Aumentado files House resolution in anticipation of possible charter change

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By Marlon Balmadrid

QUEZON CITY – Rep. Erico Aumentado (2nd district, Bohol) has filed House Resolution No. 2603 that seeks to amend Section 1(1) of Article XVII of the Constitution on amendments or revision.

The solon said the 1987 Constitution provides for a presidential form of government with a bicameral Congress, and the mode of amending or revising it under Section 1 (1) thereof is proper for a unicameral parliamentary form of government.

Thus, he said, the manner of voting in any amendment to or revision of the Constitution has become a serious contentious issue between the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Seeking to remove such issue and all doubts in the interpretation on the voting by both Houses of Congress, the solon said his proposed amendment “has become imperative and mandatory.”

Under the proposed resolution, Section 1 (1) of Article XVII would now read:

     The Congress, in a joint session assembled, by three-fourths vote of all the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives voting separately, may propose amendments to this constitution.

The proposed amendment, he said, can correct the seeming error of omission by the Constitutional Commission which drafted the present Constitution.

Aumentado filed the bill in anticipation of a possible charter change as initiated by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.