Press Release
November 23, 2008

Pimentel confident that SC will correctly resolve Cha Cha row

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban)

today expressed confidence that the Supreme Court will correctly and satisfactorily resolve the issue of whether the Senate and House of Representatives should vote jointly or separately on amendments to the Constitution if and when it is brought to the tribunal.

Pimentel said he saw no reason why the l5-man high tribunal will not uphold the position, based on the bicameral nature of Congress, legislative tradition and the intent of the framers of the Constitution, that the Senate and the House should vote separately on any and all amendments.

He dispelled the apprehension that the SC will decide on the controversy in favor of the position taken by the administration - for the two chambers of Congress to jointly vote on amendments - just because it is now dominated by justices appointed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Such apprehension has heightened with the compulsory retirement of seven members of the tribunal next year, all to be replaced by Arroyo appointees.

"The members of the Supreme Court know that the Constitution provides for two houses of Congress, not only one. I believe that they will resolve the issue on the basis of the interest of the nation and what is right according to the wording, it not the spirit, of the Constitution," the minority leader said.

"I have great hope that being lawyers, they are supposed to know what is right or wrong within the context of the Constitution. And what is right will prevail over their loyalty to the appointing power."

Pimentel said he does not think that that the Supreme Court will be swayed into toeing the administration line on this constitutional question "even if you assume that all the justices will at that point be appointed by President Arroyo."

He said his faith in the independence and fairness of the high court has been strengthened when it invalidated the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation due to its patently unconstitutional terms and conditions such as the ceding away of part of the national territory and certain sovereign rights of the republic (such as representation in the United Nations and other international organizations) to a rebel group to be called BangsaMoro Juridical Entity

Only last week, Pimentel said the high court also voided the laws elevating l6 municipalities to city status for failing to comply with the minimum income requirement under the amended Local Government Code.

"In fact, I am happy with the Supreme Court's decision in the case of the invalidation of the elevation of the l6 municipalities into cities. I think the Supreme Court acted within the rule of law. And that is how it should be," he said.

The veteran parliamentarian from Mindanao said the administration's game plan is for the Senate and the House to vote jointly on amendments to the Constitution under the concept of Constituent Assembly because that is the only way it can pursue its hidden agenda of using Charter Change to allow Mrs. Arroyo to stay in power beyond 2010.

He said Malacanang and its lackeys in Congress are literally moving heaven on earth to ram through its self-serving and dubious version of Charter Change because of fear that once Mrs. Arroyo is out of power, she and her political associates will face various criminal charges for a string of illegal acts and abuse of power.

Pimentel said allowing the two Congress to vote jointly on constitutional amendments defies logic and common sense because the 23 senators will always be overwhelmed and outnumbered by the 235 or so congressmen, the majority of whom belongs to the administration.

He said it is erroneous to draw a parallelism between the present situation and the time when the Supreme Court decided on the so-called Javellana case shortly after the declaration of martial law in 1972. In that decision, the court, which was packed by Marcos appointees, upheld the declaration of martial rule by then President Ferdinand Marcos.

"In the case of the Javellana decision, the circumstances were totally different. We were then under martial law, and even then, the Supreme Court was being muzzled in its expression of independence by the martial law powers. This time, the deliberations on the issue at hand will be open and public. Therefore, they are really inviting trouble if the people will feel that their rights are being trampled upon," Pimentel said.

Despite reports that more than 160 congressmen have already signed a resolution for the convening of a Constituent where the Senate and House will vote jointly on Charter amendments, Pimentel said the lifting the term limits on the presidency will not happen as long as it does not have the support of the Senate.

"That is within the realm of the possible but the probability is that they will not be able to ram it through despite the numbers they have in the House because they have to contend with the Senate as a separate institution," he said.

"The unilateral House's move to amend the Constitution will be bloody, figuratively speaking. They will have to overcome two barriers: the Tirad Pass of the Constitution; and 2. the Thermophylae defense line of the Opposition."

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