Is a 'hybrid' con-con constitutional? Yes, says Barzaga
The proposed use of a "hybrid" Constitutional convention (con-con) does not violate the existing 1987 Constitution.
Cavite 4th district Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. had this to say Thursday, Feb. 23, or a day after Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No.6, which provides for the use of a con-con to revise the existing Charter, was sponsored in the House plenary.
Barzaga said the hybrid set-up does not violate the Constitution, which states in Article XVII, Section 3, "The Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of all its Members, call a constitutional convention, or by a majority vote of all its Members, submit to the electorate the question of calling such a convention.”
The lawyer-solon said the Constitution does not specify how delegates to a con-constitutional should be chosen, noting in past conventions, "The legislation calling for the convention specified how the delegates would be chosen."
"In 1971, under an earlier Constitution, Republic Act (RA) No. 6132 provided that delegates to a would be elected by the national legislative district, in a special election," he said.
Barzaga further noted that the 48 members of the Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution "were not elected by the people and were appointed by the President at that time, Cory Aquino".
Under the hybrid con-con set-up, the delegates will be composed of both elected and appointed personalities.
This method was suggested by no less than retired former Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Reynato Puno to the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments during its last public hearing on the pro-Charter change (Cha-cha) measures filed in the curent 19th Congress.
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Barzaga, who was present during the hearing, found wisdom in the hybrid con-con set-up.
"As we have heard in the course of the public hearings in Congress, there is an apprehension by some resource persons that in a constitutional convention, the delegates, in most instances, will be backed by politicians and the delegates would just be considered as alter-ego and in the words of former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, 'proxies of proxies or factotums of political dynasties and economic oligarchs,'” Barzaga said.
Puno claimed that the hybrid model can solve this problem.
The plenary sponsorship of RBH No.6 paved the way for the debates among House members on the proposal.