MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) can break the impasse between the Senate and the House of Representatives over procedures for approving a constitution for a federal form of government, Sen. Francis Escudero said yesterday.
The two chambers have been at loggerheads over Charter change, with the House planning to convene a constituent assembly (con-ass) to rewrite the Constitution for a shift to federalism even without the participation of the Senate.
Senators, however, warned that changing the Charter the way the House wants it would be futile without the Senate, citing the bicameral nature of the legislature under the Constitution.
“I think anybody can make a case before the SC, making it a question of law,” Escudero said, referring to the question of whether the House can proceed on its own version of con-ass.
He, however, said he agrees with the observation of former SC justices that the high court is unlikely to intervene and just dismiss the issue as purely political in nature.
He said even if the SC will issue a definitive answer to the legal question, the Concurrent Resolution No. 9 passed by the House last week seeking to convene Congress into a con-ass would mean the measure will still have to hurdle the Senate.
“The title in itself, ‘concurrent resolution’, is already an admission that any proposal or move to amend the Constitution necessitates the separate votes of both houses of Congress,” Escudero said.
The resolution was transmitted to the Senate last week. Senators said the measure will go through the usual hearings of the committee on constitutional amendments chaired by Sen. Francis Pangilinan.
“The strategy it appears is for the House to force the issue and have the Supreme Court step in and decide in their favor,” Pangilinan said.
“The administration has bullied the political opposition, its critics, the chief justice, the media, selected business interests, and now it wants to bully the Senate,” he said.
He warned the bullying of the House “is an abuse of those in power” and that the senators “should not let it pass.”
He said the Senate should not allow itself to be bullied or “democracy and respect for the law will be thrown out the window and anyone can be a victim of the abuses of those in power.”
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said House members, “for their own sake, should not allow themselves to look pathetic and worse, ridiculous.”
He said congressmen should read the Constitution in its entirety, or at the very least, Article 17, Section 1 (Amendments or Revisions) in relation to Article 6, Section 1 (Legislative Department) that explicitly refers to “the Congress” as the Senate and the House.
Interpreting “the Congress” under Article 17 to refer to one chamber only is at best, self-serving, he said.
“They pride themselves as lawyers in good standing but it only takes a layman who knows how to read and understand simple words and literature in order to appreciate what is right and wrong,” Lacson said.
Puno: SC the proper forum
Retired chief justice Reynato Puno also said the SC is the proper forum to resolve the impasse between the Senate and the House.
He told ABS-CBN News Channel that if the two chambers could not agree on the constituent assembly mode of proposing amendments to the Constitution, the issue could be brought to the high court for resolution.
“That conflict is, to me, a justiciable issue. That is a matter that is proper and fit for interpretation by the Supreme Court,” he said.
With the senators’ refusal, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said the House would proceed with con-ass even without the Senate and propose constitutional amendments by obtaining the required three-fourths vote of all members of Congress.
Puno said Alvarez’s interpretation of the Charter’s provision on voting for amendments or revision was literal.
“That is not the way to interpret the Constitution. When you interpret a provision of the Constitution, the first thing you do is to look at its history, its inception, and how it was reworded along the way,” he said.
He said if the Speaker’s interpretation were followed, it would lead to an “anomalous result.”
“The anomalous result here is to negate totally the powers of the Senate as an institution,” he said.
House members are hoping that up to three senators would attend their con-ass.
They expect Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Manny Pacquiao and Juan Miguel Zubiri to show up. The three are from Mindanao and are supporters of President Duterte.
Opposition congressmen have joined the senators in reminding lawmakers that cha-cha for federalism would not take off without the participation of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“It takes the House and the Senate to Cha-cha in tandem in a constituent assembly (con-ass). The Constitution with respect to a con-ass clearly provides: ‘The Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its members.’ The ‘Congress’ means both houses, referring to the House of Representatives and the Senate,” Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman told a news conference.
He said the House or the Senate could not go solo on Cha-cha.
Speaker Alvarez insists that the House alone could do Cha-cha provided that it obtains three-fourths vote of all members of Congress, including senators, even with only congressmen voting.