Lawmakers need college degrees in new government  — Puno

To improve the state of lawmaking in the country, former Chief Justice Reynato Puno proposed that senators and representatives should have college degrees.

“We have also recommended that candidates from the Senate and the House of Representatives should have a college degree,” Puno said in a forum on Manila held on Thursday.

The former head magistrate also revealed that changes will be introduced to the way legislators are elected.

“The senators, however, will come from the federated regions.  They will be elected by the regions, and not nationally.  Every region will have three senators,” he explained.

“This election by region will assure that every region will have senators.  That will remedy the defect of the current system where Mindanao is often unrepresented or under-represented in the senate,” he added.

The number of lawmakers in the House of Representatives would be also increased to reflect population size and to accommodate the marginalized sector, according to Puno.

“In light of the greater number of our population, the house will be composed of 400 members, 60 percent shall be elected from the different legislative districts.  The remaining 40 percent shall come from political parties on the basis of proportional representation,” he said.

In a separate interview, Puno told reporters that aspiring local government officials in will be given equal opportunity.  Meanwhile, regional governors would be elected “indirectly” to avoid disparity between big and small provinces.

“Their election will be indirect, meaning they’ll be elected by the members of the regional assembly,” Puno explained.

“The reason for that is to prevent the domination of big provinces in the election of governors and vice governors,” he added. /ee