INCOMING House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and former Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. are expected to clash over the modes of revising the Constitution. Alvarez of the Partido Demokratiko-Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan and Belmonte of the Liberal Party separately filed House Resolution of Both Houses 1 and 2, respectively, on July 1.
Alvarez is calling for a Constitutional Convention to “overhaul” the entire Constitution, including the shift from presidential to a federal system of government that entails a nationwide plebiscite.
Belmonte, on the other hand, wants Congress to convene itself into a constituent assembly and amend only the economic provisions, which would be approved by a vote of three-fourths of all members of the House and the Senate, with the two chambers voting separately.
Outgoing Senate President Franklin Drilon is seeking a review of the Constitution through Con-Con as he filed a resolution calling for a Con-Con to review the 1987 Constitution.
“There is a need to reexamine the Constitution to determine if it is still attuned or responsive to the demands of present-day realities,” Drilon said.
Incoming Senate President Koko Pimentel says Charter change will be among the priorities of the Senate, consistent with the plan of President Rodrigo Duterte to shift the form of government to federalism.
Pimentel, PDP-Laban president, said he will initiate moves to amend the Constitution through a Con-Con by filing a bill for this purpose at the start of the 17th Congress.
“The plan is to start the ball rolling for the shift to a federal system. As far as the legislators are concerned, a bill calling for a Con-Con must be filed,” he said.
Negros Occidental Rep. Albee Benitez has filed a joint resolution seeking to convene Congress and the Senate into a constituent assembly to amend the 1987 Constitution to shift to federalism.
Benitez filed House Joint Resolution No. 2, such is the fastest way to push for a federal form of government.
“The resolution proposes convening the Philippine Congress into a constituent assembly to introduce and adopt revisions and/or amendments to the Constitution as it is the most expeditious and less costly than other modes of Charter-change,” he said.
Belmonte has refiled his resolution seeking to amend the Charter by giving Congress the power to lift the restrictions on foreign ownership of land and businesses here.
While Belmonte’s proposed Charter change measure garnered 197 co-authors, the Cha-cha move failed to pass in the 16th Congress because then President Benigno Aquino III was vehemently against it.
Belmonte said the growing global interest in Asia provides opportunity for the country to compete for more investments.
“Statistics show that despite economic growth, the poverty incidence remained constant for the past six years, thus the need to urgently address this issue,” Belmonte said.
“In order to realize the full benefit of inclusive growth, the restrictive economic provisions in the Constitution, which hamper the flow of foreign capital investments, must be lifted.”
President Duterte is dead-set on a three-step push for Charter change that will “overhaul” the Constitution to shift from presidential to federal system of government and systemic structural reforms that will be finished in the next three years.
“The intention is not just to make piece-meal amendments, but to virtually rewrite the fundamental law of the land,” the Alvarez camp said.
“Duterte did not want a constituent assembly to rewrite the Constitution.”
The three-way push includes the formation of a Consultative Commission, the convening of Constitutional Convention and ratification via a plebiscite.
An insider in the Duterte camp, who requested anonymity, told the Manila Standard that the President will first constitute a consultative commission composed of people from various sectors, including retired jurists and academicians to engage the public in discussions on the merits of shifting from the present highly centralized unitary form of government into a nation composed of federal states or regions.
The public forums will engage the public in open discussions so as to forge a consensus on how the federal states will be composed, he explained.
“One concern is the disparity in wealth among the existing 16 administrative regions,” he said.