Senator Panfilo Lacson
“For their own sake, they should not allow themselves to look pathetic and worse, ridiculous,” Senator Panfilo Lacson said on Tuesday.
Lacson was reacting to Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s reported statement that the House of Representatives could progress with the Charter change (Cha-cha) initiative even without the Senate.
READ: Alvarez: Cha-Cha process under way without Senate
The senator advised the House members to read the entire 1987 Constitution or at the very least, Art. XVII, Sec. 1 (Amendments or Revisions) in relation to Art. VI Sec. 1 (Legislative Department), which he said explicitly refers to “the Congress” as the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Interpreting “the Congress” under the said provision of the Constitution to refer to one chamber only, he said, was “at best, self-serving.”
“They pride themselves as lawyers in good standing but it only takes a layman who knows how to read and understand simple words and literature in order to appreciate what is right and wrong,” Lacson noted.
Asked if there was a need for the Senate to question the House’s move before the Supreme Court, Lacson said: “No need. And we will not.”
“They can propose amendments or revision all they want but at the end of the day, a plebiscite would necessitate an item in the GAA to be appropriated for the COMELEC to conduct such plebiscite. Without the Senate, how can such appropriation materialize?” he asserted.
GAA refers to the General Appropriation Act while Comelec refers to the Commission on Elections.
As the House insists that Congress should vote jointly on Cha-cha, the Senate is standing firm that voting should be done separately by the two chambers.
READ: Senators’ consensus: Congress should vote separately on Cha-cha
READ: ‘Constitutional crisis’ likely as House pushes Cha-cha sans Senate – Pangilinan
/kga