Congress can adopt or reject Cha-cha review body proposals – Fariñas
Since the power to propose constitutional amendments lies solely in Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives, House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas Sr. asserted on Friday their independence and prerogative to consider or reject the recommendations of the 19-member consultative body on Charter change which President Rodrigo Duterte had established.
“As the name connotes, it is a consultative, or advisory, commission of the President. It cannot, and will not work in tandem with the Congress,” Fariñas said in a text message to reporters.
“Of course, the Congress may consider the Commission’s recommendations, as well as those of any citizen, and may adopt or not adopt them at all,” he also said.
Meanwhile, Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado, chairman of the House constitutional amendments committee, welcomed Duterte’s creation of the recommendatory panel.
“The recommendations and output of the Presidential Consultative Commission (PCC) will definitely provide our Congress with more inputs in the historic drafting of our ‘New’ Philippine Constitution,” Mercado said in a statement.
Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin, however, urged Congress leaders to “really hear” and “include” the inputs of the 19-member committee in the draft charter proposal.
“With this development, the executive broke the impasse between the Senate and House of Representatives,” Villarin said in a text message to reporters.
“I hope the consultative body would really be heard by both chambers and their inputs included in the draft charter proposal now discussed in the House and Senate,” he added.
Villarin likened the situation to that of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s time when she created a consultative commission, which recommended a unicameral parliamentary form of government, full decentralization of the national government, and devolving more powers to local government units.
“But in the end, the mode of revising the Charter will have to be decided. If the commission calls for a constitutional convention, then Con-ass (Constituent assembly) should be shelved,” he said.
Last Thursday, Malacañang announced that it had tapped former Chief Justice Reynato Puno to lead the PCC that would study proposals to amend the 1987 Constitution amid the administration’s plan to change the form of government from unitary to federal.
Other members of the Puno-led council are former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr.; San Beda Graduate School of Law Dean Fr. Ranhilio Aquino; retired Supreme Court Associate Justices Antonio Eduardo Nachura and Bienvenido Reyes.
Political science professors Julio Cabral Teehankee and Edmund Tayao, Roan Libarios, Reuben Canoy and Randolph Parcasio; former Bohol governor Victor dela Serna; Virgilio Castillo Bautista; Rodolfo Dia Robles; Eddie Mapag Alih; Ali Pangalian Balindong; Laurence Wacnang; Arthur Aguilar; Susan Ubalde-Ordinario; and Antonio Biñas Arellano. /kga
