(Eagle News) — House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Monday said the Senate’s participation was no longer needed to amend the Charter, noting that the Constitution only explicitly says that a three fourths vote of all members of Congress was needed.
“Hindi naman kailangan. Wala na tayong pag-uusapan na (Constitutional Assembly),” he said in a press conference.
He said in fact, the House of Representatives has already begun proposing amendments to the Constitution, even if the Senate has not adopted House Concurrent Resolution No. 9 that seeks for the convening of Congress into a Con-Ass.
“..Tapos pupunta kami sa mga bayan-bayan, sa mga probinsya, ipapaliwanag namin yan. At pag natapos kami diyan, ready na kami sa proposal, we will submit it for the approval of the people through a plebiscite,” he said.
According to Alvarez, the target for the plebiscite was May 2018.
If the amendments were not proposed by then, he said the plebiscite could be held during the May 2019 midterm elections.
“Mas maganda na yung may target date,” he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte has said that there was a need for a shift to a federal system of government in order to address the long-standing issues in Mindanao.
Some senators have agreed Congress should convene into a Con-Ass to amend the Constitution for this, but that the voting of the House and the Senate should be done separately so as not to render them (the senators) irrelevant.
There are only 24 senators as opposed to the hundreds of members in the House of Representatives.
