In the Philippines, house speaker advocates for constitutional convention over senate preference for constitutional assembly

House Speaker Martin Romualdez said [24 March] the chamber will be sticking to its push to propose amendments or revisions to the basic law through a constitutional convention, but indicated openness to talk with the Senate on its preference on Charter change. Romualdez’ statement came a day after Rep. Richard Gomez (Leyte) claimed [23 March] in a press conference organized by PDP-Laban that the speaker has agreed to a constituent assembly, stick to tweaking economic provisions only and for both houses to vote separately on proposed amendments to the Constitution. [...] "The House leadership … is willing to open discussions with the Senate on their preferred mode of amending the Constitution if that will lead to an agreement between the two chambers," Romualdez said. [...] The House has so far been adamant with pushing for a "hybrid" con-con to change the Constitution, where some of the delegates will be appointed by the president, the Senate president and the House speaker, and others will be elected. But Gomez made it appear that Romualdez has agreed that the House will follow the lead of Senate constitutional amendments panel chairperson Robinhood Padilla and pursue Cha-cha through a constitutional assembly instead, where members of Congress will be the ones to propose amendments to the Charter.
Read the full article here: Philstar