Left asks SC to stop Train
“[A replay of the video] shows a nearly empty session hall, with only Petitioners, Respondents [Iloilo Rep. Arthur] Defensor, [Jr.] and [Batangas Rep. Raneo] Abu and a few other members. While the plenary session hall has 295 seats for the district and party-list representatives, only around ten of them were occupied that night,” the petition read.
Moreover, objections raised by ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio and Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate on House leaders’ move to discuss the bicameral or reconciled version of the measure were “deliberately ignored” by Abu, who - sor, the deputy majority leader.
Tinio, Zarate and Anakpawis the petition.
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, Defensor and Abu thus committed grave abuse of discretion, they said.
TRO sought
The bloc sought a restraining order against the implementation of the Train Law.
“Our petition is premised on the fact that the House blatantly violated the Constitution and its own rules in ‘ratifying’ the Bicameral Conference Committee Report of the [Train] bill without a quorum and without a vote. Thus, we ask the Supreme Court to void the overwhelmingly regressive Train law,” the bloc said in a statement.
“Once the Supreme Court favors our petition, it will send a strong message to the leaders of Congress that they cannot just pass a law without a quorum and without a vote; that they have to strictly observe the Constitution and, in particular, the rules on ratification,” the statement added.
The militant lawmakers also another petition against the “re impositions of the Train, which cut - ened beverages and others.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd earlier said 99 percent of the country’s popula as salaried employees and selfemployed individuals earning a year, or around P21,000 a month,
- come brackets will also get to the ultra-rich or those earning P8 million a year and above.
Also, 13th month pay and other bonuses up to P90,000 are
The petitioners disputed the government’s claims, saying the products and sugar-sweetened beverages and a broader value-added low-income earners.
Duterte impleaded
President Rodrigo Duterte signed December 19, 2017.
Duterte was impleaded in the petition, and was also accused of grave abuse of discretion for enacting the Train bill “not validly passed by Congress.”
“Before the Congress passes - sures, which mean diminution of directly as levies or indirectly as passed-on charges, the Constitution mandates them to comply with the procedural and substantive requirements it sets, as implemented by their rules,” the leftist lawmakers said.
Revenues from the Train Law President’s P8-trillion infrastructure program.
Palace confident
- ernment would be able to defend the legality of the Train law before the Supreme Court.
“We will defend the Train Law. those three that cannot be denied as among the state’s powers, including the eminent domain and police power,” Palace spokesman Harry Roque said in an interview
“enrolled bill rule,” the court assumes that all rules of procedure in the enactment process were properly followed, once a bill passes a legislative body and is signed into law.
“They said there is no quorum when the Train was ratified by Congress. But we already have a decision – the Supreme Court – which is called enrolled bill theory,” Roque said.
“The enrolled bill principle [ means] that once it is signed by the Senate President and the House Speaker, that’s a certification that a law underwent a process, in accordance with the Constitution. And that is respected by the courts,” he added.
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