To give lawmakers more time to study the draft federal constitution and for an easier transition to the proposed federal form of government, the leader of the House of Representatives on Wednesday said it would be practical for the country not to hold the 2019 midterm elections.
Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez told this to reporters after Consultative Committee chairman and former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, together with other members of the Con-com, handed over a copy of the 91-page draft Charter, titled “Bayanihan Federalism: Power to the People, Power to the Regions,” to the lower chamber.
“Practically, yes,” Alvarez said when asked if it would be easier to transition to a federal government if the 2019 elections will not be held. According to Alvarez, the lower chamber needs enough time to tackle the proposed Charter change.
Also, he said lawmakers will be busy in the next few months for the State of the Nation Address, the deliberations of the 2019 General Appropriation Act, the filing of the Certificates of Candidacy for 2019 elections, the holiday or Christmas break and the start of the campaign season for next year polls.
“How are we gonna arrive at a quorum here? Of course, the congressmen have to start campaigning; that’s elections, it’s survival,” Alvarez said.
“How are we going to make the proposal to revise the Constitution? If we want to finish it, for me that’s what we should focus on, the timetable,” he added.
Alvarez said if Congress should put its focus on Charter change, “If we really want to finish it, we need to focus on it. It should not be done lightly.” Majority Leader Rodolfo C. Fariñas Sr. of Ilocos Norte said that members of the Con-com took about four months to finish their draft constitution.
“We’ll have to work on it, and then we’ll give you our timetable because, as of now, we haven’t read it yet, we have no idea what it looks like and how hard it will be,” Fariñas added.
“Do you think we can do it in two months? If so, it’ll be a rushed job…. If the leadership decides to enforce the proposal, we’ll work on it,” he added. However, the majority leader said the draft Con-com’s version and the House version of the federalism will be both considered by Congress.
The draft constitution was submitted to President Duterte for review on July 9. It was completed after several months of work by the 22-member Con-com handpicked by the President and proposes a shift from a unitary form of government to a federal.
Once reviewed, and if the draft constitution is accepted by the President, he will then endorse it to Congress for deliberations.
Under the draft, 18 federated regions are given more powers and will get a share of not less than 50 percent of all collected taxes. The draft constitution also states that the President and the Vice President shall be elected as a team.
Studying
Meanwhile, Alvarez said the House will now start studying the draft Federal Constitution submitted to them by the Con-com.
“Nothing serious [during the handover of the draft constitution]. We were given the preliminary draft, and then after that, we’ll have a series of meetings, however, we have the BBL [Bangsamoro Basic Law], and we can’t prioritize it yet. We’ll have to study it first,” Alvarez said.
But Fariñas said that the draft proposal of the Con-com is “recommendatory” in nature, and it is still the members of Congress who have the power to propose amendments to the Constitution.
“They [Con-com] are only advisory, and I hope we can make that very clear to the public…it’s the Congress that can propose amendments to the constitution,” he said.
With Kezhia Maglasang