House set to bypass Senate on Cha-cha
By Jess Diaz
Philippine Star
September 15, 2008
Like in 2006, the House of Representatives apparently intends to bypass the Senate in its renewed effort to amend the Constitution.
Speaker Prospero Nograles said yesterday he would get the signatures of three-fourths of all members of the House on a resolution he introduced, which seeks the amendment of the Charter’s provision restricting foreign ownership of land.
He said his resolution, if approved by a three-fourths vote, could “serve as the basis of raising a point of constitutional inquiry before the Supreme Court.”
“If the Supreme Court says that Congress can enact laws that in effect will repeal specific provisions in the Constitution, we might be able to avoid this protracted legal and constitutional wrangling on how we can attune the Constitution to the new challenges confronting our country,” he said.
“There are schools of thought that Congress can actually amend specific provisions of the Constitution without going through the various methods provided under the Charter,” he added.
The two principal ways of amending the Charter are through Congress converting itself into a constituent assembly to propose amendments, or Congress convening an elected constitutional convention to do the job.
The third method is through a people’s initiative.
In the first two methods, the involvement of the Senate and the House of Representatives is required, though the House had argued that it alone could propose Charter changes provided that it obtained a three-fourths vote of all members of Congress.
Resolution 737, of which Nograles is principal author, proposes to amend Sections 2 and 3 of Article 12 of the Charter “to allow the acquisition by foreign corporations and associations and the transfer or conveyance thereto, of alienable public and private lands.”
Militant party-list representatives have already criticized his proposal, saying landless farmers and tenants should be given priority in the disposition of alienable lands.
Asked if his resolution, assuming his chamber approves it, would be sent to the Senate, Nograles said, “We need three-fourths vote of all House members before we can propose amendments to the Charter.”
Sought for comment, Majority Leader Arthur Defensor said the Nograles resolution “may or may not be sent to the Senate.”
“What we intend to do is that before we vote on this measure, we would invite senators to have a joint session with us specifically to consider this proposed amendment. And since senators have been refusing to sit down with us unless and until the issues of meeting and voting jointly or separately are resolved, some congressmen may opt to bring this matter to the Supreme Court,” he said.
He said his personal view is that the House cannot bypass the Senate on Cha-cha.
In 2006, with the support of President Arroyo, administration allies in the House tried but failed to amend the Constitution, first through a people’s initiative and later through a House-only constituent assembly (con-ass).
They even formed Sigaw ng Bayan to conduct the people’s initiative and gather voters’ signatures on a petition to rewrite the Charter. The Supreme Court declared such initiative as a “grand deception” and a “gigantic fraud.”
Mrs. Arroyo’s allies then shifted to Plan B, which called for convening Congress as a con-ass. And when the Senate refused to cooperate, they voted in December 2006 to bypass senators. They later backtracked in the face of mounting protests from the public, including the clergy.
The man behind Cha-cha then was former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., erstwhile principal ally of President Arroyo in Congress.
De Venecia now says that the main purpose of Cha-cha is to allow Mrs. Arroyo to stay in office beyond 2010 either as president or prime minister under a parliamentary system of government.