MANILA, Philippines – Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said on Tuesday that, while he would wait for Malacañang’s action on the matter of introducing revisions to the 1987 Constitution, if nothing happens this year, Congress will go ahead and convene into an assembly that will get the ball rolling starting next year.
In a news conference, Alvarez said President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to create the constitutional commission that will draft the revised charter.
“Maybe the President is just busy. But, definitely, if it doesn’t happen this year, with or without the constitutional commission, by next year, Congress will start the work,” he said.
The House committee on constitutional amendments had earlier approved a resolution to convene Congress into a constituent assembly that will craft the new Constitution.
Duterte is pushing for a federal form of government to replace the current presidential system that features a bicameral Congress framework.
Alvarez said the work of drafting the Constitution revision will be done at the committee level.
He said he hopes the Senate would do the same, so that they could convene into a joint assembly and harmonize their respective versions – “The earlier, the better because there will be an election in 2019,” he said.
“To me, there’s no problem with the voting. What we need to do first is discuss the content of the new Constitution,” he said.
