BY WENDELL VIGILIA

THE House of Representatives will not budge an inch in its plan to convene Congress into a Constituent Assembly to amend the 1987 Constitution despite mounting opposition from senators and multi-sectoral organizations.

"We’ll not abandon ship," said Speaker Prospero Nograles over the weekend.

Nograles was reacting to news reports quoting majority leader Arthur Defensor that the Con-Ass resolution was "bound to fail" without the support of the Senate.

Nograles said the House will pursue Con-Ass between January and March. "After that we shall rethink our stand," he said.

Nograles was earlier quoted as saying that he is open to the Senate proposal to elect delegates to a Constitutional Convention (Con-Con) to amend the Constitution, prompting speculations that he would be ousted as Speaker for going against the stand of the majority.

Rep. Luis Villafuerte (Kampi, Camarines Sur), proponent of the Con-Ass resolution, insists the House can go it alone without the Senate if it musters the constitutional requirement of three-fourths vote or 197 signatories of all 261 members of Congress, which includes the 23 senators.

The Kampi president anchored his arguments on his interpretation of the intent of Article XVII, Sec. 1 of the Constitution which provides that "any amendment to, or revision of, this Constitution may be proposed by the Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its Members."

Villafuerte said he believes that so long as the constitutional requirement of three-fourths vote is met, it is enough to start the process of proposing amendments because the Constitution does not mention the words "House" and "Senate" and merely states "Congress."

He said that in amending that Constitution, Congress is not making an institutional representation but is discharging a separate constitutional power to amend or revise the Charter.

Nograles called on all local government units to actively participate in the public discussions on Charter Change.

This way, Nograles said, the House leadership "will be guided by countrywide sentiments and not merely be influenced by demonstrations confined only in Makati City and Metro Manila."

"There is a huge possibility that those in the provinces and country side do not share the same sentiments with that of those in Makati City," he said.

Presidential political adviser Gabriel Claudio said it is high time that the members of the Senate and the House to thresh out differences of opinions on the issue of Charter Change by holding an inter-chamber dialogue.