House adopts resolution to constitute Congress as a Con-ass

January 17, 2018

Voting viva voce, the House of Representatives adopted Tuesday night a concurrent resolution to constitute the Congress of the Philippines as a constituent assembly for proposing amendments to, or revision of  the 1987 Constitution.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez of Davao, one of the authors of the resolution, said recent events show there is a need to introduce reforms in the present Constitution for it to be responsive to the exigencies of the times.

“This includes the need to provide a long-term solution to the decades-old conflict in Mindanao and to spur economic regional development in the countryside, and provide impetus to much-needed socio-economic and political reforms,” Alvarez said.

He said the overwhelming victory of President Rodrigo Duterte, who stood on a platform for a shift from a unitary to a federal system of government, among others, did not only sustain but affirmed the clamor and sentiment from a broad cross-section of society seeking a review of certain provisions in the 29-year old Philippine Constitution to make it more responsive to the demands of present conditions. DMS