House panel rejects legislated Charter change

The Senate and the House of Representatives are scheduled to hold a dialogue today on Charter change, or Cha-cha.

But on the eve of a projected bicameral conference, the House committee on constitutional amendments rejected a proposal by its counterpart in the Senate that amendments take the form of simple legislation, such as ordinary bills used to change the names of streets or schools.

Still, members of the committee chaired by Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Constantino Jaraula voted to meet tonight with their Senate counterparts led by Sen. Richard Gordon.

Jaraula told colleagues that if the proposal of Gordon’s constitutional amendments committee were followed, "Cha-cha may take until kingdom come."

"We would propose amendments which may just gather dust in the Senate, and vice versa. There will be no end to it. That was not our understanding in the LEDAC (Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council) meeting last week. Our agreement is to consider Cha-cha with a sense of urgency. That is why both sides agreed to a dialogue," he said.

Jaraula said legislated Cha-cha "is not the way we want to do it."

Some committee members went as far as suggesting that the House scuttle tonight’s conference with senators.

"How can there be dialogue with the devil?" asked Davao del Sur Rep. Douglas Cagas.

"For their own reasons, they (the senators) will not abandon their opposition to Cha-cha," he said.

Negros Oriental Rep. Emilio Macias expressed support for the call of Cagas for the committee not to send a delegation to tonight’s meeting.

However, the Jaraula panel, despite the angry rhetoric of some members and its rejection of legislated Cha-cha, and upon the motion of Representatives Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City and Luis Villafuerte of Camarines Sur, voted to proceed with the bicameral conference.

"Let’s have one more try. This is one big opportunity to try to find points of agreement and try to resolve our differences for the sake of our nation’s future," Cuenco said.

Jaraula said even with the Senate consensus against Cha-cha, "we are going into that dialogue with an open mind and are open to better suggestions."

Minority members sitting in the committee said the House is already frozen as far as the Cha-cha mode is concerned.

Deputy Minority Leader Darlene Antonino-Custodio called the panel’s attention to Concurrent Resolution 26, which the House had approved by an overwhelming vote last year and which urges the two chambers of Congress to sit as a constituent assembly to propose Charter changes.

She said under the resolution, the House also rejected the people’s initiative mode of amending the Charter, citing the 1997 decision of the Supreme Court that there was no "sufficient" law on the system of initiative and referendum.

"Has the majority abandoned that stand it took last year?" Custodio asked.

Jaraula responded: "The circumstances prevailing last year and today are different, prompting many House members to reconsider that position."

Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez said the fact that the committee calendared Resolution 1230 for discussion in yesterday’s meeting "is a recognition and acceptance of the legislated amendment route, with the Senate and the House voting separately, which is the procedure for the enactment of bills."

He said this route is contained in the rules of the House.

"The House should not break its own rules just to achieve certain political ends," he said.

Resolution 1230 proposes a package of constitutional amendments that seek to, among other changes, shift the present system of government, from presidential to parliamentary and to alter the structure of the legislature, from a bicameral Congress to a unicameral parliament. The proposed amendments would effectively abolish the Senate.

Through this resolution, the House intends to bypass senators on Cha-cha by obtaining the votes of 195 of its members. That number represents three-fourths of the combined membership of the two chambers of Congress.

Congressmen hold the view that only a vote of three-fourths of all members of Congress is needed to propose amendments, even if the votes come entirely from the House.

Senators have unanimously approved a resolution opposing the railroading of Cha-cha and expressing their sense that Cha-cha "requires the approval of the Senate and the House of Representatives voting separately."

Jaraula said at tonight’s conference the two sides should discuss proposed amendments "that we can agree on and tackle the voting issue later."

He said the question on how the two chambers would vote on Cha-cha would eventually reach the Supreme Court.