Thanks, Senate

I’M glad the Senate is holding out—for now, probably—on some issues once Congress transforms itself into a constituent assembly (Con Ass) to amend the 1987 Constitution. The House of Representatives voted on Tuesday, via Concurrent Resolution No. 9, to constitute Congress as a Con Ass to effect charter amendments. Yesterday, the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and revision of code conducted a public hearing attended by three former Supreme Court chief justices Hilario Davide Jr., Reynato Puno and Artemio Panganiban. This was a day after Sen. Panfilo Lacson filed a resolution convening the Senate into a constituent assembly.

But there are hanging issues there. The first one is on what the Senate would prefer, a Con Ass or a Con Con (constitutional convention), wherein the people would be given a chance to choose delegates to a convention that would amend the Constitution.

When asked about the matter, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, an ally of President Rodrigo Duterte, said that he prefers a Con Con if the issue to be tackled is a shift to a federal form of government; but for amendments involving 3 or 4 points, Con Ass.

But even if vote houses would prefer a Con Ass, the matter of whether to hold a joint session or not and whether the Senate and the lower House would vote jointly or separately. Majority of the senators naturally oppose the act of voting jointly with the congressmen considering the disparity in the number of members. SSCebu