Padilla: House should yield con-con position to Senate con-ass reso

The House of Representatives will have to yield its position to change the 1987 Constitution through a constitutional convention if it wants the Charter change initiative to have a better chance of getting approved in the Senate, Senator Robin Padilla has said.

In an interview on Monday, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Laws said he could convince his colleagues to support his Cha-cha resolution if they could be assured that the amendments would be limited to the constitution's economic provisions.

“Diyan kailangan magbigay ang mababang kapulungan. Kung gusto po nila talaga,” Padilla said in an interview with reporters.

(This is where the lower house should give way if they want Charter change.)

Padilla said lawmakers in the House have assured him that only the economic provisions of the constitution are up for revision.

However, the House last week passed a constitutional convention bill which Padilla said would pave the way for changes outside the economic provisions.

“E, 'yun nga lang siyempre pag con-con talaga, nabuksan ang Saligang Batas at meron tayong mga hinalal na delegado, hindi na po talaga kontrolado iyon, di natin mako-control,” Padilla said.

(If it's through con-con, the constitution is opened for change, and we have elected delegates, we can no longer control that.)

Padilla has filed Resolution of Both Houses No. 3 which seeks to amend the 1987 Constitution’s economic provisions via constituent assembly.

Last week, the House of Representatives approved on the third and final reading Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 6 which calls for a con-con to amend the 1987 Constitution.

Under Section XVII of the 1987 Constitution, any amendment or revision to the Constitution may be proposed by Congress upon a vote of three-fourths of all its members (con-ass), through con-con, or people's initiative.

In a con-con, those who will amend the Charter will be elected by the people.

Under a con-ass, the changes will be deliberated by incumbent members of Congress. —NB, GMA Integrated News