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Charter change plenary debates at House slated |
By BEN R. ROSARIO
from the Manila Bulletin Online
Over 194 congressmen bonded by a common goal of amending the 1987 Constitution through Constituent Assembly will part ways as soon as plenary debates start on which provisions of the Charter should be overhauled.
The controversy on which of two Lower House measures — House Resolution (HR) Nos. 1230 and 1235 — will be presented on the floor will likewise become a thorny issue that is expected to divide the chamber’s Charter change backers.
HR No. 1230 which specifies the amendments to be introduced in the Charter was principally introduced by House Speaker Jose C. de Venecia Jr. and enjoys the staunch backing of congressmen belonging to Lakas-CMD, headed by the House leader. At least 198 of 235 congressmen co-authored this bill.
HR 1235 was authored by Rep. Prospero Pichay, a senior member of the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi), who, at one time, made an attempt to unseat the Speaker.
Reportedly backed by 204 House members, HR 1235 proposes to convene the two Houses of Congress into a Constituent Assembly for the purpose of amending the Constitution.
The Charter change bid, specifically HR 1230, will be sponsored on the House floor this week, thus, signaling the start of debates on the proposal.
However, Pichay and his Kampi partymates are expected to question the decision of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments not to act on HR 1235.
Lakas-CMD stalwart Rep. Constantino Jaraula claimed there is no longer a point to discuss the Pichay proposal because the author himself asked that HR 1230 be prioritized.
Kampi president and House Assistant Majority Leader Luis Villafuerte said that several congressmen, including himself, have reservations over the specific amendments that have been proposed under HR 1230.
"I don’t approve of several amendments proposed under HR 1230," Villafuerte said.
Kampi, a political party founded by President Arroyo, had espoused approval of HR 1235, noting that convening Constituent Assembly may be more acceptable to lawmakers than asking them to sign HR 1230 which already contains the provisions to be amended.
Party-list lawmakers led by Reps. Mujiv Hataman (Anak Mindanao) and Bem Noel (An Waray) vowed to put up a strong resistance against HR 1230’s bid to scrap party-list representation.
The Charter change resolution reportedly assigns to the party in power the appointment of sectoral representatives.
Under the present system, congressional representation of party list groups is determined through the percentage of votes the organization is able to garner in a nationwide voting.
Hataman and Noel are among the 12 party-list solons who rejected HR 1230. The rest have signed the resolution.
But despite the opposition to HR 1230, Jaraula remains confident the measure will be approved by at least three-fourths of members of Congress.
He said little resistance is expected in the move to approve the resolution in the Lower House. However, he admitted that debates would center on the refusal of majority of senators to join the Constituent Assembly.
Jaraula, nevertheless, believes at least five or six senators will participate in a joint session that would be launched soon.
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