MANILA – Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Monday said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will appeal to the House of Representatives to stop the people’s initiative (PI).
According to Zubiri, he had received a text message from the President’s office inviting him to a lunch meeting Monday in Malacañang before Marcos flew to Vietnam for a two-day state visit.
He said joining them were former senator Juan Ponce Enrile and Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.
“I have his permission to disclose what we had discussed this morning. President Marcos is set to appeal to the House of Representatives to stop the dreaded PI or their version of the people’s initiative and the other people’s initiatives initiators,” Zubiri said.
“In his words, my dear colleagues, ‘It is getting out of hand,'” Zubiri said in a privilege speech.
On Monday, senators and Senate employees wore maroon armbands as a protest against the “flawed” initiative to push for the Charter change (Cha-cha).
Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito said he wore the armband “to show solidarity of the Senate against the people’s initiative for many reasons.”
Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. said it was the initiative of the employees “as a show of solidarity and support to our institution.”
“Maroon is the color of the Senate flag. It is also the color chosen by our senators for their impeachment trial robes (Oxford crimson),” he said.
Zubiri said that from the start, it has been the Senate’s position that the people’s initiative being pushed by the House “would be divisive to the nation, and it will cost our nation our economic gains.”
“In no uncertain terms the President expressed the need to protect the bicameral nature of Congress, which upholds the system of checks and balances within the legislative branch and strengthens the check and balance between the different branches of government,” he said.
As a former senator himself, the President “knows firsthand the value of bicameralism. He knows that if the Senate’s approval is needed to merely change a name of a street, then the Senate cannot have a dispensable role in Charter change,” Zubiri said.
The senators also thanked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for “taking cognizance of the fact that their rules are currently insufficient for this people’s initiative and for their commitment to motu propio review the rules.”
The Comelec has issued an en banc decision to “suspend all proceedings on people’s initiative.”
Sen. Mary Grace Poe said Comelec “has taken the correct path when it stopped the questionable Cha-cha signature campaign.”
“We expect the Comelec order will put to rest this signature drive so we can all train our sights to the urgent needs of the Filipinos,” Poe said.
Sen. Maria Lourdes Nancy Binay also welcomed the Comelec’s decision “to suspend all proceedings in matters relating to the controversial people’s initiative to amend the Constitution.”
“Glad to know that there are still many government officials who are sensible, who respect our Constitution and who will defend our democracy in the face of sinister attempts to subvert it,” Ejercito said.
The Senate is urging the House to adhere to the Constitution and abide by the intent of its framers. The senators reminded the congressmen that the Constitution “is not there to expand our powers as elected officials.”
“Quite the opposite. It serves as a limit on the exercise of these powers. These limitations serve to protect the people, defend the rights and promote their common welfare,” Zubiri said.
No abolition
House leaders on Monday assured senators that they are not after the abolition of the Senate in pushing for Charter change.
The assurance came from Rizal 1st District Rep. Jack Duavit, head of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) bloc in the House, Deputy Speaker and Ilocos Sur 2nd District Rep. Kristine Singson-Meehan, Senior Deputy Speaker and Pampanga 3rd District Rep. Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr., and Bataan 2nd District Rep. Albert Garcia, who is the secretary general of the National Unity Party.
They reiterated the House’s support for Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 6 filed at the Senate by Zubiri along with Senators Loren Legarda and Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara.
The resolution proposed amendments to Articles XII (Section 11), XIV (paragraph 2, Section 4), and XVI (paragraph 2, Section 11) of the 1987 Constitution through a separate House and Senate vote of three-fourths of each chamber’s members.
“With regard to the fears and allegations that the House would want to abolish the Senate, we would just like to let everybody know that as far as our party is concerned, there is no way we will be voting in any form to remove our five senators. And if we are not going to remove our five senators, then the other 19 senators can be assured,” Duavit said.
Senators Legarda, Francis Escudero, Lito Lapid, Sherwin Gatchalian and Ejercito belong to the NPC.
Singson-Meehan, who is also from the NPC, said, “We have five senators from NPC, and, of course, we will never abolish them. So we’re here to commit that talks of abolishing the Senate will not be included when we do amend the Constitution.”
Gonzales, who is from the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), said political amendments are not part of the House’s charter reform advocacy.
“We will embrace RBH No. 6 because that’s the economic provisions. And that is what our country needs. And Speaker (Ferdinand Martin Romualdez) always says we will embrace RBH No. 6 because it will help our economy,” he said.
Garcia, speaking for the NUP, assured “our friends from the Senate that we are not supporting any move to abolish the Senate. We just want economic reforms so that we can improve our economy to produce more jobs, better pay, and better lives for our citizens.”
Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Nacionalista Party) said, “Let’s work toward achieving what we want to achieve for the country. Economic reforms are the key to achieving the goals and the objectives of our Bagong Pilipinas movement. We pray for their support, and we would like to appeal to them to look at the better picture of doing something good for this country.”
Rep. Elizaldy Co (Ako Bicol), who leads the Party-List Coalition Foundation Inc., urged the senators to “support the economic change that we have been proposing in the last four decades.”
House Majority Leader and Zamboanga City 2nd District Rep. Manuel Jose “Mannix” Dalipe called for an end to “useless bickerings.”
“We are one also with the other political parties in supporting [RBH 6],” Dalipe said.
