Here goes the Speaker again
Former Supreme Court chief justice Hilario Davide Jr. described the setup being proposed by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, which is for the House of Representatives to propose amendments to the Constitution without the Senate, as “entirely wrong” and an “anomalous situation.”
It could even be be worse. It can be seen as arrogance, the height of which has not been seen since Ferdinand Marcos declared military rule and dismantled the country’s democratic institutions. And it could polarize the country even more.
This is not the first time that Alvarez made the statement, though. He did it early on when he presented a rushed timetable for a shift to a federal setup, one that included the no election or “no-el” scenario for 2019 and the extension of the terms of incumbents. His term in the House ends in 2019.
The senators, even those who belong to the administration majority in the Senate, frowned on Alvarez’s initiative. They obviously knew better. Alvarez wanted his cake and ate it too. Worse, he wanted to emasculate the Senate by pushing for a joint vote on the amendments instead of the two chambers voting separately.
Alvarez is so confident in his position and of the possible support by the president for it that he threatened to start the ball rolling by having the House unilaterally act as a constituent assembly (Con Ass) and go ahead proposing the suggested constitutional amendments.
Not only does Alvarez seem confident of getting the president’s support for his initiative, he also seems confident of getting the vote of majority of the Supreme Court justices. His threat to go ahead with the Con Ass without the Senate has always carried with it the suggestion that if the senators are aggrieved they can go ahead and question his initiative with the Supreme Court.
Considering how the Supreme Court justices voted in critical issues, like the burial of the former dictator at the Libingan ng mga Bayani and the quo warranto petition that ousted Ma. Lourdes Sereno from her chief justice post, Alvarez’s confidence in his posture may have basis after all. Which is unfortunate.