President Rodrigo Duterte will persuade his allies in Congress to pattern the proposed revision of the Consitution from the final draft created by the panel tasked with reviewing the 1987 charter, Malacañang said on Tuesday.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the President was expected to transmit the final draft of the proposed federal constitution to Congress after receiving it on July 9.
“He will encourage his partymates to study it very closely and if possible to pattern the proposed revisions after what the Commission has recommended,” Roque said in a Palace briefing.
Roque said, however, that the members of Congress would have the final decision whether to adopt the proposed revisions.
“But ultimately, of course, it is the members of Congress who will approve whether or not they will adapt the proposed revisions,” he said.
“In that sense, we can only persuade the party mates of the President,” he added. “But we recognize that the decision ultimately will lie in the individual members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.”
Roque was hopeful that the President could persuade members of the lower chamber, which is dominated by his allies.
“We have a super majority in the House. I think at least in the House it would be very persuasive. We are hoping to be equally persuasive in the Senate,” he said.
On Tuesday, the 22-member Consultative Committee approved the final draft of the proposed federal constitution after five months of deliberation. –Carol Balita, INQUIRER.net trainee