They will consult directly with the people on the proposed shift to federalism and the amendments to the 1987 Constitution.
From Cebu, the commissioners, said to be dominated by allies of President Arroyo, will be divided into three groups that would fan out to other parts of the Visayas and Mindanao before proceeding to Luzon next month.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he will accommodate the members of Con-Com but will assign someone to meet them.
Osmeña added he will not personally meet the delegation scheduled to arrive here today.
He stressed that his accommodation of the Con-Com members should not be taken as support for the change of the current system of government.
The mayor said the change in the system will not help the country at this time.
Oppositionists led by Sen. Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr. also questioned the role played by Con-Com, whose operations could not be financed by government as there is no appropriation in the national budget for them.
Pimentel wants the commission to vanish since its operation is illegal at the outset.
The Committee on the Structure of the Republic of Con-Com earlier recommended a shift to federalism to replace the present unitary system of government.
However, a motion was carried out only after long heated debates lasting almost three hours.
The parliamentarists had to battle the determined unitarians who see no hope in the kind of government touted to be the handmaiden of economic progress and political maturity.
The committee voted 16 in favor, eight against, with one abstention.
A shift to federalism will have a transition period of 10 years but there is a need for holding a plebiscite in 2006 or early 2007, Con-Com chairman Jose V. Abueva said.
Abueva, a leading advocate of federalism, also added that under the proposal, federal states will be fully established in 2016 or 2017.
There is also a proposal to extend the term of local officials to five years.
The 49-member Con-Com will discuss further the proposed federal structure of government during their plenary session on Thursday.
Supposedly fiery debates among proponents of federalism and the unitary system are expected to dominate Thursday’s session.
"We have a very heated debate, but as usual the debate was on a higher plane," Con-Com secretary- general Lito Monico C. Lorenzana said.
Lorenzana is a known federalist.
He said the committee will defend the proposed federal form of structure of government during the plenary session.
Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr."
"We are one with them," Lorenzana told reporters.
Although the recommendation was for a shift to federalism, Abueva said there is still a need to finetune the proposal.
Abueva said the President is also an advocate of federalism as most members of the House of Representatives.
Those who are for the retention of the unitary system were Commissioners Pablo Garcia and Gerardo Espina Sr., among others.
