The House Committee on Constitutional Amendments has approved the accompanying bill and committee report of Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 6, which called for the formation of a hybrid constitutional convention (con-con) in the bid to revise the 1987 Constitution.
Voting 17-2 (yes-no), the members of the panel chaired by Cagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez approved the measure on Monday, Feb. 27 during a hearing.
Their discussion, which involved the line-by-line approval of the measure, lasted almost three hours.
The hybrid con-con, as provided for by the measure, calls for con-con delegates who are both elected and appointed, as opposed to delegates who are solely elected. A con-con is one of three methods by which Charter change (Cha-cha) can be carried out.
As per the measure, the election of delegates will be held on Oct. 30, 2023, or at the same time as the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).
As for the membership of the con-con, there will be one elected delegate from each of the country’s 253 congressional districts.
On top of this, 51 delegates from different sectors will be appointed by the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Rodriguez said the appointment of a delegate should be approved by both the Senate President and the House Speaker.
“What is envisioned here is that there will be nominations from different sectors and then the nominations will be submitted to the Speaker and submitted also to the Senate President. Each one of them will consider the nominations and then they will have to meet and be able to have a joint approval on whom both of them will appoint. So that is the procedure,” explained the veteran solon, a longtime Cha-cha proponent.
The appointed delegates will include retired members of the judiciary, representatives from the academe, urban poor, labor sector, persons with disabilities, farmers and fisherfolk, and senior citizens among others.
The following are the qualifications for being a con-con delegate: he or she should be a natural-born Filipino citizen, at least 25 years old, a college degree holder, and a resident of the district where he or she will be running for at least one year before the election.
A person with a final judgment of conviction for cases involving moral turpitude is ineligible to serve as a delegate to the con-con.
The delegates will start the convention 20 days after the election.
Rodriguez said there is no need to wait for a counterpart bill from the Senate as far as the House's con-con measure is concerned.
“There is no resolution that is pending , except the resolution of Sen. Robinhood Padilla of Constitutional change in the economic provisions through constituent assembly (con-ass).
"We do not have to wait because once we approve this, it is sent to the committee of Senator Padilla for their disposition of this particular resolution and bill. It does not mean that there is no bill filed there, the committee cannot recognize us," Rodriguez explained.
Padilla is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes.
The three methods for Cha-cha are the con-con, con-ass, and people's initiative (PI).