Showdown looms over Charter change
THE SENATE and the House of Representatives are headed for a clash over Charter change, with Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez saying on Thursday the House would proceed with a Constituent Assembly to revise the Constitution even without the participation of the Senate.
“The bottom-line here is that we are satisfying the requirements of the Constitution. It states that threefourths of members [of Congress], so we will count all members and get the three-fourths of the total and we will vote. Through this, the requirement of the Constitution is complied with,” Alvarez told radio station dzMM.
“For me there is no longer room for interpretation on the matter [since it is very clear],” he added.
The Senate has 22 members while the House has 294 members. Combined, there are 316 members, which means that 237 members will constitute the three fourths figure. Senators are strongly opposed to
voting jointly, since their votes would be overwhelmed.
Alvarez said that if Senate would not budge, the House would take the matter to the Supreme Court.
COOP Natcco party- list Rep. Anthony Bravo echoed Alvarez, saying the Constitution clearly was based on the total membership of Congress.
In a news conference in Quezon City, Bravo said Senate would eventually give in to voting jointly after Alvarez and Senate President Aquilino Pimentel 3rd sit and talk it through.
“Maybe they are thinking that they are being disregarded. Maybe that is their sentiment. For me, it is never the intention of the House to disregard the Senate. They are with us in the legislative process,” Bravo said.
‘It takes two to Chacha’
Pressed for comment on Alvarez’s statements, Pimentel said: “They make their next steps. We make our next steps.”
“The Senate should, in good faith, let the process move forward and hear all the referrals made to the committee on constitutional amendments,” he added.
Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero said: “He ( Alvarez) can pretty much do what he wants to do.”
“But I doubt if it will have any legal effect. If merely changing the name of a school or street requires the separate participation and assent of the Senate, what more with changing the fundamental law of the land,” Escudero said in text message.
Sen. Ralph Recto said the threefourths voting formula that the House of Representatives wanted to exercise alone in amending the Charter was “the wrong calculus.”
“It takes two to Cha-Cha. Go- ing solo is shadow dancing. Or going up the boxing ring for the 12 full rounds with no opponent and then triumphantly declaring yourself winner by unanimous decision,” Recto said in a statement.
“The 3/ 4th voting formula, to be exercised by one chamber alone, is the wrong calculus. The Constitution speaks of a bicameral legislature,” he added.
Echoing Escudero, Recto argued: “If two bodies are needed to pass a bill changing the name of a barangay (village), then how can one house arrogate upon itself the far more important job of changing the basic law of the land?”