IN an overwhelming display of unanimity, at least 300 members of the House of Representatives have signified their intention to be co-authors of a resolution calling for a Constitutional Convention (Con-Con) that would propose amendments to the economic provisions of the Constitution.

The total number of co-authors on Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 6 was announced by Majority Leader Manuel Jose “Mannix” Dalipe during a majority caucus held an hour before the resumption of the House session Monday.

The 300-strong caucus was attended by Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and Senior Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, along with key House leaders that include Deputy Speakers, Deputy Majority Leaders, Assistant Majority Leaders, and all chairpersons of House committees.

The caucus was called to apprise members of the House majority of the priority measures that need to be acted upon by the House of Representatives before the Easter legislative break.

“We now have 300 House members as co-authors of RBH No. 6, and more are signifying their intention to be co-authors. This means we now have not 2/3 or 3/4 votes, but more than 93 percent of total House membership in solid support of the ConCon proposal,” Dalipe said.

“We are at the cusp of making history today. With this great number, we can now be likened to the 300 Spartans that made a last stand in the Battle of Thermopylae,” said Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chair of the House committee on constitutional amendments.

Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 6 is principally authored by Speaker Romualdez, Majority Leader Dalipe, Rep. Rodriguez, Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte, and the Kapatiran Party.

Romualdez said the House aims to limit its Charter rewriting initiative to the “restrictive” economic provisions of the basic law “in the hope that the changes would pave the way for the country to attract more foreign investments.”

“We need additional investments that would create more job and income opportunities for our people. We need increased capital to sustain our economic growth momentum,” Speaker Romualdez said.

He reiterated that investment reform by way of tweaking the Constitution’s economic provisions could be the “final piece in the puzzle” of improving the country’s economic and investment environment.

The committee on constitutional amendments endorsed RBH No. 6 after conducting extensive public hearings and consultations in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Through the resolution, the House and the Senate resolve to call a con-con “for the purpose of proposing amendments to the economic provisions, or revision of, the 1987 Constitution.”

The resolution notes that among the three modes of proposing amendments to the Charter, the calling of a convention “would be the most transparent, exhaustive, democratic, and least divisive means of implementing constitutional reforms.”

“Extensive studies show that particular economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution need to be revisited and recrafted so that the Philippines may become globally competitive and attuned with the changing times,” the resolution stated.

It further notes that such reform has been identified by reputable business and economic groups as a key policy instrument that needs to be implemented and these organizations feel that the economic reform by way of constitutional amendments “is now long overdue.”

It likewise cites a petition filed by Kapatiran Party for an indirect initiative under Republic Act (RA) No. 6735, otherwise known as the Initiative and Referendum Act, urging the House of Representatives to pass a bill calling for a con-con.

The Rodriguez committee gave due course to such petition in its second regular meeting last January 26.

The envisioned con-con would be a hybrid assembly with elected and appointed members, with the election and appointment of delegates to be held simultaneously with the October 30, 2023 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) polls.

The details of the election and appointment of con-con delegates would be contained in an implementing bill to be passed by Congress.