Con-ass moving forward

The House of Representatives is now amenable to voting separately with the Senate in proposing amendments to the 1987 Constitution, Rep. Vicente Veloso said yesterday.

The newly elected chairman of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, Veloso said they will withdraw House Concurrent Resolution 9 that seeks to convene both houses of Congress into a constituent assembly (con-ass).

Said resolution pushes unified voting by members of the House and Senate, something which most senators oppose because they are outnumbered by congressmen, 24 to 297.

Veloso said a replacement resolution by the House will explicitly state that in the con-ass to be formed, voting will be done separately by the chambers.

The 180-degree turn by the House has the blessing of new Speaker Gloria Macapagal -Arroyo, said Veloso in a radio interview.

It was Arroyo, in fact, who instructed the committee to remove the unified voting clause in the original resolution, Veloso said.

“The Senate has doubts leading to the fight on voting separately versus voting jointly. So, in the (replacement) concurrent resolution, it will be stated that both houses wull be voting separately,” he added.

In an ambush interview, Arroyo said the issue on voting had served as the stumbling block on amending the Constitution even during her presidency.

Thus, Arroyo said she agrees with the position of the Senate if only to advance the Duterte administration’s charter change initiative.

“We want to move forward. You have to be realistic. Better to move forward and achieve something than to be stubborn and achieve nothing,” Arroyo said.

Veloso explained that con-ass will still be the preferred mode in amending the Constitution vis-à-vis holding a constitutional convention or people’s initiative, both of which are costly and time -consuming.

“We’ll be coming up with a formula that will ensure the (2019) elections will push through.

We hope both houses will already work on revising the Constitution,” he said.

He added his committee is already considering at present the working draft submitted by the Consultative Committee (ConCom) formed by President Rodrigo Duterte.

The draft of the ConCom headed by retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno, however, has provisions that are “contentious,” Veloso said.