MANILA -- A resolution that will open the floodgates to the revision of the 1987 Constitution was finally filed at the House of Representatives Wednesday.

Speaker Prospero Nograles filed House Resolution (HR) 1109, which calls on members of Congress to "convene for the purpose of considering proposals to amend or revise the Constitution upon a vote of three-fourths of all members of Congress."

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Once adopted, the resolution will pave the way for the filing of all the other proposals amending the Constitution.

The resolution, drafted by Camarines Sur Representative Luis Villafuerte, was signed by at least 174 congressmen, including President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's son Juan Miguel Arroyo of Pampanga.

Villafuerte, who pointed to Nograles as the resolution's principal author, said they only want to create a "justiciable" controversy to force the Supreme Court (SC) to rule on how the changes to the Constitution should be undertaken.

The resolution pledged that whatever constitutional changes will be proposed after the constitutional issues are clarified, "the term of office of the incumbent President and Vice President shall not be extended."

Likewise, it said that the terms of senators, congressmen, governors, mayors, and other elected officials whose terms will expire next year will not be extended and that elections will be held.

"The term of the 12 senators whose terms shall end in 2010 shall not be shortened, and they shall be allowed to finish their terms," it added.

Nograles has said he authored HR 737 only to lift the constitutional bar on foreign ownership of lands, but unlike HR 1109, he said this would undergo the ordinary legislative route before being sent to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for approval in a plebiscite.

Since he would not accept amendments that do not have anything to do with the economic provisions, the Speaker said all the other amendments will be possible only if HR 1109 is adopted.

HR 1109 contradicts HR 737 since it explicitly states that proposals to change the Constitution "cannot be considered, heard, debated, approved or disapproved, unless any of the modes expressly provided by Article XVII of the Constitution is adopted."

"Adopting a mode for amending or revising the Constitution, as mandated by said Article XVII (Amendments or Revision) is a condition precedent, a prerequisite, before specific proposals to amend or revise the Constitution could be considered by members of Congress, convened to exercise the constitutionally ordained power to amend or revise the Constitution," it said.

HR 1109 said that such proposals "cannot be formally presented and resolved until the mode for amending or revising the Constitution is convened and made operational through the application of Article XVII, Section 1 of the present Constitution."

Villafuerte said that since Nograles is the author of the two contradicting resolutions, he believes the "proper procedure will be to suspend consideration of HR 737 and let go of the resolution that I drafted which he himself has principally authored so that we can convene a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass)."

The Constitution provides that there are only three modes in amending it: Upon a vote of three-fourths of all its members of Congress, by a Constitutional Convention (Con-Con), and people's initiative.

Villafuerte said the Constitution makes it clear that Congress can amend or revise the charter "upon a vote of three-fourths of all the members of Congress (i.e. not three-fourths of each House voting separately as the oppositors contend)."

His earlier stand was that proponents would need 197 signatories of 261 members of Congress, which include the 23 senators, to amend the Constitution.

However, Villafuerte now contends that the three-fourths vote applies only to specific proposed amendments, not to the process itself of convening Congress.

HR 1109 said there is a "recognized distinction between the exercise of legislative powers of Congress from the exercise of the constituent power to amend or revise the Constitution."

"Congress, in its exercise of legislative power as provided in Article VI (The Legislative Branch) of the Constitution, cannot amend or revise the Constitution, but it is through the exercise of its constituent power under Article XVII, Section 1 of the Constitution that 'any amendment to, or revision of the Constitution may be proposed upon a vote of three-fourths of all its members,'" it said.

The resolution, however, said no specific proposals to amend or revise the Constitution can be "given due course" unless Congress is convened for such purpose and the constitutional issues clarified by the High Court. (WV/Sunnex)