‘Stalemate’ looms if SC opts not to act on Cha-cha issues – Pimentel

Because of the so-called “political question doctrine,” the Supreme Court (SC) may or may not act on the controversial issue on how Congress should vote on any amendments or revisions to the 1987 Constitution, Senate President Aqulino “Koko” Pimentel III said on Monday.

And should the high tribunal decide not to act on the issue, then Pimentel said the two chambers of Congress — the Senate and the House of Representatives — would remain in a stalemate.

At present, he said, there was no “real stalemate” yet as the Senate has yet to receive House Concurrent Resolution No. 9, which calls for the convening of Congress into a Constituent assembly (Con-ass) to propose amendments to the Constitution. The measure was approved by the lower chamber last week.

“This is a free country, anybody can question what’s happening,” the Senate leader said in an interview with Radyo Inquirer 990AM, noting that the SC can review the actions of the two chambers.

“Okay, so pwedeng dalhin dun (SC). But again there’s a ‘political question doctrine’ na ang korte sometimes hindi sya nakikiaalam kung ang judgment ay nakaraserba sa mga politically elected officials kasi tandaan mo hindi elected ang korte e.”

“So, actually pwedeng pumunta sa Supreme Court. Pwede nyang aksyunan, pwede din nyang hindi aksyunan under the ‘political question doctrine’.”

“Kung hindi nya aksyunan, kasi political question yan, then ang decision ng mga politically elected officials ay stalemate, then it will remain a stalemate,” Pimentel explained.

If the status quo between the chambers would stay, Pimentel said that the legislators can still explore other avenues since there are three available means anyway to amend the Constitution.

While some House leaders are openly pushing for a joint voting on amending the Charter, all senators are united in their stand that the voting must be done separately by each chamber.                     /kga