After holding a caucus with the members of the majority, House Speaker Prospero Nograles said they will approve on Tuesday night House Resolution (HR) 1109, the controversial Charter change measure seeking to convene Congress into a constituent assembly (con-ass).
 
After the resolution is approved, Nograles said they may convene a constituent assembly after President Arroyo's State of the Nation Address in July.
 
"I advise you to stay on until 11 pm because it looks like a long night, and it's going to be [HR] 1109 all the way from 4 pm to maybe 10 pm," he told reporters after the caucus.
 
"We have agreed to finish [HR] 1109 first and then go to CARP [Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program], and right of reply [bill] after," he added.
 
Asked what will be the next step after HR 1109 is approved, Nograles said, "Wala. We just said we will approve [HR] 1109 as a simple resolution."
 
"It will have to be implemented. How? I don't know how," Nograles said.
 
Pressed if they will eventually convene a constituent assembly, Nograles said, "Maybe after SONA [State of the Nation Address]. Maybe. If we approve it today, I'll call a leadership meeting tomorrow." 

President Arroyo is scheduled to give her last SONA on July 27.

If a constituent assembly gets to be convened, it could pave the way for a shift in the form of government from presidential to parliamentary. However, the shift would have to be approved by voters in a plebiscite.

Simple majority

HR 1109 was initiated by Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) president and Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte. Thus, the term "Villafuerte resolution."

But he recently withdrew his signature from the resolution saying that there is no more time to convene a constituent assembly.

When he initiated the resolution, he said his main goal was to get a Supreme Court ruling on whether both Houses should be voting jointly or separately on charter amendments.
 
HR 1109 seeks to make it easier to convene a constituent assembly through joint voting of both Houses of Congress instead of through separate voting.  Joint voting will allow the 270-member House of Representatives to effectively bypass the 23-member Senate.
 
Nograles said it only needs a "simple majority"--at least one-half plus one of members present in plenary--to approve the House resolution.

Members of the ruling party Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas) and President Arroyo's Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) comprise a total of 146 members, or more than a majority of the 270-member House of Representatives.

As of this posting, there were 211 members in the plenary.

Change of mind 
 
"It's easy to get the majority as long as they are all present. We won't have a hard time getting that," Nograles said.

However, to approve amendments to the Constitution, a three-fourths vote would be needed.
 
A Lakas congressman, who previously predicted that HR 1109 will be "killed" in the plenary, said he can no longer say what will happen to the resolution Tuesday night.
 
"Marami nang nangyari. There seems to be a change of mind," he said in a phone interview, hinting that administration congressmen previously opposed to the resolution have been persuaded to approve it in plenary.
 
But he maintained that he will not vote in favor of HR 1109. He said he is in favor of constitutional conventional as the mode for charter amendments.

Even if HR 1109 is approved, the solon said he expects that it will be questioned in the Supreme Court. 
 
Nograles previously planned to have HR 1109 and the other Charter change resolution, HR 737,  deliberatated at the same time. But he said the House will not force a vote on HR 737 because he is not sure they can get the three-fourths vote needed to pass the amendments.