Digong changes tack, favors Con-Con over Cha-cha

President Rodrigo Duterte is now leaning towards convening Congress as a constituent assembly (con-ass) as the means to amend the Constitution and put in place a federal system of government, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said in a GMA News report yesterday.

Alvarez said Duterte, after the National Security Council meeting on Wednesday, changed his preference for a constitional convention (Con-Con), upon realizing the huge cost needed for this.

Alvarez said that after he and the President discussed the matter with Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, it was agreed that Congress “would simply form a conass.”

The Duterte administration wanted the con-ass to come up with a new, draft Charter in one year. "Then after that there will be public information drives to inform the people what is in that new charter," Alvarez said. "By 2019, together with the local elections, we will submit it to the people for ratification."

After the midterm elections, there will be a transition government and, by 2022, there will be an election for a new president under the new Constitution.

Alvarez assured the public that the legislative duties of congressmen shall not be disturbed because only a specific committee would be fully devoted to amending the Charter.

Once the draft Charter is finished, the entire con-ass will vote on it before it is presented to the people for approval through the referendum the administration hopes to hold in 2019.

Alvarez said the Duterte administration is pushing for federalism to distribute wealth and power throughout the country more equitably.