Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 27) – A House panel has approved a bill which details the creation of a constitutional convention to pursue charter change.
With 17 yes votes and two no votes, the Committee on Constitutional Amendments approved on Monday an unnumbered House Bill which provides for the election of delegates and the funding of a constitutional convention for the purpose of amending the 1987 Constitution.
This would complement the Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) earlier approved at the Committee level by the same panel which is currently under plenary deliberation.
READ: House panel wants constitutional convention to amend Constitution
To form the constitutional convention itself, the bill states that one delegate from each of the country’s 253 legislative districts shall be elected to the convention by the voting public on Oct. 30, 2023.
Funding for the elections of the 253 delegates would be taken from “any available appropriations of the Comelec [Commission on Elections] in the Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023 General Appropriations Act [GAA],” the bill reads.
The Senate President and the Speaker of the House will also appoint sectoral representatives to the convention. This group would constitute twenty percent of the total number of delegates.
Sectoral delegates must include at least three retired members of the judiciary, three from the academe, two economists, and two each from the business, labor, peasant and urban poor, farmers and fisherfolk, indigenous cultural communities, women, youth, veterans, senior citizens, and persons with disabilities sectors, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The two Congressional leaders could appoint additional representatives from other sectors they determine as necessary.
Delegates’ terms shall be seven months and thirteen days long, from Nov. 21, 2023 until June 30, 2024. This period also determines the convention’s duration.
On Nov. 20, 2023, the constitutional convention would meet for the first time at the Session Hall of the House of Representatives, to be led by the Senate President and House Speaker until a presiding officer and Convention president are elected.
For the length of its duration, the convention will then meet at the House’ Session Hall every morning at 10 a.m.
Meanwhile, the bill allotted a ₱10,000 daily allowance to each of the delegates for every day of actual attendance.
The panel also approved a proposal to provide separate funds for delegates’ travel and lodging while the convention was in session.
Afterwards, the convention must submit its report to the President, the Congress, and the Comelec within 30 days after it concludes session.
The funding for the constitutional convention including its operations, allowances, and the subsequent plebiscite will be taken from the annual GAA, as per the House bill.
The measure can now be taken up in the plenary where it must make it through first, second, and third reading approval.
CNN Philippines Correspondent Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report.
