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INITIATIVE AMENDMENT TO THE PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION
To Increase and elect Senators by District & To End Political Dynasties
By Atty. Marlowe Camello, Updated 1/07/2016

Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao are the three major

regions in the Philippines. The most progressive and
wealthiest of them all is Luzon. Why? Because of the
unintended but inherent discriminatory effect against
the regions of Visayas and Mindanao by electing at
large the members of the Senate.
On the average, about 18 of the native-born senators
are elected from Luzon. The remaining 6 are usually
shared at 4 for Visayas and 2 for Mindanao by luck.
When it comes to regional bargaining in the Senate to
share in the annual national budget and other beneficial
laws for the country, the Luzon native-born senators
have overwhelming voting power in the Senate to
garner whatever amount they want to obtain for their
region specially from the annual budget of the
government. All that remains are but remnants to be
shared by the Visayas and Mindanao regions.
It is no wonder that Visayas and Mindanao are always
lagging behind Luzon in sharing with the wealth of the
nation. As far as the Senate is concerned today,
Visayas and Mindanao are mere secondary part to the
entire progress of the country as if Luzon exists and
prosper without the regions of Visayas and Mindanao,
thanks to the discriminatory result of electing members
of the senate at large. The result is simply and purely
discriminatory to the people in Visayas and Mindanao
Regions, specially to the Muslims in Mindanao. The
representation of Senators for Visayas and Mindanao is
clearly inadequate and it needs to be proportionately
increased.
In order to equitably speed up evenly the economic
progress nationwide at par with Luzon, it is only fair that
the election of senators be done by districts. This will
fairly equalize the bargaining power of each region
through their elected senators to achieve a fair money
allotment to support essential projects in each region
around the country. The Senate shall then serve as a
political glue to bind the central government and the
regions like they do in the U.S. which the U.S. Senate
binds the States and the U.S. Federal Government
whose senators are elected by states.
Once economic prosperity is achieved in the other
remote regions, dense population and traffic congestion
in metropolitan cities, such as Manila and Quezon City,
shall greatly ease. Commerce shall spread evenly
between regions, provinces and cities that will equally
benefit all segments of the country. This will spark
nationwide equitable building of roads, airports and
seaports, construction of schools, hospitals, recreation

parks and other amenities for the people to enjoy

equally in the entire Philippine society.
At present, the country has already been apportioned
into eighteen (18) regions. All that is needed is to
designate such regions as senatorial districts. Each
district shall then be represented by two native born
senators. This will guarantee that all regions, such as
the poorest regions of Caraga and ARMM, among others,
will be loyally represented in the senate. To achieve the
purpose of this proposition, there would be a need to
amend Article VI, Sections 2 and 3, of the constitution to
increase the number of senators to 36 in the Senate. The
increase is justified because of the tremendous population
growth of the Philippines since the first composition of the
senate at 24 was established. Election at large of senators
should be abolished.
It is further recommended that Federal Regions to operate
as administrative entities to build the infrastructures of the
Regions shall be established covering the same Senatorial
Districts .
To prevent the build up of political dynasties in the Senate,
no person shall be nominated for senator if he has any
relative within 3 degrees of blood or family or adoptive
relationship who holds a political, appointive or judicial
position in any national or local government office,
otherwise, his nomination and/or election to the senate
shall be void even if he shall have taken his oath of office
for violation of this rule. Unfortunately, the pro at large
elected senators would dislike this type of a provision in
this proposal because of personal greed. Therefore, the
people needs to fight peacefully with their votes to pass
this proposition by the Initiative process over and against
the objection of politicians.
As an initial action, for this recommendation, I have already
prepared a draft of the Peoples Initiative to amend the
constitution by direct approval by the people instead of by
Congressional enactment. We cannot expect that the
current Senators will ever approve this constitutional
amendment. I recommend that the people should start to
act to sponsor this Initiative for direct enactment and for
their approval under the rules of RA 6735. Let us avail of
the benefits of this law..
The high lights of this initiative is shown in the ballot form
to recommend for approval (or disapproval) by the people
of the initiative. The essential documents to launch this
initiative can be browsed and copied in the links below.
Then press or click the FULL VIEW or DOWNLOAD
mode to read a clear copy of said documents. Please
bookmark this website.

1. Provisions of the Constitutional Amendment Initiative: http://tinyurl.com/mxrxmuh

2. The Ballot form to approve or disapprove the initiative: http://tinyurl.com/nqw6uwy

3. Suggested Petition Form before the COMELEC:

http://tinyurl.com/on5or5a

4. Form for Signature Gathering Sheets:

http://tinyurl.com/kp2xar2
Before starting to collect signatures, read carefully Item 3 above, paragraph 2, to correlate your work.