Palace sees better relations with Congress with shelving of Cha-cha

Despite the coming elections, Malacañang sees better relations with lawmakers, including those from the opposition, now that the Charter change issue is shelved indefinitely.

"The cessation of Charter change efforts has been received by most of the members of the Senate with tact, magnanimity and statesmanship. This augurs well for relations between the Senate and the House as well as the Senate and the executive branch," Presidential Political Adviser Gabriel Claudio said yesterday.

Claudio said that with the Cha-cha issue now over, administration and opposition lawmakers may now act swiftly on pending key measures, including the biofuels and poll automation bills.

"The final enactment of the biofuels and the automation system bills is very apt and meaningful Christmas and New Year’s gift of Congress to the Filipino people. We heartily congratulate them for that," Claudio said.

President Arroyo said she would like to sign immediately the biofuel bill into law because some Chinese investments in biofuel plants were tied to the passage of the measure.

The Senate and the House of Representatives, during the recent Legislative Economic Development Advisory Council meeting at Malacañang, committed to pass the biofuels and poll automation bills before their Christmas break on Dec. 22.

Mrs. Arroyo also said she was heartened by the impending passage of the proposed budget for 2007 even as she appealed to the lawmakers to keep the more than a trillion peso budget intact.

Claudio said the administration may now focus its attention on the coming May elections following the shelving of the Cha-cha initiative.

Mrs. Arroyo and her allies had criticized the Senate which they had accused of dwelling too much on investigations instead of passing priority bills. The confrontation came to a head when Mrs. Arroyo’s House allies tried to force the convening of a "Senate-less" constituent assembly.

Senate had also drawn flak from the administration for allegedly ignoring key measures like the amendments to the Bases Conversion Development Authority and the One-Time Tax Amnesty to firms inside special economic zones and freeports, the anti-terror bill, fixed term for the chief of staff and major service commanders of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, compensation for human rights victims, and redefinition of the term war "veteran."

The bills that have been approved by the House but pending in the Senate are the rationalization of fiscal incentives, the extension of the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, and the amendments to the Charter of the University of the Philippines.

The Senate, on the other hand, passed the bill creating the Credit Information Bureau. It is still pending in the House.

An opposition lawmaker has expressed fears that the issue on the convening by the House of a "Senate-less" constituent assembly or con-ass is not yet dead and may spring back to life because it has only been archived and not given "proper burial rites."

Iloilo City Rep. Rolex Suplico said House Resolution 197 calling for a con-ass without the Senate "has to be killed first, by recalling it, before it can be sent to the archives, the House cemetery for burial."

"We have to recall the resolution in order to kill it. A live resolution cannot be sent to the archives," Suplico pointed out. He said the con-ass issue is still "dangerously alive."

Suplico said consigning HR 197 to the archives was a "gross violation of House rules."

"If House rules are not followed, a live resolution can be resurrected at anytime," he said. "The Palace and its cohorts are engaged in double talk."

He said the House should restore Section 105 of House rules which the majority deleted to hasten the convening of a con-con.

Rule 105 stipulates that proposals to amend or revise the Constitution should follow the procedures used for enacting bills or proposed laws.

In Dagupan City, Pangasinan, 19 mayors, 16 vice mayors, four provincial board members, and 10 municipal councilors signed a resolution commending Jose de Venecia for making the "supreme sacrifice" of abandoning his con-ass bid.

The officials belong to the Biskeg na Pangasinan led by its founding chairman and president Local Government Undersecretary Antonio Villar Jr. — Delon Porcalla and Eva Visperas