New mode of amending Constitution OK’d in Legislative summit

MANILA, Philippines – A new mode of amending the 1987 Constitution called the “bicameral constituent assembly” was introduced and approved by congressional leaders during the first Legislative Summit held in Manadaluyong City on Thursday.

In the bicameral constituent assembly, the Senate and the House of Representatives will vote separately on the proposed amendments to the Constitution, said Senator Franklin Drilon, who made the proposal during the summit.

“What I have proposed to the Senate President [Juan Ponce-Enrile] and to the Speaker [Feliciano Belmonte] is a bicameral constituent assembly,” Drilon told a press conference after the summit.

“Aamyehandahan po na tin ang Saligang Batas sa pamamagitan ng bicameral constituent assembly, kung saan ang magkabilang kapulungan ay boboto ng hiwalay [We will amend the constituent through the bicameral constituent assembly where both Houses will vote separately],” he said.

“We will use the legislative process, legislative and lawmaking procedure in amending the Constitution and then on that point, we will be exercising our constituent function through a bicameral assembly,” Drilon added.

Drilon stressed the amendments would be limited to the economic provisions, which both Houses of Congress have yet to identify.

In proposing the new bicameral constituent assembly, Drilon said the issue of how congressmen and senators should vote on the amendments would now be resolved.

It has been the most contentious issue in the past, which derailed the process in Congress.

Before this, three modes of amending the Constituion have been considered by Congress: through a Constituent Assembly, a Constitutional Convention, and the people’s initiative.

Enrile also stressed that the proposed amendments would be confined to economic provisions of the Constitution.

“We will emphasize the fact that we’re opening the discussion of amending the economic provision of the Constitution,” he said during the same presscon.

“But we’re not going to rush it without thinking. We will think about it very, very carefully,” Enrile added.