From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mondays to Thursdays, the 20 members of President Duterte’s consultative committee (Con-com) gather at the Philippine International Convention Center for two or three closed-door subcommittee meetings. Depending on the agenda, they also work extra hours just to finish the voluminous tasks at hand.

On Fridays the members could not even say TGIF (Thank God, it’s Friday) yet, as this is when they prepare materials and proposals and read a lot of many other materials, research and studies submitted to the committee.

Committee en banc sessions, where landmark decisions on the draft Constitution are being made by committee members usually by voting, are scheduled for the whole day every Monday until 6 or 7 p.m. If there are items up for en banc decisions, an additional en banc session within the week may be scheduled. Unlike the subcommittee meetings, the en banc sessions are open for coverage by the media.

Such is the workload the Con-com—the first of its kind since a constitutional convention drafted the 1987 Charter that is now up for revision—has, as it tries to meet the July 19 deadline set by Duterte for the submission of the final copy of the federal constitution.

In an exclusive interview with the BusinessMirror, former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, the Con-com chairman, said he is hopeful that they can finish the job within the timeline. And, at the rate they are going, Puno said it is possible to beat the deadline, including the regional consultations.

Regional and provincial consultations will be held from April 23 to June 8.

The committee will be divided into teams so they can simultaneously hold consultations in different key provinces and cities per region.

But, before the regional consultations, Puno said they should already have the first draft of the project.

“The regional consultations you know, will take place after we have already the first draft of the project, but that does not mean we have not been taking the public pulse, does not mean we are not doing any consultation. The committee from the beginning has been open to all suggestions and, in fact, there have been submissions of position papers, and some subcommittees have also asked other experts, especially economic and fiscal experts, to attend our sessions, and the consultations take place,” he said. The committee is currently in the drafting phase, which started last February 19 and is set to end on April 19.

After the public presentation and consultation phase, the committee will undergo consolidation or approval phase from June 20 to July 5. This phase will require the members to review and consolidate the revisions arising from public consultations.  The en banc meetings in this phase will focus on the approval of revisions and the final draft to be submitted to the President on July 19, days before the Chief Executive’s State of the Nation Address scheduled on July 23.

The Con-com’s target date of first submission to the President is on July 9.

On its second en banc session last February 27, the committee members made their first major decision to adopt a federal-presidential form of government, citing reasons of familiarity with the presidential system versus the two other options, which are the hybrid or semi-presidential and the parliamentary system.

The federal-presidential system adopts the current setup of national government with three branches: Executive, Legislative and Judiciary. But in a federal setup, the country will be grouped into federal states. This is also the same system being followed in the United States.

Puno also believes that federalism is really the way to go for the Philippines, and he is hoping that the shift to federalism will have a “gargantuan” effect on the political, social and economic life of the people.

“The unitary system of government has been with us since the 1935 Constitution and even earlier, and we know our experience with the unitary government, and I like to think that the country can achieve a better progress if we shift from unitary government to federal form of government,” he said, adding that federalism can help spur economic growth.

“Well, it’s quite simple if the powers of the government will be given to the local government units, the provinces, the cities, municipalities, then the progress would spread out, not only in Metro Manila, but in this constituent units that should follow as a matter of course,” he added.

Framers of the 1987 Constitution previously said that shift to federalism is not the solution to the country’s problems, and instead suggested to just amend the 1991 Local Government Code (LGC), which states that local government units are given the power to create their own sources of revenues and levy taxes, fees and charges, subject to guidelines and limitations as Congress may provide.  The LGC also mandates an equitable share in the proceeds of the national wealth for the local governments.

Asked on why the country can’t just amend the Code to fix the problem, Puno said: “That is precisely the issue. If you do that, you are saying that you perpetuate the unitary system.”

On Monday, the committee is set to vote on the provisions on banning political dynasties, and the president and vice president being elected as a team. They have also yet to formally vote on the academic requirements of senators and on how many senators will be voted per region.

Asked on whether the provisions on political dynasty would be supported by Congress and the President, Puno said he is only focused on what is good for the people.

“I banished from my mind the personal implications of whatever will be the provision on political dynasty will be, so if Congress has a different view, so what? Let it be,” he said.

He also noted that if the President agrees with the recommendations of the committee, everything is well and good since it is his committee, anyway. “If he does not, that is his prerogative.”

Following the recent landmark decisions, the Con-com is still waiting for the President’s appointments of five more people to the committee to help the members review the 1987 Constitution.

Puno, however, assured the public that if a certain sector is not represented in the committee, that does not mean the interest of that particular sector would be neglected.

But he admitted that they have asked the President to appoint more women, indigenous people and experts on economic and fiscal policies, international law and foreign relations.

Puno said they need more people from the economic sector, as they need to review the economic restrictions of the present Charter.

“We need the views of economic experts and we need the views of fiscal experts when we allocate, for instance, the power to tax on the part of federal government and the constituent units.

They are the experts on the field and they should be the most knowledgeable on the impact of how we cut the power to tax. How the allocation of the taxing power should be and its result on the economic sustainability of these units if they are given the status of states,” he said.

As soon as the structure of the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary in the federal government is done, the committee will go to the next stage, which is the determination of how many states or regions, and then, the allocation of powers of the federal government and the state and regional government.

“For instance, if we give the power to impose a certain tax to the constituent units, the states and the regions, what will be the impact of this power to tax on the part of the units? How much will this help them be sustainable? How much will it help them to guarantee that now they are states they can deliver the basic services to the people,” he said.

Source: https://businessmirror.com.ph/con-com-on-pace-to-meet-july-deadline/