MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives has zero participation in the people’s initiative to change the Constitution, Speaker Martin Romualdez said yesterday, addressing Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III, adding that some senators may just be “seeing ghosts” in voicing their apprehension.
“The people’s initiative is not initiated out of the Congress,” Romualdez insisted.
“We don’t have to set anything for hearings. There are no formal functions or participation of congressmen or senators. The PI contemplates the power of the people. So that’s it… Congressmen have nothing to do with it so I don’t know what they’re making reference to,” he said, referring to people’s initiative by its initials.
Romualdez made the statement in reaction to Pimentel’s call for President Marcos to talk to the Speaker, who has been accused of being behind the people’s initiative.
“I hope that the President will now step in, exercise the powers and the prerogative of his office, plus the fact that the leader of the House of Representatives is his younger cousin over whom he has influence,” Pimentel said in a recent television interview.
Romualdez maintained that the senators should question the people’s initiative at the proper venue.
“They’re seeing ghosts all over the place. Let the people decide. We expect the process of the PI – all the senators’ problems with the PI, the conduct of which they can take up with the Comelec (Commission on Elections) or raise whatever allegations that I see are quite baseless, in the proper courts,” he added.
The Leyte representative, however, said he sees nothing wrong if House members and senators would help each other explain the “ins and outs” of people’s initiative to their constituents.
“But at the end of the day, senators and congressmen are also people, right? So as long as you are not using government funds, you are not using your offices in pursuit of these purely civilian activities, you’re in good stead,” he added. Meanwhile, the Comelec said there is no difference in its approach to handling Charter change moves, whether through people’s initiative or constituent assembly.
“Any mode to change the Constitution – constitutional convention, constituent assembly, people’s initiative – the bottomline will be the conduct of a plebiscite,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia said in a recent interview.
“The question will always remain to be, when can we hold the plebiscite? That will depend on when a petition will be filed before the Comelec.”
The Comelec, he said, is ready to hold a plebiscite regardless of which mode of Charter change has been agreed upon.
“We are mandated to hold the plebiscite. And we are always prepared to hold a plebiscite. However, we cannot hold the plebiscite given the proximity of the national and local elections and the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. The Comelec has a very tight schedule,” Garcia explained. — Rhodina Villanueva