HOUSE Committee on Constitutional Amendments chairman Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said a report and substitute bill on the proposed congressional call for a convention to amend the 1987 Constitution has been approved on Monday.
Voting 17-2, the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments green-lighted the call for a constitutional convention (Concon), Rodriguez said the bill to Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 details the creation of the constitutional convention to propose amendments to the Philippine Charter.
With the approval, the panel will submit the bill to the Committee on Appropriations to create its funding provisions, according to Rodriguez.
He said the bill mandates an election of one delegate from each of the 253 legislative districts in the country.
It’s being proposed that the election will be made simultaneously with the barangay and Sanggunian Kabataan elections on October 30, 2023.
Qualifications of elected and sectoral delegates shall be (1) natural-born citizens of the Philippines and at least twenty-five years of age on the day of the election or appointment, (2) shall be at least a college degree holder, (3) must be a registered voter in the district in which the delegate shall be elected and a resident thereof for not less than one year immediately preceding the day of the election.
Under the proposal “those who are convicted by final judgment of a crime involving moral turpitude shall be prohibited from being elected or appointed as a delegate to the Convention.”
The bill likewise mandates that the ConCon shall have a 20 percent representation from sectoral groups which will be jointly appointed by the Senate President and Speaker of the House.
Sectoral delegates shall include at least three retired members of the judiciary, three representatives from the academe, three from the legal profession, two economists, two from the medical profession, two from the science and technology profession, two representatives from the business sector, two from the labor sector, and two representatives from the urban poor.
There shall also be two representatives from the farmers and fisherfolk, two from indigenous cultural communities, two from the women sector, two from the youth sector, two from the veterans, two from the senior citizens, and persons with disabilities.
The tenure of delegates shall be for seven months and thirteen days beginning November 21, 2023, and ending June 30, 2024.
The inaugural meeting of the constitutional convention would take place on November 20, 2023, at the House of Representatives Session Hall, under the direction of the Senate President and House Speaker until a presiding officer and convention president were chosen.
The bill likewise mandates for P10,000 allowance per delegate’s actual attendance in the session. Other traveling and lodging expenses will also be provided accordingly to the delegates.
Following its session, Rodriguez said the convention has 30 days to present its report to the President, the Congress, and the Comelec.
The necessary funds to hold the election of delegates will be charged with the existing available budget of Comelec, he said.
Any amount necessary for the operations of the Constitutional Convention and the subsequent plebiscite shall be included in the annual General Appropriations Act.
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