House, Senate near Con-ass accord

THE HOUSE of Representatives and the Senate are edging closer to an agreement to vote separately in a constituent assembly (Con-ass) which is one of the main roadblocks to the President Duterte’s move to amend the Constitution and  shift to a federal form of government.

While no final decision has yet been made, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has softened his stand to vote as separate chambers and not as one body  in the Con-ass apparently to appease the 24 senators who would not want their vote diluted with their inclusion among the 292-member Congress in voting proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution.

In a joint interview with Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III after an informal meeting of House and Senate leaders at the EDSA Shangri-la Hotel on Tuesday, Alvarez said: “More or less, we have to agree. Whether voting separately or jointly, we have to agree as long as our intentions are the same.”

Pressed on whether he would insist on a unified vote, Alvarez said Congress problem had “no problem adjusting to the Senate’s stand on separate voting.

“I don’t see anything that we can’t agree on. When we finally vote on it, then it becomes official,” said Alvarez.

Pimentel said senators would insist on its interpretation of the constitutional provision laying down the guidelines on amendments and revisions that the voting of chambers be done separately similar to the way laws were enacted.

Pimentel does not see any legal impediment to separate voting in a Con-ass which was likely to be challenged in the High Court.

“The instances where Congress voted separately are more numerous. In the Constitution,  Congress  supposed to vote jointly only once, in the declaration of martial law. This is the product of research of Majority Leader [Rodolfo] Farinas,” said Pimentel.