The Department of the Interior and Local Government on Wednesday said it was high time to reform the 1987 Constitution to reflect the pressing needs of Filipinos and help solve problems besetting the country.
Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the passage of the 1987 Constitution, approved to ease the plight of lowly Filipinos, only worsened the current state of Philippine society.
In a briefing for the legislative heads of senators’ offices, Malaya appealed to senators to support the political, electoral, social, and economic reforms being pushed by the Cabinet-level body created by President Rodrigo Duterte last year to coordinate the government’s constitutional reform agenda.
Proposition by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Constitutional Reforms chaired by DILG Secretary Eduardo Año includes the self-executing ban on political dynasties in the Constitution that meet opposition from congressmen.
“I hope our senators will support this,” Malaya said.
Malaya said the reforms being proposed by the IATF included the provisions to empower regions and increase the Internal Revenue Allotment of local government units (LGUs) so they could better address income inequality and lack of economic opportunity among Filipinos that had bred generational poverty and widened the gap between the rich and the poor especially.
Former Vice-Gov. Fortunato Peña noted the Senate was no stranger to this reform measure proposed by the IATF, citing the Local Government Code that sought to devolve funds and authority to LGUs which originated in the Senate.
