House awaiting Senate’s formal action on Con-ass clash

INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

Leaders of the House of Representatives have kept mum about moves by senators to prevent the two chambers from convening jointly into a constituent Assembly amid a difference of opinion and fears of one outnumbering the other.

Constitutional amendments committee chair Rep. Roger Mercado said in a phone interview: “We would better wait for the [Senate’s] black-and-white position. We want everything to be done formally and in accordance with interparliamentary courtesy.”

Meanwhile, Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas told reporters: “I will not comment on the acts, omissions, or pronouncements of Members of the other Chamber.”

Several senators on Wednesday told reporters that they have unanimously agreed that the 23-member chamber may convene and vote separately on the amendments to the Constitution, which the Duterte administration had pushed ostensibly in a bid to shift to a federal form of government.

House members have insisted that the wording of Article 17 of the Constitution, which required that amendments be approved by “the Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its Members,” meant the two chambers would have to convene and vote together.

Such a setup meant the nationally-elected senators would be outnumbered by the 292 district and party-list representatives.

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