Con-com approves final draft of proposed charter

The Consultative Committee (Con-com) tasked to propose amendments to the 1987 Constitution on Tuesday approved the final draft of its proposed federal charter to be submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte.

The Con-com move came after former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. made an unopposed, quickly seconded motion for the draft charter's approval.

The members of the Con-com then signed the approved document, the culmination of over four months' worth of work for the 22-member panel and their staff.

The Con-com, created by an executive order, hopes to submit the approved draft to Duterte on or before July 9, two weeks before he delivers his third State of the Nation Address on July 23.

In Malacañang, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte, as chairman of ruling PDP-Laban party, will transmit copies of the draft constitution to his party mates in Congress.

"And he will encourage his party mates to study it very closely and if possible to pattern the proposed revisions after what the commission has recommended. But ultimately, of course, it is the members of Congress who will approve whether or not they will adopt the proposed revisions," Roque said. 

"In that sense, we can only persuade the party mates of the President. But we recognize that the decision ultimately will lie in the individual members of the House of Representatives and the Senate," he added.

Roque expressed confidence that the draft charter "would be very persuasive" to Duterte's party mates in the House.

"We are hoping to be equally persuasive in the Senate," the Palace spokesman said.

Highlights

The Con-com mainly proposes a "distribution" of state powers traditionally concentrated in the central government.

A copy of the full draft has yet to be distributed to the media, but highlights prepared by panel spokesman Ding Generoso reveal a federal Constitution that envisions a "permanent and indissoluble nation" with guarantees against separation or secession.

The draft, which has yet to go through Congress, also touts "reforms" in the political system through prohibitions on political dynasties up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity and party-switching, a revision of the composition of the House of Representatives, and the institution of the people's power to enact or repeal laws, among others.

It also spells out the Philippines' sovereign rights over the maritime expanse beyond the country's territorial sea "to the extent reserved to it by international law."

The draft charter likewise "strengthens" the Bill of Rights through the inclusion of socioeconomic and environmental and ecological rights and revamps the existing constitutional commissions on audit, civil service, and elections, the Office of the Ombudsman, and adds the Commission on Human Rights.

Under the Con-com's proposal, the federal republic will be composed of 18 constituent political units called federated regions, including the previously dissolved Negros Region, and the Bangsamoro, and the Cordilleras.

It can be recalled that former chief justice Reynato Puno, chair of the Con-com, announced that the panel had ruled out term extensions for the president and the vice president in the transitory provisions of the draft Charter. — with Virgil Lopez/RSJ, GMA News