Arroyo files reso expressing sense of House to vote separately in con-ass

Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo filed on Tuesday morning a resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives for the constituent assembly to vote separately in proposing amendments to the 1987 Constitution.

"It's expressing the sense of the House that we will vote separately," Arroyo told reporters, referring to House Resolution 2056.

Arroyo issued her remark in an interview with reporters at the sidelines of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments meeting to discuss the proposed federal charter drafts.

LOOK: House Resolution 2056 expressing the sense of the House for the constituent assembly to vote separately in proposing amendments to the 1987 Constitution. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/ef0L6GxX4V

— Erwin Colcol (@erwincolcol) August 7, 2018

The measure was co-authored by Majority Leader Rolando Andaya, House panel chair Vicente Veloso, Bohol Representative Arthur Yap and AKO BICOL party-list Representative Alfredo Garbin.

In an interview last week, Arroyo said she agrees with the position of the Senate that the two houses of Congress vote separately in proposing amendments to the 1987 Constitution.

Arroyo said this is the way to move forward, noting that this was the same issue that hindered the move to amend the 1987 Constitution during her presidency.

“We want to move forward. You have to be realistic. Better to move forward and achieve something than to be stubborn and achieve nothing,” she said.

In Tuesday's interview, Arroyo said both houses of Congress will still have to convene in a constituent assembly to discuss the provisions of the draft federal charter.

But the voting, she said, will be done separately, just like how the three House committees that deliberated the proposed measures on the Bangsamoro Organic Law did it.

“Like for instance in the Bangsamoro Basic Law, there were three committees. That's heard altogether but the three committees voted separately,” Arroyo said.

“That's the way an assembly is supposed to work. If they don't discuss it together then it's not an assembly,” she added.

Before the start of the meeting, Arroyo also told Veloso that no discussion on the substance should be held in the committee meeting.

“It will be a joint deliberation but voting separately. So we don’t have to come up with our draft. The assembly has to do its own rules, different committees discussing,” Arroyo told Veloso in front of the media.

Arroyo also told Veloso that they have to ask the resource persons in the meeting for their help to convince the Senate to vote separately in the constituent assembly.

“No committee hearings on the substance because we'll leave that to the constituent assembly,” she told Veloso.

Veloso said he will follow Arroyo’s direction.

Resource speakers for the House panel meeting include former Senate President Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr., Consultative Committee members Atty. Edmund Tayao, Atty. Susan Ubalde-Ordinario and Atty. Roan Libarios, and spokesperson Ding Generoso. — RSJ, GMA News