MANILA -- The House committee on constitutional amendments has endorsed for plenary approval a draft federal Constitution filed by Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and other lawmakers.
The committee report, dated Oct. 2, contains the proposed revisions to the 1987 Constitution.
The resolution proposes a presidential-federal form of government, wherein the President and Vice President shall serve a term of four years with one re-election.
The first election under the proposed Constitution shall be held on the second Monday of May 2022.
The term of the President and Vice President, which shall end in 2022, shall not be extended. The incumbent president is prohibited from running in the 2022 elections.
The measure seeks to adopt a bicameral legislative department, composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which shall have the power to create federal states.
Under the proposal, a federal state may be created in any part of the country upon petition to Congress by the contiguous, compact, and adjacent provinces, highly urbanized and component cities, and cities and municipalities in metropolitan areas through a resolution of their respective legislative bodies, subject to the approval by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite in the political units affected.
It deletes the provision that limits the terms of members of Congress.
Arroyo, in an ambush interview, said the lifting of the term limits for senators and congressmen was a “collegial decision.”
Arroyo also said the only thing she added to make the draft her own version was a mechanism to establish the federal states, stressing that all other provisions were submitted by the Consultative Committee (Concom).
“The only thing I added was a provision that instead of establishing the federal states, there is a mechanism to establish federal states. All the other provisions were already submitted by the Concom and everyone else. That’s the only thing I added to make it my version,” Arroyo said. (PNA)
