Amid the looming deadlock between the House of Representatives and the Senate on the manner of voting to amend the 1987 Constitution, Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez on Monday said the lower chamber has started amending the 1987 Charter.
When asked if the House of Representatives is already in the process of amending the 30-year-old Constitution, Alvarez, at a news conference, said “yes.”
Alvarez said the lower chamber could do Charter change (Cha-cha) alone even without the Senate.
“We are just doing our job as mandated by the Constitution to propose amendments to the Constitution,” he said. “We will just continue our public hearings…and try our best to come up with our best revision for the benefit of the Filipino people,” the Speaker added.
Alvarez reiterated his position that the 1987 Constitution was clear on voting jointly to propose amendments or revisions to the Charter just as long as the required three-fourths vote of Congress is met based on the combined number of the Senate and the House.
The proposed Charter amendments may be considered and adopted even without the participation of the upper chamber.
“Any amendment to or revision to this Constitution may be proposed by the Congress upon a vote of three-fourths of all its members, or 237 lawmakers,” he said.
Senators have earlier argued that voting should be done separately because the greater number of the House would practically drown out the Senate position.
Section 1, Article VII of the Constitution provides that “any amendment to, or revision of, this Constitution may be proposed by: [1] Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its members.”
Disagreement over this procedure may be brought before the Supreme Court (SC) for resolution, Alvarez admitted. “Anyone could question it before the Supreme Court. Now let the Supreme Court decide,” he said.
Last Sunday Rep. Vicente SE.Veloso of the Third District of Leyte, vice chairman of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, said they don’t have any choice but to do it alone if the senators refuse to attend a joint session with the members of the lower chamber.
“Well, if you see the Constitution, we have to convene as constituent assembly. Two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. But if they will boycott us, we don’t have any choice but to do it alone,” he said.
“Also, it was not a requirement in the Constitution that senators should always be present,” he added.
The lawmaker also said a unicameral legislature is preferable to speed up the process of enacting needed laws and avoid duplication of functions and save public resources.
The Congress of the Philippines is a bicameral body, which is composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Under the current legislative process, the lower chamber should transmit its approved bills to the Senate for its own deliberations and approval. Then, both chambers should also agree and pass one version of a bill through bicameral conference committee.
2019 plebiscite
Alvarez, meanwhile, said if some unforeseen circumstances cause delays in the process, the House is willing to do the plebiscite in 2019.
The Speaker said that, while his original target date is to submit to the Filipino people the proposed Charter changes simultaneous with the May 2018 barangay elections, he is open to the possibility of moving the deadline to 2019 midterm election if necessary.
“If, for example, we do not meet the requirements of the law [we will adjust] then we definitely have to comply,” Alvarez said.
He added he is pushing for Cha- cha because it was one of the major campaign promises of President Duterte in the 2016 campaign.
Alvarez said that the shift to a federal form of government was one of the four major campaign promises of Duterte when the latter ran in the elections.
Duterte already has “substantial compliance” with his other three main promises, the fight against illegal drugs, war against criminality, and war against corruption, according to Alvarez.