House OKs Con-con funding on second reading

MANILA, Philippines — Administration lawmakers approved on second reading last night the accompanying bill of the House of Representatives resolution that will provide funding for delegates and for other financial requirements of the envisioned hybrid Constitutional Convention.

House members, led by Rep. Rufus Rodriguez who sponsored the measure, gave their imprimatur to House Bill 7352, which the House committee on appropriations headed by Rep. Zaldy Co (Ako Bicol) approved last week.

The plenary session, presided by Deputy Speaker Isidro Ungab of Davao City’s third district, approved the measure after the termination of the periods of sponsorship debates and individual amendments.

HB 7352 will complement the recently approved Resolution of Both Houses 2 that the lower legislative chamber under the leadership of Speaker Martin Romualdez will soon send to the Senate for its concurrence.

The proposed Con-con, with about 300 members, would be a hybrid assembly with elected and appointed members, with the election and appointment of delegates to be held simultaneously with the Oct. 30 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls.

This is where the reported P10,000 daily allowance of Con-con delegates would be sourced, aside from the possible rental of buildings where the 251 elected delegates and 63 appointed ones would hold office. There will reportedly be a total of 316 Con-con delegates, according to Rodriguez.

Rep. Ron Salo of party-list Kabayan, one of the main authors of the measure, earlier told the “The Chiefs” on TV5 that the P9.5-billion allocation is just a “drop in the bucket.”