Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez need not file a separate bill on divorce because he is welcome to co-author the first divorce bill (House Bill No. 116) which I filed on 01 July 2016 which is pending with the Committee on Population and Family Relations.

There is also a similar bill (House Bill No. 2380) which was filed by partylist Gabriela Representatives Emmi de Jesus and Arlene Brosas which has been referred to the Committee on Revision of Laws.

The Speaker is urged to expedite the approval of the said bills, as consolidated, by the Committee on Population and Family Relations.

The shift to a federal system needs a thorough and comprehensive constitutional amendment, preferably by a Constitutional Convention.

Only the mode of amendment is a proper subject of a legislative agenda.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN