Why 2024 is the last opportunity to reform the 1987 Constitution under Marcos Jr. administration | The Freeman

There is a current People’s Initiative drive and constitutional reform paid advertisement from a certain law firm, with the ultimate goal of amending Article XVII of the 1987 Constitution stating that House of Representatives and Senate should vote jointly for any future constitutional amendments and revisions, but the problem is there isn’t yet an enabling law for People’s Initiative, so their moves to gather 7.8 million signatures nationwide that are done in a sinister manner of paying AICS and TUPAD with ?100 before they sign People’s Initiative forms reek of unethical travesty to the constitutional reform process.

The whole idea of amending or revising the 1987 Constitution is a commendable idea and should have been done periodically, but it never happened because constitutional reform advocates couldn’t respect the whole process of amending and revising the charter, and many politicians, particularly senators, have their own vested interests into keeping the 1987 Constitution fully intact because any tinkering it may affect their chances of becoming president and vice president someday. There are some 1987 Constitution framers like Christian Monsod and Hilario Davide who aren’t open to the idea of incremental constitutional amendments, out of their nostalgic reasons, where amending the Constitution is tantamount for them admitting how flawed the framing process in the 1986 Constitutional Commission was and how unelected they were as members of the said constitutional commission.

When it comes to timing to amend or revise the 1987 Constitution under the PBBM administration, this year 2024, is the best time to pursue any constitutional amendments or revisions because after the 2025 mid-term elections, people including myself would thumb down any proposals to merely amend the Constitution because politician proponents would use it as vehicles to perpetuate themselves in power. 2024 should be the pinnacle point of the current administration where he could pursue necessary structural economic and political reforms, including reforming the 1987 Constitution.

There are many provisions in the 1987 Constitution that need to be amended like repealing the 60% Filipino