Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo is in favour of the creation of the 19-strong Consultative Committee to review the 1987 Constitution en route to introducing amendments that would pave the way for establishing a federal government.
“This is a welcome development because in recent weeks, it has been a little alarming because there is the impression that this is being rushed with the House of Representatives immediately approving itself as Constituent Assembly,” Robredo said in her weekly radio programme “Biserbisyong Leni.”
President Rodrigo Duterte announced last week the composition of the committee, which included former Chief Justice Reynato Puno; Randolph Climaco Parcasio who is affiliated with Nur Misuari’s wing of the Moro National Liberation Front; retired Supreme Court associate justices Bienvenido Reyes and Antonio Eduardo Nachura; Dean Ranhilio Callangan Aquino of San Beda College of Law; political science professor Edmund Tayao of UST; former Dean Julio Teehankee of the De La Salle University’s College of Liberal Arts, among others.
“Our Constitution is not something to tinker with haphazardly. This needs a comprehensive study, and the public should be given a chance to be heard. The more debates we have on it, the better,” Robredo said.
Robredo said that amending the 1987 Constitution could wait.
“My concern is, there is a question that needs to be answered first. Is Charter change the only way to give a certain autonomy to the local government units? Can’t this be resolved by amending the Local Government Code?” Robredo said in a chance interview after visiting the evacuees displaced by “restive” Mayon volcano.
“Those issues need to be settled first before we push for Charter change. Otherwise, we will pushing for it and yet we don’t need it all the while,” Robredo added.