House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri (INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS)
MANILA, Philippines— Not far from President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr., the heads of the Senate and the House of Representatives shook hands on Wednesday amid the heated word war on amending the 1987 Constitution.
The encounter between Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez was witnessed by lawmakers who attended the 100th birthday celebration of Marcos’ chief legal adviser, Juan Ponce Enrile.
Among those who witnessed it was Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., chairman of the Lakas-CMD party. Romualdez is the president of the party.
“They shook hands,” Revilla said in Filipino when asked about the Senate and the House leaders’ encounter.
“PBBM (Marcos’ initials) was there, but not in front of him. They were somewhat near,” he added.
According to Revilla, he himself asked for a ceasefire when they met with their counterparts in the House of Representatives.
“I said: Let’s have a ceasefire, okay?” he said.
Enrile’s wish was also for both the Senate and the House to continue to support Marcos, Revilla said.
According to Revilla, he felt caught in the middle as he belongs to the Senate but is allied with the Speaker.
The Senate and the House have been feuding over the latest Charter change push through a people’s initiative.
Some senators suspect the House was behind the initiative, which is proposing joint voting of both chambers of Congress when amending the Constitution.
This proposal, however, was met with strong opposition from the Senate, which said joint voting would diminish the power of the upper chamber as the 24 senators could be easily outvoted by the more than 300 House members.
“It’s a good start,” Revilla said, still referring to Zubiri and Romualdez’s gesture.
Asked about the other lawmakers present in the meeting, Revilla said they were all “civil” to each other.
He remains hopeful though that after the meeting, cooler heads will prevail among his colleagues.