House resolution vs Charter change nixed; Nograles proposal for economic amendments OK’d
(Read this and get angry…)
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
02/03/2009
MANILA, Philippines — Charter change remains alive in the House of Representatives after lawmakers approved the resolution filed by Speaker Prospero Nograles to amend the economic provisions in the Constitution.
Before this, the committee on constitutional amendments threw out a resolution filed by minority lawmakers to stop all moves to amend the Constitution before the May 2010 election.
House Resolution 888, signed by 23 legislators, led by members of the minority bloc, rejected” any amendments and all moves to amend the 1987 Constitution before the 2010 elections, including the proposed convening of Congress into a constituent assembly.”
The vote at the committee level to kill House Resolution 888 was 9-4 during Tuesday’s hearing.
Immediately after the voting, Camiguin Representative Pedro Romualdo made a motion to put into a vote Nograles’ House Resolution 737, a move opposed by minority lawmakers.
La Union Representative Victor Ortega, chairman of the committee, said seconded Romualdo’s motion.
“The chair believes that everything has been discussed. … As to more and more and more [discussions], we can do that when this is discussed in plenary. Our approval in the committee is by no means a final say, it is just a recommendation by the committee so it can taken up in plenary,” Ortega said.
After a debate, the committee approved Nograles resolution with a vote of 11-4.
Parañaque Representative Roilo Golez, Gabriela partylist Representative Liza Maza, Anakpawis Representative Rafael Mariano and Manila Representative Ma.Theresa Bonoan-David voted against the Nograles resolution.
House Resolution 737 calls for the amendment of Sections 2 and 3 of Article 12 of the Constitution “to allow the acquisition by foreign corporations and associations and the transfer or conveyance thereto, of alienable public and private lands.”
The resolution did not specify whether it would adopt a constitutional convention or a constituent assembly as the mode of amending the Charter’s economic provisions, although Akbayan Representative Risa Hontiveros, quoting Ortega, said that the resolution had a “hint of con ass [constituent assembly].”
Nograles said that his resolution would be treated like an ordinary measure that would pass through the committee and would be approved in the plenary.
Nograles had said that his resolution, when brought to the plenary, could serve as basis for raising a point of constitutional inquiry before the Supreme Court.
Maza criticized the committee for “railroading” the process.
“This is virtually railroading this specific resolution because how else will you call this action when we only have one public hearing [on Resolution 737],” she said.
Golez said the committee “did not respect the process” in deciding the fate of the Nograles resolution.
He said the committee did not consult sectors that would be affected by the proposal.
Bonoan-David said that amid the economic crisis, Charter change talks should be set aside.
Hontiveros, who was against the Nograles resolution but did not vote because she was not a committee member, said the decision could put the committee in “estoppel” because it would appear that the panel has already adopted constituent assembly as the mode.
- Several measures calling for the election of delegates into a constitutional convention have been pending before the committee