Noynoy files con-con resolution

Sen. Benigno Aquino III has filed a resolution directing the proper Senate committees to conduct hearings on the need for Congress to submit to the electorate, through the May 2010 general elections, the question of calling for a constitutional convention.

The hearings will also cover the legislation of the holding of a con-con and the election of delegates simultaneous with the May 2010 polls.

Aquino said the people’s true sentiment on Charter change must be known through an inquiry since the actual basis for calls to revise or amend the Constitution, even just the economic provisions, had not been completely debated upon.

“For example, they said Cha-cha was needed to get mining investments. But we are getting them now even without changes in the Constitution,” he said.

The Constitution mandates that the Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of all its members, call a con-con or by a majority vote of all its members, submit to the electorate the question of calling such a convention.

In his Resolution No. 819, Aquino cited that in accordance with the sovereign right of the people under the Constitution, “all amendments to or revisions of the Philippine Constitution must be done in a deliberative and consultative process, without haste, under an environment and framework of transparency through the election of independent and non-partisan delegates of a constitutional convention during the May 2010 elections.”

He said the Senate and House of Representatives, as two separate chambers of Congress, voting separately, could submit to the electorate the question of calling a con-con or call for such convention through legislation under the Constitution.

All the 23 senators have passed a joint resolution against the plan of the House to convene itself into a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution.

The senators said the House is not Congress and a con-ass must be composed of both chambers, voting separately, on the changes that need to be made on the Constitution.

Senators Manuel Roxas II and Rodolfo Biazon have also filed a bill and a resolution, respectively, calling for a con-con and the election of its delegates simultaneous with the 2010 general elections.