Lacson to House: Avoid looking 'pathetic' by reading Constitution

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives should not allow itself to look "pathetic" and "ridiculous" by insisting that it could propose amendments to the 1987 Constitution on its own, Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson said on Tuesday.

Lacson said interpreting "Congress" in Article XVII, Section 1 of the Constitution to refer to only one chamber was at best "self-serving."

"For their own sake, they should not allow themselves to look pathetic and worse, ridiculous," Lacson said in a statement.

"Having said that, they should read the 1987 Constitution in its entirety, or at the very least, Art XVII, Sec. 1 (Amendments or Revisions) in relation to Art VI Sec. 1 (Legislative Department) that explicitly refers to "the Congress" as the Senate and the House of Representatives," Lacson added.

Lacson blasted representatives if they would interpret the constitutional provision this way, stressing that it would take a layman who knew how to read and understand simple words and literature in order to appreciate what was right and wrong.

On Monday, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez was unflinching on the possibility that the House would convene into a constituent assembly and propose changes to the 1987 Constitution even without the Senate, which stressed that it would like a separate voting in such a body.

"It is very clear: ‘The Congress upon a vote of three-fourths of all its members.’ Of all its members mean all of us,” said Alvarez, stressing that the Senate and the House were not required to go on a joint session to propose changes to the charter.

The House leader underscored that Congress was required only to comply with the three-fourths vote requirement of the Constitution.

Lacson said that the House could propose amendments and revisions to the charter but this would not prosper as a plebiscite, which is required to change the Constitution. It would need an item in the budget for the Commission on Elections to conduct it.

"Without the Senate, how can such appropriation materialize?" said the former chief of the Philippine National Police. 

Alvarez, the secretary general of the ruling PDP-Laban, has been leading efforts in Congress to shift to a federal form of government, one of the major campaign promises of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The speaker said that there was no need to wait for the Senate to alter the current Constitution and at one point threatened to refuse funding for districts of lawmakers who would oppose the move.

"If you won't go along with the plan, it's okay. I respect that. It's your right, but you should also respect my right to give you zero budget, right?" said Alvarez, talking as though he was discussing his personal money.

Alvarez later retreated on the threat and dismissed his zero-budget statement before Iloilo politicians who switched to PDP-Laban as merely a "joke."