MANILA – The Senate and the House of Representatives should vote separately on Charter change, Sen. Vicente Sotto III insisted.
“The Senate is essential in any and all matter pertaining to legislation and whenever Congress is mandated to exercise some functions,” the Senate president said when the third regular session of the 17th Congress opened.
Former House speaker Pantaleon Alvarez had said the Lower House may propose amendments to the 1987 Constitution even without the Senate.
Citing Article VI, Section 1 of the Constitution, Sotto pointed out that the Senate is one of the two houses of the legislature.
“It is obvious that 250 beat 24 anytime. But to claim that the procedure in the legislative department is purely a numbers game is to miss the point big time,” said Sotto.
“There would be no need for any Senate counterpart bills, no need for bicameral conference committees, no need for joint resolutions, and no joint assemblies if that lame argument is carried to its absurd conclusion,” he said.
Sotto also called “unacceptable” criticisms that the Upper House is “unnecessary and irrelevant.”
He said he does not wish for the “necrological services of the Philippine Senate, especially so today when we are confronted with a number of momentous choices affecting our nation.”
“Do we shift from presidential to parliamentary form of government? Do we retain a unitary republic or try the federal system? Do we transform our regions to states?” he said.
Meanwhile Sotto vowed the passage of “more relevant” measures in the third regular session.
Twenty-four bills were enacted into law during the second regular session – the Philippine Passport Act, the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, the Expanded Anti-Red Tape Act, the Balik Scientist Act, and the Anti-Hazing Act, among others.
Five bills await the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte – the “Occupational Safety and Health Standards Act,” the “Personal Property Security Act,” the “Philippine Identification System Act,” the “Retirement Law,” and the “PUP-Sablayan Campus Act.”/PN
