And the media also asked the PM about the final report form the People's Constitutional Commission that was delivered to him on May 16th, along with the letter from the ten commissioners who had dissenting views.
He explained that the government bit off more than they could chew with the timeline, and they had to extend it to be able to properly dissect the recommendations. He also added that he will meet with the commissioners to hear them out.
John BricenoPrime Minister
"Remember the way the PCC, their mandate was to go and to listen and they went all over the country, they had countless meetings and so obviously you're going to get a lot of recommendations. I think they had over 4,600+, they just wrote them whatever they said, and then they just tried to compress it into this 167 and within those 167, they have dissenting views, some of them as much as 14 dissenting views so what we will do is now to look at everything that was presented to us and try to see what can work, what can't work, some of the things that were presented with we know won't be able to work, would not be able to withstand the scrutiny and so we have to see how best we can put this into something that's workable and to be able to meet the aspirations of the PCC. What is it, we wanted to renew our constitution, a constitution that deepens democracy, a constitution that strengthens the rights of our citizens and a constitution that can address the pressing needs of our people in these trying times."
"What will happen now, remember we're amending the legislation. Initially I thought we set the target too high, we were too ambitious that we felt we could have done it in such a short time once we get the reports. The reports are very long and it will require tedious work and we need to get now the professionals to look at it. So I think what we'll do is that I go to Cabinet and say okay we've received this and then quite likely we'll have the attorney general to have a constitutional specialist to take a look at it and for them, based on what has been given in that report, then to say these are some recommendations that we're making, we will discuss it in Cabinet, prepare a report and that will go to the National Assembly for the ratification or voting on, after that then it goes to a referendum. But we feel that we need to give it the proper attention so I think we're giving ourselves as much as a year to do this properly."
Reporter:
Will you meet with the signatories of that letter of complaint?
John BricenoPrime Minister
"Yes, I'm going to meet with them, we've not set a date but I will be meeting with them to hear them out, to hear their concerns and why they found it necessary to draw away from the PCC."
