Lagman: House can’t dance the Cha-cha alone

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman. (File photo by EDWIN BACASMAS / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Opposition lawmaker Albay 1st Dist. Rep. Edcel Lagman insisted on Tuesday that the House of Representatives and the Senate would have to convene together to amend the 1987 Constitution.

In a press briefing, the Magnificent Seven bloc member took exception to Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s Monday declaration that the process of Charter change is already under way even without waiting for the Senate’s concurrence in House Concurrent Resolution No. 9.

Neither did Lagman agree with Senator Panfilo Lacson’s insistence that the Senate should convene into its own constituent assembly out of concerns that the 23-member chamber would be outnumbered by the 292-member House.

“If only the representatives would be meeting, then it is not consistent with the mandate of the Constitution,” Lagman told reporters.

“There can be no separate [constituent assembly] by the House and another by the Senate. They have to meet together, they have to meet each other to propose amendments to the Constitution,” he added.

Alvarez argued on Monday that Section 1, Article XVII of the 1987 Constitution did not explicitly state the need for a “constituent assembly,” and only required the votes of three-fourths of all 315 legislators (or a threshold of 237) from both the House and the Senate to submit a revised Constitution for the electorate’s approval in a plebiscite.