Law dean: Congress may still repeal people’s initiative law

MANILA—San Beda College graduate school of law dean Fr. Ranhilio Aquino warned Monday against the inclusion in the proposed people’s initiative to abolish all forms of pork barrel a provision that would prohibit Congress from repealing the law if the initiative passes muster and enters the law books.

On his Twitter and Facebook accounts, Aquino said Congress’ power to legislate is so limitless that it can repeal an anti-pork barrel law enacted through a successful people’s initiative.

“It is a basic principle of political law that the power of Congress to legislate is limitless in the sense that it may legislate on anything, subject only to the twin provisos that there can be no violation of the Constitution and that the power of future Congresses may not be impaired. Any provision therefore in the proposed initiative that attempts to limit repeal is facially defective,” said Aquino, an expert on constitutional law.

The priest-legal expert explained that the legislative power of Congress includes the power to repeal or to amend a law, whether the law was passed by Congress itself or introduced through a people’s initiative.

“To insist that law passed by initiative may contain a provision disallowing Congress from repealing it is to nullify the legislative power of Congress, and this would clearly violate the Constitution,” he added.

Fr. Aquino said the only remedy against repeal of initiative by Congress is another initiative “that repeals the repeal,” a possibility provided for under Republic No. 6735 or the Initiatives and Referendum Act of 1989.

“This is cumbersome, clearly, but it is far better to play by the rules than to be knocked out in the very first round because we ignored them,” he said.

In a radio interview, Aquino said the initiative proposition contained a so-called separability clause. This means that if the anti-repeal provision is struck down by Supreme Court, the rest of the anti-pork barrel law enacted through initiative may still remain operative.

The dean congratulated the promoters of the initiative moment, saying that since lawmakers have refused to legislate the abolition of pork barrel, “quite obviously because they have profited from it scandalously and shamelessly,” the people were now exercising the power given to them by the 1987 Constitution to initiate legislation by bypassing Congress.

Aquino added that it was “ironic” that the people’s initiative was actually intended to protect Congress’ power of the purse.

“Do I support the people’s initiative against pork? Of course, I do. Pork has been bad on the national health, and it has been used in the most shameful of ways. Congress has failed us. It is heroic to initiate legislation that deprives them of their largess,” he said.