbotohan natin and then sila meron silang iba?” Castro asked AKO partylist Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. , chairperson of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, during his panel’s resumption of the Cha-cha deliberations in the Loiwer Chamber.
(For example, the Senate is currently saying that the amendments are not just economic provision, may include provisions on partylists, maybe on terms, what will happen, Mr. Chair? For example, this is what we have just voted, and they have a different version?)
Published January 13, 2021, 3:59 PM
Lawmakers rejected Wednesday the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments’ declaration that it is already sitting as a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) to introduce amendments to the 1987 Constitution.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate strongly opposed the declaration made by AKO Bicol party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. during the resumption of the House panel’s deliberations on Charter change that they are already sitting as Con-Ass.
Independent opposition Rep. Edcel Lagman (FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“That is strange to me because no committee of the Senate or of the House including the Committee on Constitutional Amendments can sit as a Constituent Assembly. Because the Constituent Assembly is composed of members of the House and the Senate in a joint meeting or assembly,” Lagman said during the panel’s first hearing on Resolution of Both Houses No. 2 principally authored by House Spe
Senate President Vicente Sotto III
(Alexis Nuevaespaña/ Senate PRIB / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Sotto on Wednesday questioned how some members of the House of Representatives could claim such when the 18th Congress has yet to resume sessions.
“Huh! How? They are yet to convene on Monday the 18th. How can they sit as Con-Ass? Somebody’s got it wrong!” he told the Manila Bulletin in a text message when asked to comment on the development.
“How can you convert into a Constituent Assembly when you have not convened yet in plenary?”
“He is wrong,” he said of Garbin.
According to Sotto, a long-time lawmaker, a resolution should first be passed or adopted in plenary before a Congress body either the Senate or the House can convene itself into a Con-Ass. Congressional committees cannot convene a Con-Ass on their own, he said.