Congress is being pressed to adopt a five-day work week to enable lawmakers to speed up its deliberations on federalism along with other priority measures requiring urgent action. With the Constitutional Assembly route to Charter Change getting closer by the day, CamSur Rep. LRay Villafuerte said a five-day work week would allow the House to hasten debates on the proposed switch to a federal system of government, as well as on other priority measures that would be agreed upon by Malacañang and the Congress in the upcoming Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council meeting.
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez had agreed to work on proposed amendments to the Constitution “‹beginning “‹January next year.
The House committee on constitutional amendments had approved by a 32-7-3 vote the resolution calling on Congress to convene itself as a Con-Ass to rewrite the 1987 Constitution and clear the way to the shift to a federal system.
As Congress will resume sessions on Nov. 7, Villafuerte, head of the House bloc of first-term congressmen, said that now is the time to push the shift to federalism via Charter Change, given the high trust and performance ratings of President Rodrigo Duterte as reflected in the recent separate surveys by Pulse Asia and the Social Weather Stations.
He noted that both surveys showed that the President has maintained his “excellent” ratings, both in terms of trust and performance, across all regions and all socioeconomic classes.
“Holding sessions from Mondays to Fridays would give us enough time and make us work faster in performing our lawmaking duties along with the extra workload of amending the Constitution via the Con-Ass route,” he said.
Villafuerte has pointed out that Con-Ass will be a faster and cheaper option than convening a Constitutional Convention.
“Con-Ass will save the government more money that can be used instead for the Duterte administration’s priority programs on restoring peace and order, stimulating economic growth and reducing poverty,” L-Ray said.
He stressed said forming the Con-Ass to propose constitutional amendments, including the shift to federalism, is an even much cheaper option.
“Having a Con-Ass will not only save the government on the election of Con-Con delegates but so much more because you will no longer have to spend for the maintenance and operation expenses of the extra government office for the would-be drafters of the new Constitution,” LRay said.
“Also Con-Ass will be so much faster,” he said. “You can propose, debate and approve amendments to the Constitution in one year.”
Villafuerte said he is confident that members of the Congress would “be up to the challenge” of holding sessions from Mondays to Fridays “as the majority of members see the urgency of the shift from the unitary to federal form of government.”
“The sooner we can implement the federal switch, the sooner we can attain lasting peace and sustainable development all over the country,” LRay said.
A three-term governor of CamSur from 2004-2013, Villafuerte was among the first members of the 17thCongress to push for Charter change to pave the way for the shift from the presidential to the federal system of government.
In pushing for the switch to the federal system, Villafuerte noted that the uneven distribution of the national wealth has failed to improve living standards in the countryside.
Under a federal system, LGUs would be able to retain a huge chunk of their respective incomes and turn over only a portion to the federal government, he said.
“Federalism will redistribute the national wealth outside Metro Manila, where our natural resources abound,” said LRay, who had steered the rise of CamSur as a robust growth and tourism center on his watch as governor.
“This setup will lead to genuine industrial and agricultural growth because LGUs would have more power in managing their funds and resources, instead of merely waiting for so-called ‘Imperial Manila’ to give the go-signal on how to spend their share of government revenues,” he added.