Source: Public Relations and Information Department

OTHER NEWS «

"We will invite the Senators" -- JDV
House keeps its rules attuned to Charter
06 December 2006 03:54:47 PM
Writer: Noel Albano / Diony Tubianosa, PRID

Speaker Jose de Venecia and Majority Leader Prospero Nograles said Wednesday senators would be invited to join the House members in an assembly of all the members of Congress to propose amendments to the 1987 Constitution.

The House leaders’ assurances came just hours after the House of Representatives, by an overwhelming vote of 161-25 and no abstentions, amended its own rules Tuesday night, setting the stage for the plenary approval of a resolution that would allow Congress to exercise its constituent power to propose Charter amendments.

“The Senate will not be bypassed. We will invite the senators to join us and exercise their sacrosanct duty in the discussion on the proposed Charter amendments,” de Venecia said, brushing aside speculations and criticism that the House would exclude senators from the proposed assembly.

Nograles hit the inaccuracies in published news reports ascribing ill motives to the move by the House majority to make the charter’s procedural rules conform to the mandate of the Constitution.

“We never had the intention to bypass our Senate counterparts on the matter of proposing amendments to the Charter as insisted by detractors of reforms,” de Venecia and Nograles said.

Nograles told a press conference “it was wrong and unfair for these critics to interpret the amended House rule governing proposals to amend the Charter as part of an alleged ploy to shut the good Senators out.”

“In fact, we have been saying all along that the senators are important…we need the senators in this sacred endeavor,” Nograles added.

Senior House leaders stressed Tuesday night that the overwhelming decision of the House to amend the Rules was “in keeping with our duty to keep the Rules attuned to the Constitution.”

The voting, followed more than five hours of open and heated debate and cleared a major hurdle for the Majority Coalition in its efforts to have proposed key amendments to the Constitution approved before Congress takes a Christmas recess.

De Venecia was on the floor during the entire proceedings and called the vote a “historic and overwhelming voice for reform” in the country’s representative democracy.

The vote amended by deletion the second sentence (in bold letters below) of Section 105 of the House Rules of the 13th Congress adopted in 2004. The specific Section states that…“Proposals to amend or revise the Constitution shall be by resolution which may be filed at any time by any member. (The adoption of resolutions proposing amendments to or revision of the constitution shall follow the procedure for the enactment of bills.)"

Assistant Majority Leader Arthur Defensor presented the proposed amendment to the House Rules in the form of a motion directly in plenary. Defensor was firm in defending the motion until its approval by plenary at about 9:30 Tuesday night.

Senior Assistant Majority Leader Edcel Lagman, one of the chamber’s legal giants, described the amended House rule “an errant rule.”

“No practice or usage can validate an errant rule,” Lagman said. “Therefore, rectification is in order, and an errant rule must be rectified.”

Rep. Constantino Jaraula, chairman of the House committee on Constitutional Amendments, stressed that “there is no more necessity to follow the ordinary procedures in a bicameral system since the Constitution does not call for Congress to assemble in a joint session and call for a three-fourths vote separately to propose amendments to the Constitution.”

Another senior House leader, Rep. Luis Villafuerte, said it was the majority of Congress that approved the incumbent rules and “it is also the majority which may change it to make the rules responsive to the times.”

Rep. Antonino Roman said the specific House rule is “inconsistent with constitutional provisions” on amending the Constitution.

Deputy Speaker Gerry Salapuddin, who presided during most of the plenary proceedings, said the “historic vote is a date with history, which ushers in a new beginning and direction in the country’s political system.”

Salapuddin added: “There is no other time to change our Constitution but now. I’d rather go for reforms where we know our direction, rather than make our selves hostage of tradition.”

De Venecia earlier told a television interview that the House vote on amending the House Rules is “indicative” of how the voting would go should Congress sit as an assembly to propose amendments to the Charter.

De Venecia, backed by the House Majority Coalition, has advocated an amendment shifting the political structure from the bicameral presidential system to a parliamentary system with a unicameral assembly.

“The Filipino people are tired of the present presidential system and its failings,” de Venecia said, pointing to the gridlock in lawmaking, the incredible waste of people’s money incurred by a two-chamber legislature, and the paralysis and destructive politics bred by the bicameral presidential system. He likened the bicameral setup to a company, which has two boards of directors making policy.

At least 195 of all the Members of Congress should approve the propose amendments before the amendments could be sent to the Commission on Elections which would set the date for plebiscite to ratify the amendments.