MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE 2) Senators have agreed not to take action on a Charter change resolution which was passed by the House of Representatives, saying there was no need yet to question it before the Supreme Court.

This decision was reached by Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile, and Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri, Jose Estrada, Gregorio Honasan, Benigno Aquino III, Richard Gordon, and Manuel Roxas of the majority bloc and Senator Aqulino Pimentel Jr. of the minority group during a caucus on Thursday.

House Resolution 1109 calls for the convening of a constituent assembly to amend the 1987 Constitution, even without the approval of the Senate, voting as a separate chamber of Congress.

“Ang kasunduan ay huwag muna kaming gagawa ng anumang hakbang. Pag-aaralan namin kung sakaling kami ay sasali ay iprepara namin ang ang legal studies at kung panahon na aaksyon ang Senado ay handa kami na ipagtanggol ang karapatan ng Senado at karapatgan ng bayan [The agreement is we will not take action. We will study if we will join and we will prepare our legal studies. When time comes for the Senate to take action, we will defend the rights of the Senate and of the people],” Enrile said after the meeting.

“Hindi matin malaman kung saan pupunta ‘yan at kung saan dadalhin yan We don’t know where this is headed],” he added.

Enrile said senators could not understand why lawyer Oliver Lozano filed a petition questioning HR 1109 before the Supreme Court when the measure was only a call for the convening of Congress into a constituent assembly to propose amendments to the 1987 Constitution.

“Hindi mo naman pwedeng ipagbawal ng Korte Supreme yung call na yun. Panawagan yun [The Supreme Court cannot prohibit that call. It’s just a call]. You can’t prohibit it, enjoin it,” he said.

Pimentel, who is the minority leader, supported Enrile’s statement.

“Kami sa minority, full support sa position ni Senate President [We in the minority fully support the position of the Senate President],” he said.

Roxas said he was pushing for Senate intervention on Lozano’s petition before the high tribunal.

Roxas said Lozano's petition was empty and that the Senate should come in and file a stronger petition before the high court. He said Lozano was apparently working for Malacañang.

Pimentel insisted that the House resolution was President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s ploy to evade criminal prosecution once she steps down from office in 2010.

Part of the administration’s blueprint to amend the Constitution, Pimentel said, was to insert a provision that would grant Arroyo immunity from suits for official acts she made as president.

He said Arroyo has deluded herself and her political allies into believing that it was still possible to install a parliamentary system of government where she can run for prime minister despite the lateness of the hour and widespread public condemnation of such illegal and immoral scheme.

“In her obsession to get herself off the hook, Mrs. Arroyo is moving heaven and earth to push for Charter change, impervious to the fact that the method they have chosen contravenes the Constitution and that it has no chance of succeeding for lack of support from an indignant citizenry,” Pimentel said in a statement.

“It is much ado about nothing, as Shakespeare would say. The majority members of the House know that they cannot amend the Constitution by own lonely selves. They are deluding themselves if they think they can do it,” he said.