In solons bid
to make Senate, House vote as one
By Mortz C. Ortigoza
DAGUPAN CITY
– The chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments was unperturbed if
somebody questions the plan of Congress to mix as one the 22 members’ House of
Senate and the 297 members House of Representatives to muster the
three-fourth votes needed for the charter change bid.
Representative Roger Mercado said that
anyone can question the Supreme Court on the plan of Congress but “(but) whether that
question will prosper or not that’s another story,”he told Northern Watch.
He said voting as one or voting
separately as an independent body has been a nagging question since attempts of
those who want to change the Constitution started several years ago.
“Kasi
the constitution allows amendment and revision by the ConCon (Constitutional
Convention) by the Congress meeting as Constituent Assembly and through People’s
Initiative napili natin iyong ConAss (Constitutent Assembly) ang problematic
provision lang dito is iyong Congress will vote as one e,”he cited.
Mercado, however, said he is amenable
for the Senate and the House of Representatives to vote separately if that is
what other proponents want.
“We are amenable. The House is amenable na we will vote separately.
Walang problema. Ang atin lang iyong sincerity natin na magkaroon tayo ng tunay
na Constitution”.
He said the consultation with the
Filipinos all over the country will end on April 4 that started here last
February 24 and continues every Friday.
A member of the 35 members of the
Committee on Constitutional Amendments
who was part of the four men Committee who came here told Northern Watch after the consulation that he was for the separate
votation of the Houses of Senate and House of Representatives.
“Actually kung ako ang tatanungin mo viable iyong voting separately. Mas
gusto ko iyan,” the solon who asked for anonymity
cited.
He added that he could not speak for
Mercado’s pronouncement to juxtapose the Senate and House to start up the
charter change through the Constituent Assembly.
Political kibitzers were worried that in
case the Senate votes separately to muster the three-fourth of 18 of the 22
senators (Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Leila De Lima are presently detained by
the police) would be a tall order.
“Only few senators are believed can be
herded on this matter by President Rodrigo Duterte who wanted to fast tract
this constitutional change if one based those solons who voted for the
Committee on Public Order & Dangerous Drugs chaired by Senator
Panfilo Lacson to hear SPO-3 Arthur Lascanas expose’ against President Duterte
as the brain behind the series of death perpetrated by the Davao Death Squad,”
one of them cited.
Senator Richared Gordon opposed vehemently the
reopening of Lascanas hearing as he impugned Lascanas previous statements in
October last year at the Committee on Justice he chaired that the president had
nothing to do with the DDS.
A Constituent Assembly (C.A), according to Wikipidia, is composed
of all members of the bicameral Philippine Congress (Senate and the House). It
is convened by Congress to propose amendments to the 1987 constitution. Under
Article XVII of the Constitution of the Philippines, amendments pass upon a
vote of three fourths of all members of Congress, but it is not clear if the
Congress should vote as a single body or as separate houses.
A Constitutional Convention, Wikipidia said, is a
gathering for the purpose of writing a new constitution or revising an
existing constitution. Members of a constitutional convention are often
elected by popular vote. The resulting constitutional frame of government is
often subjected to a popular vote via referendum before it enters into
force.
Representative Vicente Veloso, a former justice of the Court of
Appeals, told the more than one hundred attendes from different sectors the C.A
is the practical vehicle than C.C because C.A could save ten billion pesos of
the public funds in the deliberation, debate, and amendment or revision by its
members of the fundamental law.
Only five of the attendees raised their hands when asked if who
among them favored Constituent Assembly while more than ten of the more than a hundred attendees favored Constitutional
Convention as the mode to change the Constitution.
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