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Garcia: Send Con-ass reso to Senate, pronto!
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by Carmela Fonbuena, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 07/28/2009 7:40 PM
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MANILA - In a move that surprised his fellow administration allies, Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia on Tuesday moved to transmit to the Senate controversial House Resolution 1109 (HR 1109) convening Congress into a Constituent assembly (Con-ass) that would amend the Constitution.
However, the motion was later deferred.
During the interpellation following his privilege speech, Garcia, one of the sponsors of the measure, agreed with fellow Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco, that the House of Represenatives needs more time to "think about it."
It is not clear when the House plenary will take up HR 1109 again.
Lamenting negative reactions to the charter change measure, Garcia originally wanted the plenary to send HR 1109 to the Senate on the same night on Tuesday after plenary approval.
"Let us put an end to this controversy. The sooner we can put it behind us, the better. Enough is enough. The question is how? Mr. Speaker, there is only one way to do it. And that is by taking some bold positive and decisive action now. Tonight," Garcia said in the first privilege speech delivered since the resumption of session on Monday.
"It is order and imperative that HR 1109 be transmitted to the Senate for its concurrence or for whatever action they deem appropriate. I so move," Garcia said at the end of his speech.
Killing Cha-cha?
Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr., a co-sponsor of HR 1109, said Garcia's motion is "practically" a move to kill the charter change resolution.
"Definitely, there will be no action from the Senate," he said. (Read: 'Con-ass dead without Senate' - UP law professors )
Barzaga said Garcia's motion, if approved, will also bar the Supreme Court from deciding on an expected case on whether joint voting is the proper way to convene a Constituent assembly.
"If it is transmittal, it is implied that it needs to be acted upon separately by the Senate. It would be an implied admission that the House of Representatives, even if they have the numbers, cannot constitute itself as a Constituent assembly without the participation of three-fourths members of the Senate," he said.
"The trouble is that if one of the primary reasons for the passage of
1109 was to create a justiciable controversy, then we have to address the issue of voting jointly. If it's voting separately, there will no longer be any question before the SC. Nobody will question," he added.
Barzaga said he will vote against Garcia's motion. He said the proper action should not be to transmit HR 1109 to the Senate, but to "invite" senators to the convening of a Constituent assembly.
"My vote is that we should invite the Senate to the Constitutent assembly in as much as they are members of Congress," Barzaga said.
"The invitation can be made verbally but prudence dictates that it should be in writing. In so far as I'm concerned, we have to send invitation to the Senate that a resolution has been passed by the House and they are invited--considering, of course, the senator would ignore the invitation. But we are not actually excluding them, we are inviting them," he explained.
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