MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) Administration allies will use their numbers to have House Resolution 1109 approved on Tuesday’s session and will study the option if the House of Representatives could convene into a constituent assembly even without the Senate.
Speaker Prospero Nograles said this would be the scenario expected on the floor in the last two days of session before they go on sine die adjournment.
Interviewed after presiding over a caucus of the majority, Nograles said they would pass HR 1109 and then study their next moves.
“After we pass it we will have to study our next moves, study, legal [study],” he said.
When asked if convening into a constituent assembly was an option, he said, “that’s an option.”
The constituent assembly resolution will be taken up before two other priority legislation, the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and the right of reply bill, the Speaker said.
He said approving HR 1109 was “easy to get as long as the majority are present.”
He said the debates expected about 1109 are “mostly saliva debates.”
“I advise you to stay on until 11 o’clock because it looks like a long night and it’s going to be 1109 all the way,” he told reporters.
Taking up the constituent assembly resolution was one of the agreements within the merged Lakas-Kampi-CMD party, despite the withdrawal of support of Camarines Sur Representative Luis Villafuerte, former Kampi president, who drafted the resolution.
“The leadership of the Lakas and Kampi decided that that is one of the things that we will pursue, this resolution. I asked them, ano’ng gagawin natin sa resolution ni Villafuerte, siya ang president ng Kampi winidraw niya, sabi ng grupo, we will pursue it [I asked that, what will we do with Villafuerte’s resolution? He’s Kampi president and he withdrew support for it. The group said they will pursue it],” Nograles said.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is aware of the plan of the congressmen, he said.
“Of course, I will not deny that the President just listened, she did not say anything, bahala kayo [It’s your call],” Nograles added.
The constituent assembly resolution was approved in an emergency meeting of the committee on constitutional amendments on Monday so it could be referred to the rules committee for floor deliberation on Tuesday.
Resolution 1109 called for the members of Congress "to convene for the purpose of considering proposals to amend or revise the Constitution, upon a vote of three-fourths of all the members of Congress."
According to Nograles, HR 1109 would be taken up first before House Resolution 737, which seeks specific amendments to the economic provisions of the Constitution, because it only needed the vote by a majority, while the latter resolution required three-fourths vote of all members of Congress since it introduced specific amendments.
As to the CARP extension, Nograles acknowledged that the pressure was now on the House after the Senate passed it on third reading Monday night.
He said the House just received a copy of the 78-page document and was still studying it.
“The options are basically two: first, is the easier option to adopt their version and it’s finished. The second is to make another version and go on bicam [bicameral committee meetings] over the holidays,” Nograles said.
