MANILA, Philippines - The House committee on constitutional amendments is set to put the issue of constitutional change to an official vote before panel members on August 26, committee chair Rep. Victor Ortega said on Wednesday.
In a press conference at the House of Representatives, Ortega said that the vote would settle the question of whether there was a need to amend the Constitution.
If it is approved, he said that the panel will proceed to discussing the preferred mode of amendment.
Ortega also said the informal survey on Charter Change that he conducted earlier is not binding and is only meant to determine how congressmen feel about Charter Change as of the moment.
"I'm not making a loyalty check," said Ortega, saying he has not even seen who voted what because he was only concerned with the numbers showing the lawmakers' current stances on constitutional change.
He added that his committee would have continued studying constitutional amendments even if the survey shows only a minority of House members favor constitutional change.
In the survey forms he distributed last week, Ortega asked House members if they are in favor of amending the Constitution, and if so, what mode and time frame they prefer, and if they are in favor of a shift to a federal or a parliamentary form of government.
As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, 118 solons said they want to amend the Constitution while only eight said they do not.
Out of the 129 respondents, 49 said their preferred mode is a Constitutional Convention, majority or 64 said they want a Constituent Assembly, and only six said they will go for a Peoples Initiative.
The votes of House members who answered the survey were almost evenly split in half on the federalism issue Tuesday afternoon, but the latest results showed that more congressmen - 60 - do not want a federal form of government compared to 55 who said they do.
The same survey showed that more lawmakers want a shift to parliamentary, with 88 voted in favor of it while only 30 opposed it.
The 129 congressmen who answered the survey make up 54.20 percent of the Houses 238 members.
ConAss
A joint resolution calling for a Constituent Assembly for the consideration of the proposal for a federal form of government has already been filed by Rep. Antonio Cuenco, Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, Rep. Faysah Dumarpa, and Rep. Edelmiro Amante in the House of Representatives, said Ortega.
In the Senate, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr authored Senate Resolution No. 10 seeking the same.
Pimentels resolution seeks the creation of a federal form of government that will be made up of 11 states, with Metro Manila as the Federal Administrative Region."
Malacanang on Monday expressed support for the resolution, but said on Wednesday that the blame should be placed on the Senate if the resolution fails because of senators flip-flopping" on the issue. - GMANews.TV