Constitutional crisis slowly happening – Migz

MANILA, Philippines — A constitutional crisis is creeping in Congress as the House of Representatives continues to push for a people’s initiative aimed at amending the Constitution, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said yesterday, as he maintained that the ongoing signature drive is flawed and unconstitutional.

“We have warned about a possible constitutional crisis and tried to avoid it. But unfortunately, it seems that this is slowly happening,” Zubiri said in a message sent to Senate reporters.

“We hope this crisis will be averted soon. We intend to carefully study the options available to us to maintain the checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution through a bicameral legislature. We remain vigilant for our country and for our people,” he added.

Zubiri made the statement in reaction to a two-page letter of Speaker Martin Romualdez amid the impasse between the two chambers on efforts to amend the 1987 Constitution.

In a letter to Zubiri, Romualdez said the House is just waiting for the Senate to pass the Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 and that they “commit to adopt this measure pertaining to the amendments” of restrictive economic provisions in the Constitution.

Zubiri and other senators earlier filed a Resolution of Both Houses 6 proposing the amendment of specific economic provisions of the Constitution, including public services, the education sector and advertising industry by legislation instead of full-scale Charter change.

RBH 6, authored by Zubiri and Senators Loren Legarda and Sonny Angara, was referred to a special subcommittee chaired by Angara.

The Senate President said he received and read the letter of Romualdez on the legislative efforts to effect changes to the Constitution yesterday morning. He vowed the Speaker would get a reply by Monday.

“As for his (Romualdez) suggestion of an alternative people’s initiative emanating from the Senate, there have been no discussions on this. We believe that any legitimate people’s initiative must be genuinely led by the people. The Senate still maintains that this initiative, in its current form and how the signatures are being collected, is flawed and unconstitutional,” he added.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said the people’s initiative to amend the Constitution might be challenged by the Senate before the Supreme Court.