Manila: The Upper and Lower Houses of Congress have agreed that there is a need to form themselves into a Constituent Assembly that will institute amendments to the country's 24-year-old statute.
Senate and House leaders during the Legislative Summit held at a hotel in suburban Mandaluyong City, said they have agreed to end the debacle on how to go about in amending the constitution by using the constituent assembly approach.
Likewise, both chambers have also agreed to coordinate more efficiently in passing laws.
"The main purpose here is to have a mechanism by which that things that we have already agreed on can be fast-tracked and approved by the two Chambers. Foremost of these are the decisions already approved in the LEDAC (Legislative-Exacutive Development Advisory Council), House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte said.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said Senator Franklin Drilon has prepared a paper on the subject of possible revision of the Constitution.
According to Drilon, there had been a consensus among the Senate and House leaders on the need to amend the constitution.
"For the past several years, there have been various attempts to amend the Constitution, however it has not succeeded for various reasons," Drilon said.
He added that Filipinos have been apprehensive in initiating moves to amend the statute because doing so would open the Constitution to the possibility that it will serve parochial interest of the few.
