AMENDING CONSTITUTION. Retired Supreme Court associate justice Adolfo Azcuna attends the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms hearing on the proposed Charter change on Tuesday (Jan. 30, 2024). Azcuna said the House of Representatives cannot proceed with amending the constitution without the participation of the Senate. (PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)
MANILA – The Senate's participation in a legislative process is a must for it to be considered an "act of Congress."
During the inquiry of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms on Tuesday, retired Supreme Court associate justice Adolfo Azcuna said it has to be both Senate and the House acting together.
"Let's say you have 315 representatives and 24 senators. You have 339 in all and three-fourths of that is 254. Of the 254, 13 has to be senators. Otherwise, it's not an act of Congress," Azcuna said.
"Let's say there's no quorum on the part of the Senate, then even if the 315 congressmen vote in favor, it does not amend the proposed amendment because it's not Congress.”
He also said the People's Initiative (PI), being pushed to jumpstart Charter change (Cha-cha), can always be questioned, especially with reported payoffs and misrepresentations.
Azcuna, who was a member of the Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution, said he sees the proposed initiative not as a mere amendment but a revision because it changes the nature of the legislative body from bicameral to a unicameral one.
“Because by voting jointly, the Senate and the House will become, in effect, a unicameral body," he explained.
Azcuna noted that there is a provision in the constitution that says Congress may vote jointly during an imposition of a martial law.
"But that is in the existing provision. That was not introduced by initiative. If we want to change the voting, it has to be done by a Constituent assembly, not by an initiative. In Constituent assembly, you need the Senate to participate that's why it cannot be done," he pointed out.
The 84-year-old retired justice recalled testifying before the House of Representatives (HRep) when its members raised the issue of always being tied to the Senate's approval.
"I told them, well, you can't do anything because it has to be both of you," Azcuna told the committee.
In a recently released manifesto signed by all 24 senators, it was stated that the PI proposes for the Senate and HRep to act as a Constituent assembly and vote jointly.
"While it seems simple, the goal is apparent -- to make it easier to revise the constitution by eliminating the Senate from the equation," the manifesto read.
If the PI prospers, senators believe that further changes to the constitution can be done "with or without the Senate's approval, or worse, absent all the senators."
"Should Congress vote jointly in a Constituent assembly, the Senate and its 24 members cannot cast any meaningful vote against 316 members of the House of Representatives," it added. (PNA)
