Sotto talks tough in defense of Senate vs constituent assembly

If renaming streets requires the action of both legislative chambers, what more changing the system of government?

In a portent of a showdown between the two chambers, Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Monday sternly warned the House of Representatives not to reduce the Senate into an irrelevant party in the move to convene a constituent assembly (Con-ass) as the mode for revising the 1987 Constitution.

“To say, or even insinuate, that we are unnecessary and irrelevant, is unacceptable,” Sotto said midway through his speech at the opening of the third regular session of the 17th Congress, hours ahead of President Rodrigo Duterte’s third State of the Nation Address.

“I do not wish to preside during my watch over the necrological services of the Philippine Senate,” he said, addressing his colleagues who applauded him at the end of his speech.

Alvarez push

The Senate leader’s remarks were in reaction to Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s statements implying that the House could go it alone in convening the Con-ass to bring about a shift to a federal system of government.

Alvarez earlier argued that technically, the House did not require Senate concurrence in the move to revise the Charter. What was only needed in any constitutional amendment, he said, was a three-fourths vote of “all members of Congress.”

Based on this interpretation, the Senate, with only 23 current members, would be vastly outnumbered by the 292-strong House should there be joint voting.

Senators insist that voting in a Con-ass should be done separately by each chamber, since doing otherwise would render their votes useless.

In his speech, Sotto asserted the Senate’s importance as one of the two legislative bodies.

“The Senate is essential in any and all matters pertaining to legislation, and whenever Congress is mandated to exercise some functions. It is obvious that 250 beat 24 any time,” he said, referring to the number of legislators in each chamber.

Missing the point

“But to claim that the procedure in the legislative department is a purely numbers game is to miss the point big time. There would be no need for any Senate counterpart bills, no need for bicameral conference committees, no need for joint resolutions, and no joint assemblies if that lame argument is carried to its absurd conclusion,” he added.

Sotto noted that Senate concurrence was always required to enact any small measure from changing the name of schools and streets anywhere in the Philippines to setting the date for the Christmas break of Congress.

“In the small things, we are necessary. But in changing the Constitution of the Philippines, the Senate is no longer necessary?” he said. “If our consent is needed in small things, more so in big things!”

Sotto said the voice of the Senate was all the more important “when we are confronted with a number of momentous choices affecting our nation.”

Not a priority

“Do we shift from presidential to a parliamentary form of government? Do we retain a unitary republic or try the federal system? Do we transform our regions to states themselves? Pray tell, why?” he said.

“The memories of the giants who sat in this august hall will forever hound us if we drop the ball at this crucial hour,” he said.

This early, Sotto indicated that the upper chamber was not inclined to give priority to the administration’s push for Charter change.

“From what I see, no, [it won’t be a priority],” he told reporters before presiding over the Senate opening of the third regular session.