House always supportive of Rody’s federalism move — lawmaker

The House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has always been supportive of President Duterte’s move to make true his campaign promise of creating federal states in the country.

“We have done our part to deliver the draft new charter to the Senate last year,” House Deputy Majority Leader Rodante Marcoleta said. “We shall pursue this process given the people’s mandate, expressed in the last elections, for Charter change.”

Marcoleta, who represents party-list 1-Sagip, said the lower legislative chamber “fully supports President Duterte’s crusade to set out federalism in the country through constitutional processes.”

Last December, the House voted 224-22 with three abstentions in approving on third and final reading the Resolution of Both Houses 15, to amend the 1987 Constitution to effect Duterte’s proposed shift to a federal form of government.

Arroyo said the administration’s proposed federal charter is a “priority legislation.”

RBH 15 is pushing for a presidential-bicameral- federal system of government and empowers Congress to establish federal states by convening Congress into a constituent assembly (con-ass).

In November 2018, the House resumed plenary debates on a draft charter prepared by Speaker Arroyo that is separate from the federalism proposal of a consultative committee that Duterte had created.

Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso, chairman of the House committee on constitutional amendments, delivered his sponsorship speech while Zamboanga-Sibugay Rep. Wilter Palma II defended the draft federal constitution, or the approved Resolution of Both Houses 15, on the floor.

The measure was initially taken up in October, but was remanded to the Veloso committee after Arroyo discovered that the provision for joint voting of the Senate and the House remained, when she actually preferred separate voting of the two legislative chambers.

Resolution of Both Houses 15 seeks to propose revisions in the 1987 Constitution, where under Arroyo’s draft charter, the (next) President (in 2022) will have a term of four years and will be entitled to one re-election – just like in the US.

“The only thing I added was a provision that instead of establishing the federal states, there’s a mechanism establishing the federal states. All the other provisions were already submitted by the con-com and everyone else,” Arroyo told reporters.

“That’s the only thing I added to make it my version,” the Pampanga congresswoman explained further, pointing out that lifting the term limits for senators will really be up to them, it being “a collegial decision.”

Under Resolution of Both Houses 15, the form and structure of the government will be presidential-bicameral-federal system.

The President and the Vice President will have the same powers and functions as stated in the 1987 Constitution. However, a vote for the President will also be good for the Vice President, and they should belong to the same party. In short, a bundled vote.

The draft federal charter will also retain a bicameral legislative department where the House of Representatives will be composed of not more than 300 members, and the Senate composed of 24 senators.

A total of 80 percent of the House members will be composed of lawmakers from legislative districts across the country from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, while the remaining 20 percent will comprise what is called the party-list lawmakers.

Members of the legislative branch will have a term of four years, as opposed to the current term of three years in the 1987 Constitution.