Letter to the Editor — Con-Ass without senate participation is constitutionally impermissible

What is happening with the so-called CON-ASS initiatives in the House of Representatives is becoming bizarre. Under Sec. 1, Article XVII of the Constitution, only Congress itself, as a body, (and that means both the Senate and the House) can legally convene as a Constituent Assembly to propose any amendment to or revision of the Constitution.

The House is not Congress and so, without the consent or concurrence of the Senate, cannot unilaterally declare itself as a Constituent Assembly. All Constituent Assemblies in the past (1947, 1967) were convened upon join resolution of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The House is only a part of Congress, the other part being the Senate, and so common sense will tell us that one part alone cannot act for the whole. If an ordinary legislation, such as a bill in the House for the construction of a barangay road, requires the concurrence of the Senate before it can become a law, how much more for the revision of the fundamental law of the land?

In fact, late last year, the House passed and sent to the Senate a Resolution asking the latter to agree to the convening of a Constituent Assembly to consider amendments or revision of the Constitution. This is just in recognition of the Constitutional reality that both the House and the Senate must agree in order to convene a Constituent Assembly. If both cannot agree there will be no Constituent Assembly. So, how can the members of the House reverse their position and now say that they can do it alone even without the participation of the Senate?

In any case and to show that they are not sure of their position, some Cha-cha leaders in the House are trying very hard to convince the Senate or at least some Senators to join in their so-called CON-ASS in order to give their exercise a semblance of legitimacy. Apparently, they are not succeeding. I believe our Senators know better than to participate in an exercise that is not only constitutionally flawed but, as if to add insult to injury, is principally intended to abolish their positions as Senators.

So, while the Senators at the moment are not inclined to have anything to do with what is happening in the House, let the House do its own thing and in a manner of speaking, paddle its own canoe to Never-Never Land. This is a free country and everybody is entitled to his own entertainment. Strange? Well, only in the Philippines!

Pablo P. Garcia
Former Governor, Province of Cebu
Vice Chairman (Visayas) Consultative Commission