Liberal senators: Senate will not be bullied on charter change

MANILA, Philippines — Two Liberal Party senators on Tuesday stressed that the Senate will not be bullied by the House of Representatives in efforts to amend the Constitution, stressing the upper chamber's participation is needed and integral in the process.

Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, president of the opposition Liberal Party, said pressuring the Senate appears part of a broader pattern of hectoring of political institutions, administration critics, the chief justice, the media and selected business interests. 

Pangilinan added that the House's strategy seemed hinged on forcing the issue and allowing the Supreme Court to step in and decide in its favor.

"The bullying of the House is an abuse of those in power, we should not let it pass. If the Senate allows itself to be bullied, then our democracy and respect for the law will be thrown out the window and anyone can be a victim of the abuses of those in power," Pangilinan said in a statement.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon meanwhile emphasized that the House cannot change the 1987 Constitution by itself.

"The House of Repesentatives cannot dance 'cha-cha' (charter change) without the Senate," he said in a separate statement.

Drilon, a former Justice secretary, said that the 1987 Constitution is "crystal clear" when it said that Congress, upon a vote of three fourths of all its members, could amend the charter.

"Under Article VI, Section 1, 'Congress of the Philippines' shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives," he said.

He said that the move of the House to go alone on charter change would be constitutionally untenable as the charter was clear about the need for the two chambers to engage in the process.

Drilon said that the House could not constitute itself as a constituent assembly which would propose alterations to the 1987 Constitution, which was ratified during the administration of former President Corazon Aquino following the dark years of the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.

"Thus, the House of Representatives alone cannot constitute themselves as a constituent assembly and by its own three fourths vote, cannot amend the Constitution. They cannot do it without the other house which is the Senate," Drilon said.

"The participation of the Senate is required by the Constitution and therefore necessary."

Pangilinan said that the people are important in preventing this "senseless, mad and shameless" rush to amend the Constitution, recalling the protests that greeted similar efforts during the Ramos, Estrado and Arroyo administrations.

"If they want to talk about charter change, let's talk about it in a proper, legal manner. We will not be bullied or rushed into it," the Liberal Party president said.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Monday said that the Senate was not needed in efforts to amend the Constitution especially if it was dragging out the process.

Even in the face of contradictory legal opinion from former chief justices and legal luminaries, Alvarez, a lawyer, said that the House could convene into a constituent assembly if the Senate refused to participate or insisted on separate voting.

Talking as though he was discussing his personal money, Alvarez also threatened to refuse funding for districts whose representatives would oppose moves to shift to a federal form of government. He has since dismissed the remark, which drew a tsunami of backlash, as a "joke."