THE House of Representatives will convene as the Committee of the Whole this afternoon to start the deliberations on and expedite the approval of proposed amendments to “restrictive” economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.
Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr. of Pampanga, a principal author of Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 7, said economists lead the list of resource persons who have been invited to attend the initial debates at 1 p.m.
The hearing was initially set last Wednesday but lawmakers had to move it to Monday because of the availability of the resource persons.
“The conversion of the House into a Committee of the Whole, which is like a plenary session, aims to involve every one of our colleagues in discussions with our resource persons. This will facilitate proceedings leading to an eventual approval or rejection of the proposed amendments,” Gonzales said in a statement.
Gonzales said the House is planning to conduct three hearings a week and vote on RBH No. 7 before Congress goes on a Lenten break next month, way ahead of the Senate’s plan to vote on its counterpart measure, RBH No. 6, in October.
The lawmaker again reminded the Senate that March was the original timeline set by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri for the adoption of RBH No. 6, which he authored with Senators Juan Edgardo Angara and Loren Legarda.
RBH No. 6 and RBH No. 7 are both entitled, “A Resolution of Both Houses of Congress proposing amendments to certain economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, particularly on Articles XII, XIV and XVI,” pertaining to public services, basic education, and advertising.
Both resolutions restate the provision of the Constitution that Congress may propose amendments “upon a vote of three-fourths of all its members,” but the Senate’s version added the phrase, “with each house voting separately.”
The suggested principal amendments are the insertion of the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law,” which would empower Congress to lift or relax the economic restrictions in the nation’s basic law, and the addition of the qualifier “basic” in Article XlV, which pertains to education.
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada has said the House and the Senate should vote separately and not jointly on amendment proposals, claiming that joint voting is unconstitutional, but Gonzales said they dropped the words “each House voting separately” in RBH No. 7 “because those four words are not in the Constitution.”
Gonzales has said RBH No. 7 can be passed like an ordinary bill because our “basic law does not say whether the House of Representatives and the Senate have to vote jointly or separately on Charter change.”
“We in the House chose to be true to our Constitution by quoting exactly what it says, no more, no less. If they say joint voting is unconstitutional, separate voting is also against the Charter because it is not there. Let the experts interpret this provision,” he said.
Aside from Gonzales, the other authors of RBH No. 7 include Deputy Speakers David Suarez, Kristine Singson-Meehan and Antonio Albano, Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, Senior Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander Marcos, and Reps. Yedda Marie Romualdez, Jude Acidre, Zaldy Co, LRay Villafuerte, Eleandro Jesus Madrona, Johnny Pimentel, Jesus Jurdin Romualdo, Wilfrido Mark Enverge, Jose Aquino ll, Brian Raymund Yamsuan, and Angelina Natasha Co.