Rep. Edcel Lagman
(FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“It is a blatant heresy for the House or any of its committees to act as a Constituent Assembly alone without the indispensable participation of the senators,” he said in a statement.
Lagman was among the House members who strongly opposed the last week’s declaration of House Committee on Constitutional Amendments panel Chair AKO Bicol partylist Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. that they are already sitting as a Con-Ass to introduce amendments to the 1987 Constitution during his panel’s first deliberation on Resolution of Both Houses No. 2, principally authored by House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco.
Press Release
January 15, 2021
Transcript of interview of Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III with Ms. Pinky Webb of The Source, CNN Philippines
On the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments convening into a constitutional assembly.
SP Sotto: I was informed that a House official, or their chairman of the Constitutional Amendments committee declared themselves already as a constituent assembly and of course, we in the Senate will definitely say that is not possible. For you to be able to conduct yourself or declare yourself as a constituent assembly, it is the Congress that has to do that and we are not in session, we are on recess. They will resume today, perhaps they can do that today, but definitely not in a committee and not during a recess, that is the point.
Published January 13, 2021, 3:59 PM
Lawmakers rejected Wednesday the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments’ declaration that it is already sitting as a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) to introduce amendments to the 1987 Constitution.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate strongly opposed the declaration made by AKO Bicol party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. during the resumption of the House panel’s deliberations on Charter change that they are already sitting as Con-Ass.
Independent opposition Rep. Edcel Lagman (FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“That is strange to me because no committee of the Senate or of the House including the Committee on Constitutional Amendments can sit as a Constituent Assembly. Because the Constituent Assembly is composed of members of the House and the Senate in a joint meeting or assembly,” Lagman said during the panel’s first hearing on Resolution of Both Houses No. 2 principally authored by House Spe
By ERWIN COLCOL, GMA News
Published January 13, 2021 8:25pm The House Committee on Constitutional Amendments on Wednesday resumed its deliberations on the proposed amendments to the restrictive economic provisions to the 1987 Constitution. The said amendments are contained in Resolution of Both Houses No. 2 authored no less than by Speaker Lord Allan Velasco. In resuming the so-called economic Charter change (Cha-cha), both Velasco and House panel chair Alfredo Garbin Jr. had one thing in mind: lifting the restrictions in the economic provisions in the Constitution would help the country rise from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, some critics from both Congress and the public in general questioned the timing of the hearings amid the global health crisis, while others expressed fear that this would only pave the way for the introduction of political amendments to the Constitution like term extension for some elected officials or lifting their term limits.
Marikina City Rep. Stella Quimbo justified on Wednesday the need to amend the Constitutional prohibition on land ownership by foreigners, which is a touchy subject for a lot of Filipinos.
Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo (Photo credit: https://www.bdo.com.ph/)
"With respect to the prohibition on land o