‘Entirely wrong’ for House to change Charter without Senate — Davide

Retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide on Wednesday said the plan of the House of Representatives to propose amendments to the constitution without the Senate was “entirely wrong.”

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez earlier said charter change is among the priorities of the House of Representatives.

While Alvarez prefers to go through Cha-Cha with the Senate, the House can proceed without the upper chamber, he said.

READ: Alvarez insists House will propose Charter amendments with or without Senate

However, Davide, in an interview on ANC’s Headstart, said “That is entirely wrong, and I don’t know what came into his mind.”

“As a matter of fact, they started to do that already. They passed a resolution calling for a joint session for a constitutional assembly (Con-ass) and he said that that resolution is enough. No, it cannot be joint without the concurrence of the Senate,” Davide said.

“One House cannot say that this is a joint without the other House being involved,” he added.

‘Anomalous’

Davide said the Senate’s objection will matter significantly because a Con-ass without the Senate is “an anomalous situation.”

While every constitution anywhere in the world can be changed at any time, Davide said this is possible only if “there are valid, justifiable, compelling reasons.”

“But right now, there is none. What they are trying to do is to…introduce to the country a new creature—federalism which is not really fit for the Philippines,” Davide said. — With Micah Yurielle P. Atienza/INQUIRER.net Intern

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