MAY I announce that the IBP Board of Governors, in response to a formal query made by the Senate of the Philippines, has decided to address a riddle that is gripping the nation today.
Ours is a rigid Constitution, made so as a protection against firebrand changes - and major revisions designed to substantially alter the balance of power in government must be proposed by a more circumspect Constitutional Convention and not by an overweening Constituent Assembly.
Also, a proposed revision must be set forth by the two houses of Congress voting separately, in keeping with the deliberative nature of our bilateral legislative body.
The Constitutional text providing for the process is ambiguous on account of the retention of the corresponding provision under the 1973 Constitution which was made suitable to a unicameral legislative body.
To us it is clear, however, that the intent behind bicameralism continues to be check and balance between the two houses, so designed for the enactment of better laws.
rAbdiel Dan Elijah S. Fajardo
National President
Integrated Bar of the Philippines