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“In general, the House of Representatives is in favor of charter change, while the Senate opposes. Which of these chambers will prevail will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court,” she said.

Santiago was guest speaker yesterday at Our Lady of Fatima University in Valenzuela City.

Santiago said that the House and the Senate are directly opposed on the issue on how to compute how many votes will be needed to convert Congress into a constituent assembly.

Santiago said the Constitution provides that it can be amended by ¾ votes of the Congress, and the issue is how to compute the ¾ votes.

“The House position is that first we should compute the total number of Congress members, which is 261 votes in all. If so, then only 195 votes are needed to change the charter,” she said.

Santiago said that the Senate objects to the House position, because it would mean that a senator has just the same vote as a representative, and because there are more representatives, the House will be able to outvote the Senate.

“By contrast, the Senate position is that charter change needs ¾ of the House, meaning 178 votes; plus ¾ of the Senate, meaning 17 votes,” she said.

Santiago said that even former Supreme Court justices and constitutional convention delegates are divided on the answer to this issue.

“The authoritative answer to this paramount threshold question can only be given by the Supreme Court,” she said.

Santiago said that as a constitutional law professor, in general she opposes any charter change, unless there are compelling reasons.

“One compelling reason for charter change is the imperative necessity to change the nationalistic provisions, in order that the Philippines can be globally competitive,” she said.

Santiago noted that many foreign firms do not want to invest in the Philippines, because the Constitution only allows them minority control of their own corporations.

“The second reason for charter change is the necessity to change from a unitary to a federal form of government, in order to solve the long-standing issue of Muslim separatism,” she said.

Santiago said that in a federal system, as in the US, each state is a virtual state within a state, resulting in a “system of dual sovereignty.”

“But we have to be extremely careful that in a federal system, the Constitution shall prohibit absolutely any right of secession. The absence of such a prohibition might cause a civil war, as it did in the US,” she said.