{"id":102616,"date":"2017-05-16T07:29:31","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T11:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=102616"},"modified":"2017-05-16T07:29:31","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T11:29:31","slug":"congress-to-convene-as-con-ass-next-year-alvarez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/05\/16\/congress-to-convene-as-con-ass-next-year-alvarez\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress to convene as Con-ass next year\u2014Alvarez"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_102617\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-102617\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/ph8b-072516-_05mp-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-102617\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/ph8b-072516-_05mp-1.jpg\" alt=\"Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Tuesday said the 17th Congress will convene itself as a Constituent Assembly (Con-ass) next year to introduce amendments to the 1987 Constitution. (PNA photo)\" width=\"640\" height=\"323\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/ph8b-072516-_05mp-1.jpg 640w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/ph8b-072516-_05mp-1-300x151.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-102617\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Tuesday said the 17th Congress will convene itself as a Constituent Assembly (Con-ass) next year to introduce amendments to the 1987 Constitution. (<a href=\"http:\/\/58.71.118.44\/\/images\/ph8b-072516-_05mp-1.jpg\">PNA photo<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>MANILA\u2014Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Tuesday said the 17th Congress will convene itself as a Constituent Assembly (Con-ass) next year to introduce amendments to the 1987 Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with reporters, Alvarez said both Houses will convene as one charter amending body with or without the Constitutional Commission (ConCom), a body of experts to be formed by Malaca\u00f1ang that will aid Congress in proposing Charter changes.<\/p>\n<p>Alvarez explained that Malaca\u00f1ang has yet to name the members of the ConCom.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The ball is still in the hands of Malaca\u00f1ang at the moment. In fact, we&#8217;ve already submitted our recommendation and the EO (Executive Order) creating the Constitutional Commission was already issued. So, the only thing lacking is the membership of the Constitutional Commission,&#8221; Alvarez said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dIf it is still not created this year, definitely, with or without the Commission, the Congress will start working on (proposing amendments) by next year,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>In December 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte has signed Executive Order 10, creating a consultative committee, composed of 25 different experts from the country, that will review the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>President Duterte has been pushing for a shift from a unitary form of government towards a federal system to allow the better distribution of public services.<\/p>\n<p>The lower chamber&#8217;s plenary discussions on the Con-ass resolution was originally scheduled this month.<\/p>\n<p>House Committee on Constitutional Amendments chairman Roger Mercado said the measure limits its scope on the mode of Charter change, which is Con-ass, as it will only cost the normal operation expenses of Congress as compared to a constitutional convention which will cost at least PHP8 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Mercado said the manner of voting, which may be done separately by the House and the Senate, can be introduced as an amendment to the bill during the plenary proceedings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA\u2014Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Tuesday said the 17th Congress will convene itself as a Constituent Assembly (Con-ass) next year to &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":102617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[12230],"class_list":["post-102616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-pantaleon-alvarez","mauthors-filane-mikee-cervantes","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}