THE leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives have agreed to pursue the review of the 1987 Constitution and come up specific models and proposals of actual constitutional provisions, which will later be presented to the people in a plebiscite.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel 3rd said the agreement was reached after a meeting Wednesday night with Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto 3rd and House Majority Leader Rodolfo Farinas Sr.

“We have decided to focus on the revisions that have to be made rather than how these changes will be effected,” said Pimentel.

The agreement has eased the brewing tension between the two houses of Congress due to opposing legal views on how to amend the Constitution.

Senators have insisted that Congress must vote separately in amending the Charter though a Constituent Assembly and even threatened to boycott the proceedings if the lower house would insist on a joint voting.

“I believe it is abundantly clear that a review of our Charter is long overdue, as repeatedly stressed by the resource persons at the Senate hearing tackling constitutional amendments,” said Pimentel, who is also the President of PDP-Laban, Duterte’s political party.

Alvarez, for his part, said that the House could hold a Constituent Assembly even without the senators because the chamber has enough members to satisfy the requirement stated under Section 1, Article 7 of the Constitution, which states that the Congress, “by a vote of three-fourths of all its members, may amend or revise the Constitution.” JEFFERSON ANTIPORDA