News Roundup 25 January 2024
Jan 25, 2024 • 4 min Read
Only amendments, not constitutional revision allowed in people’s initiative — Carpio | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — A people’s initiative can only amend certain provisions in the 1987 Constitution but cannot revise it, former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said on Thursday.
Citing the 1987 Constitution and the decision Carpio wrote in the case of Lambino v Commission on Elections (Comelec), he said that only amendments can be applied to the Constitution if it is done through a people’s Initiative since a constitutional revision needs a deliberative body.
“I strongly believe it is unconstitutional,” Carpio said in an interview with ANC.
“To revise the Constitution, you need a deliberative body. There must be debates, and you need a recorded proceeding. So that you have a record of what they meant…It’s not practical to grant, to include the revision of Constitution, in a people’s initiative, because there’s no debate,” he added.
According to Article 17 of the Constitution, any amendment or revision of the charter may be done through a constitutional convention, assembly, or a people’s initiative.
A constitutional amendment, according to Carpio, “refers to any change in the Constitution that adds, reduces, or deletes without altering the basic principle involved, and without affecting the substantial provisions of the Constitution.”
A revision, meanwhile, involves an overhaul or change of the principle of one or many provisions.
Full Story at: Only amendments, not constitutional revision allowed in people’s initiative — Carpio | Philstar.com
Just around half of DepEd’s target number of classrooms built in 2023 | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education fell short of its target for classroom construction in 2023, building only around 3,600 new classrooms out of the planned 6,300, based on figures shared by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte on Thursday.
Duterte said during her second DepEd Basic Education Report (BER) that the education department constructed 3,673 new classrooms in 2023.
This represents just 58% of DepEd’s target number of new classrooms in 2023 (6,379), which Duterte announced during last year’s BER and which Marcos announced in his second State of the Nation Address.
Duterte said on Thursday that over 6,200 classrooms are in “various stages of construction” while 800 others are still in the procurement stage.
The vice president added that the department aims to finish building at least 4,000 classrooms “by the end of the first semester of 2024.”
Duterte did not mention how much progress DepEd has made in reducing average class sizes nationwide — a talking point that triggered a word war with a progressive teachers’ group last year that criticized the department’s efforts to address classroom shortages.
Even as both Marcos and Duterte have expressed the need to expand school infrastructure, the government lowered its target number of new classrooms for 2024 to 1,628, according to 2024 National Expenditure Program documents.
Full Story at: Just around half of DepEd’s target number of classrooms built in 2023 | Philstar.com
No new taxes, just better collection – Recto | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — The Marcos administration would not impose new taxes as part of efforts to repair the economy after the pandemic, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said on Wednesday, adding the government would instead improve collection efficiency rather than create new imposts that might stoke inflation.
Recto took the finance portfolio on Jan. 15 and said the plan was to “collect what’s on the table” and not burden Filipinos reeling from high prices with new consumption taxes.
To meet the department’s target revenue of P4.3 trillion this year, Recto said the government would pursue some tax reforms and “intensify implementation of digitalization initiatives, strengthen enforcement efforts, improve the administration of taxes and intensify its anticorruption drive.”
“Recognizing the current economic challenges, we must not rely solely on imposing new or additional taxes,” Recto said in a press conference.
Full Story at: No new taxes, just better collection – Recto | Inquirer News
Execs with access to ‘root server’ may manipulate lottery system — PCSO IT official | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) executives who have access to the lottery system’s “root server” may manipulate a bettor’s number and match it to the winning combination, one of the corporation’s officials said on Thursday.
PCSO – Information Technology Services Department officer-in-charge manager May Cerelles told Senator Raffy Tulfo that this is “possible” when the latter raised this theory, which he said came from technology experts.
“Halimbawa nalang nag sabuwatan lahat […] papalitan natin ito [number] through the root access, palabasin natin na may nanalo. Hindi nyo ginagawa yon, wala akong binibintang, possible or not?” Tulfo asked during the upper chamber’s committee on ways and means and the committee on games and amusement hearing.
(For example: those with access conspired to change the number through the root access and make it look like someone won. I know you’re not doing it, but is it possible?)
“Possible po,” Cerelles answered.
The PCSO official said that only two people can access the main computer system with the “root server” — the corporation’s general manager, Melquiades Robles, and assistant general manager, Arnel Casas.
Full Story at: Execs with access to ‘root server’ may manipulate lottery system (inquirer.net)
