House committee targets assembly by May for new constitutional change proposals
THE HOUSE committee on constitutional amendments will recall the approved report on the resolution seeking to amend economic and political provisions of the 1987 Constitution, and will review new proposals that will be presented to the plenary by May. “The committee report that we have approved, which you have complained to be secretive, will be recalled because there is now a new entry of these proposals and we believe that these are also good proposals to study before we send these constitutional amendments to the Senate,” Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez, chair of the committee, told reporters on Tuesday. Mr. Rodriguez also said that a Constitutional Assembly will be held by May to discuss the amendments. “We are sure that by March, before we adjourn on March 11, we have already heard the proposals of the Inter-Agency and also the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) and by March we should be able to approve it so that when we resume in May, it will be already in the plenary Constitutional Assembly,” he said. The hearing will be open to the public, he added. Among the proposed amendments involve the share of local government units in the national fund, strengthening the authority of regional development councils, and tandem voting for the president and vice president positions. — Genshen L. Espedido
De Lima asks SC to appoint new judge
DETAINED SENATOR Leila M. de Lima has asked for the appointment of a new judge handling one of her cases to replace the one relieved from designation. In a letter addressed to Court Administrator Jose Midas P. Marquez, Ms. De Lima cited that the judge who will temporarily replace Judge Gener Gito of Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 256 would be Judge Antonietta Media of Branch 276, who has “already inhibited twice from my other pending RTC cases.” Ms. De Lima, a staunch critic of the administration’s war on drugs, noted that since her arraignment last July 28, 2018, only five out of 54 prosecution witnesses have been called to testify. “In view of the foregoing developments, we fervently hope that your good office would act earnestly and immediately on the matter of appointing a presiding judge to hear Criminal Case No. 176-167 pending before RTC Muntinlupa Branch 256,” she said. Ms. De Lima has been detained since February 2017 over charges for conspiring to commit illegal drug trading in prison when she was Justice secretary. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas
