JDV not giving up on con-ass

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., the principal Charter change (Cha-cha) proponent in the House of Representatives, has not given up on his chamber’s proposal that Congress convene as a constituent assembly (con-ass) to propose amendments to the Constitution.

"With a new Senate leadership in place this July, we will continue to reach out to the other chamber. We can have another bicameral conference to revive discussion on constituent assembly in late July or early August," he said following the sine die adjournment of session of Congress Thursday night.

Sen. Manuel Villar takes over the Senate presidency from Franklin Drilon when the Third Regular Session of the 13th Congress begins on July 24.

At the same time, De Venecia said he and his colleagues would also support the people’s initiative mode of amending the Charter.

This was apparently a contingency measure as his chamber’s con-ass call, contained in Concurrent Resolution 26, has not moved beyond the committee level in the Senate.

"Our collective effort to call a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution has fallen on barren ground. That is why the majority coalition in the House is now shifting its support to the people’s initiative launched by people’s organizations and the 1.7-million strong Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP)," he said.

ULAP groups governors, mayors and other local officials.

De Venecia said the people’s initiative petition for amending the Charter would reach the Commission on Elections (Comelec) this month.

"It will face challenges in the Supreme Court, but we are undaunted. It is our hope that the Supreme Court will, in its great wisdom, give due recognition to the overwhelming sovereign will of the Filipino people as expressed in the signatures on the petition," he said.

He added that the groups behind the people’s initiative have collected more than nine million signatures for shifting the country to the parliamentary system with a unicameral legislature.

The con-ass mode has hit a standstill because the Senate and the House have disagreed on how the Constitution should be amended.

The Senate wants the two chambers to vote separately on amendments and for each chamber to muster a vote of three-fourths of its members.

On the other hand, the House wants senators and congressmen to vote jointly.

The two sides were supposed to resolve their differences through a series of dialogues. However, their representatives have had two meetings, which resulted in no agreement on Cha-cha.

In their second dialogue on Thursday, as a compromise offer, senators proposed that Congress suggest changes in the economic provisions of the Constitution instead of revisions in its political provisions, with the two chambers voting separately.

But the House wants both the political and economic portions to be rewritten, with senators and congressmen voting as one body.

Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate constitutional amendments committee, told reporters after the Thursday meeting that congressmen clearly wanted a shift to the parliamentary system with a unicameral legislature to abolish the Senate.

If con-ass is facing rough sailing, so will the people’s initiative, even if the latter seeks amendments focused on the proposed shift to the parliamentary system.

Cha-cha critics have vowed to challenge the initiative before the Supreme Court the moment it reaches the Comelec and the poll body acts on it.

According to Fr. Joaquin Bernas, a respected authority on the Constitution and law, a 1997 Supreme Court decision prohibits the Comelec from entertaining any initiative petition in the absence of a "sufficient" law governing the use of the system of initiative and referendum to amend the Charter.

This is one hurdle that groups behind the initiative have to overcome.

Another is the issue of whether the proposed amendments, even if limited to certain political provisions, constitute a simple amendment, which could be done through an initiative, or a revision, which only a con-ass or an elected constitutional convention may carry out.

Bernas said shifting the country to a parliamentary form of government and converting the two-chamber Congress into a unicameral parliament are both revisions that may not be conducted through a people’s initiative. — Jess Diaz