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Let's get it over with.
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Byline: Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J.
THE JOKE has been going around that Speaker Jose de Venecia landed in St. Luke's Hospital with bleeding hands from too much vigorous clapping during the last Sona of President Macapagal-Arroyo. He and former President Fidel Ramos are the principal cheer leaders in Ms Arroyo's campaign for constitutional revision. And they want it done through Congress acting as a constituent assembly.
If they really want to, they can start it today. The constituent assembly enthusiasts will find the 1987 Constitution helpful for getting started. But completing the work will be something else.
Under the 1935 Constitution, before Congress could act as a constituent assembly, the two houses had to agree first to meet in joint session. The text of the 1935 Constitution read thus: "The Congress in joint session assembled, by a vote of three-fourths of all the Members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives voting separately may propose amendments to this Constitution . . ." Clearly, under the 1935 Constitution, before Congress could consider constitutional amendments, the two houses had to approve first a resolution convening Congress to a joint session for the purpose.
The language of the 1987 Constitution is different. It simply says: "Any amendment to, or revision of, this Constitution may be proposed by: (1) the Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its Members . . ." There is nothing there about having to come together in joint session. My reading of the present text is that, even without a resolution converting Congress into a constituent assembly, Congress, as is, can already consider amendments to the Constitution. The present text, without more, already makes Congress a constituent assembly.
From this it follows that, if any member of the House or of the Senate wishes to propose changes in the Constitution, all he or she has to do is formulate them, submit them to the House where he or she belongs, and, if after being reported out for debate they are approved by a vote of three-fourths of all the members, it is next passed on to the other house for action. If both houses approve the same changes, then they are ripe ...
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