Alvarez said this option in changing the Charter in order to pursue a Federal shift in form of government will be cheaper and take lesser time.

He said the House of Representatives should be expected to pass by December, this year, the legislative measure that would convene Congress into a constituent assembly.

He added that he expects the amended Constitution to be submitted for ratification in a plebiscite in 2019, simultaneously with the mid-term elections that is schedules that year.

Alvarez projected the new government formed under the new Constitution to be operational in 2022, three years after the transitory provision shall have been completed.

The Speaker said 11 states will be created under a federal system of government that will have a parliament and a president to be directly elected by all qualified voters.

It was the Alvarez, secretary general of the ruling PDP-Laban Party and leader of the so-called “Super Marjority” in the Lower House, who initially sought for a Concon.

CON-CON TO CON-ASS

Alvarez had originally filed a resolution proposing Concon as the mode of amending the 1987 Charter.

However, budgetary constraints had convinced him and other ConCon proponents in the Lower House to abandon the proposal and instead opt for ConAss.

“Ang problema kasi ay budget, maraming kailangang pera especially in increasing the salaries of police and military personnel. Mahihirapan si Secretary (Benjamin) Diokno to allocate that big amount of money for Concon (The problem lies in the budget, money is needed especially in increassing the salaries of police and military personnel. Secretary Diokno is having difficulty in allocating that big amount of money for Concon),” he explained.

Alvarez said holding a Concon whose delegates will be elected directly by the people will cost government somewhere between P6 billion and P7 billion.

Justifying the choice by the pro-Duterte majority bloc of the mode of amendment, Alvarez stressed that congressmen and senators who will be tasked to revise the Charter have also been elected by the people, adding that a Conass is also a mode for Charter amendment that is allowed under the 1987 Constitution.

GOOD FOR BUSINESS

The lawmaker predicted a better business climate in the country as competition among the states to be created will be bolstered.

“Opportunities before and now are concentrated in Metro Manila. Once federalism is put in place, there will be states who will be free to manage their own economic policies and chart their destiny. Once you create these states, there is no reason for poverty not to be addressed,” he said.

Fears that federalism will further place poor provinces in a more precarious economic situation are unfounded, he stressed.

Under the proposed composition of federal states, impoverished provinces will become part of states that have economically resilient regions.

PROPOSED STATES

In Mindanao, the three states to be created are the Bangsamoro, Western Mindanao and Eastern Mindanao.

Visayas will be divided into two independent states – one, combining Samar, Leyte, Cebu, and Negros Island and the other, to be composed of Panay Island and the Luzon islands of Palawan, Mindoro, Marinduque, and Romblon.

Luzon’s proposed states are the following: Bicol region, Southern Tagalog, Central Luzon, Northern Luzon, Cordillera Administrative Region, and the National Capital Region (Metro Manila).

“The Duterte administration is determined to do it. Let us do this for the country,” he stated.

BUSINESS SECTOR REACTION

Business leaders in the MAP meeting aired serious concerns over past allegations that a Conass will only create self-serving amendments to the Charter.

One of them noted that previous attempts to amend the Constitution via constitutional assembly have failed due to lack of public confidence on the country’s legislators.

Alvarez assured the cynics that the constitutional assembly will ensure transparency and wide public consultation as they go about their job of revising the Charter.

Coincidentally, Cesar Virata, the country’s lone prime minister who served during the national assembly under the Marcos regime, was present at the MAP event which was also attended by Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista.

MAP President Perry L. Pe said MAP would have preferred constitutional convention “but the problem is that I believe in his analysis, that it is expensive, it is very time consuming.”

Asked to react on the imposition of state and federal taxes, Pe said this is welcome to the business community.’

“It is fantastic because each region will now have to craft their tax systems and he (Alvarez) says other region might give free taxation so we wouldn’t know if there’s a free port like Hong Kong. That would be helpful,” Pe said.

He added: “Federalism is very health, very health for business. We will support that as far as the MAP is concerned.”

Read more at http://www.mb.com.ph/con-ass-replacing-con-con/#Hc270f0WxFqOcBFA.99