Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero yesterday said he will meet with House Speaker Martin Romualdez to fix the relationship between the two chambers, which has been strained due to the People’s Initiative (PI) and Charter change (Cha-cha) issues, among others.
In his first guesting as Senate chief at the weekly “Kapihan sa Senado” media forum, Escudero said he’d like the meeting to be held while Congress is on sine die break, which started yesterday until July 21.
He said he invited Romualdez to a dialogue when he thanked him for sending a congratulatory message when he was elected as Senate president.
“Sana maayos na, wala nang palitan ng maaanghang na salita. Dahil kahit naman hindi kami nagkakasundo sa isa, tatlo, o maraming bagay, hindi rason iyon para maghugas ng maruming damit, wika nga, sa publiko at magsabihan ng kung anu-anong salita na hindi parliamentary (I hope we can fix [our differences]. I hope that there will be no more bickering. Because even if we do not agree on one, three or many things, it is not a reason to wash our dirty linen in public, so to say, and say unparliamentary words against each other),” he said.
Aside from mending fences with the House, Escudero said he would likewise want to discuss with Romualdez the establishment of a protocol that would lay down rules on the proper coordination between the Senate and the House of Representatives to avoid misunderstandings and bickering in the future.
“I expect to meet with him soon during the break to discuss the relationship, what needs to be mended, and establishing rules and protocols on how to coordinate with respect to what they are pushing and what the Senate is pushing to avoid misunderstanding or any miscommunication,” he said.
It can be recalled that senators and congressmen bickered earlier this year after private proponents launched a PI campaign to introduce amendments to the 1987 Constitution.
The campaign, which was openly backed by congressmen, sought to diminish the role of the Senate in revising the Constitution, a move which angered senators who blocked the move and even held hearings to investigate allegations that PI proponents paid those who signed the forms which were submitted to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
President Marcos Jr. subsequently rejected the PI bid and announced that the Senate will take the lead in changing the Charter.
Former Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri then filed Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 (RBH) 6, or the economic Cha-cha bill and started discussions on the proposal. The House filed its own version, RBH 7, and passed it before Congress had its summer break in March and April.
Congressmen then pressed senators to fasttrack the approval of RBH 6 so the proposed amendments can be submitted to the people via a plebiscite before the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).
This again did not sit well with the senators, who insisted on discussing the proposed amendments exhaustively by consulting with experts.
Congressmen and senators again traded barbs on the Cha-cha timeline.
Recently, some congressmen slammed Zubiri for allowing Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Illegal Drugs, to probe the “PDEA Leaks” alleging that the President used illegal drugs when he was still a senator way back in 2012.
CHA-CHA
Also during the media forum, Escudero said his position against Charter change stands, especially since does not know the real objectives of the proponents.
“Ano ba talaga ang gusto? Yun lang ang tanungin natin. Second, dapat hindi maapektuhan sa anumang hugis, kulay, itsura ang kasalukuyang kapangyarihan at prerogative ng Senado. Dalawa lang yan para sa akin (What do they really want? We have to ask them this. Second, the present powers and prerogatives of the Senate should not be affected.
The two reasons, for me, should be sufficient enough),” he said.
He likewise raised concern over the manner of voting with regards the approval of the constitutional revisions.
In the Senate version, he said it was very clear that both houses will vote “separately,” while in the House version, there was no mention of it.
“Nakalagay sa version ng Kamara, kinopya yung Constitution, three-fourths of Congress pero wala silang sinabing voting separately (The version of the House, which they copied from the Constitution, says three-fourths of Congress but there was no mention of voting separately),” he said.
He said he will raise his concerns with Romualdez, adding he will not promise anything to his House counterpart that the Senate cannot deliver.
He said he will also need a guarantee that the voting will not be done jointly by both houses.
He said those who want Congress to vote jointly should offer solutions so the issue can be resolved.
Likewise, Escudero told reporters that he has always been opposed to the hearings conducted by the sub-committee on Constitutional Amendments on RBH 6 because the Senate leadership then knew it it does not have the numbers to approve it.
RBH 6 needs the vote of three-fourths, or at least 18 senators, so it can be passed in the Senate.
Zubiri had earlier said that at least eight senators, including Escudero, were against Cha-cha.
“Ang hindi ko maintindihan ay kung bakit naghi-hearing pa sila eh hindi na pinag-uusapan ito. Ayaw ko muna mag-comment diyan pero ang usapan namin nung una ay malayo ang agwat ng kada hearing. Eh napapadalas yata ang hearing (What I can’t understands is why they continued to hold hearings. I do not want to comment further but our agreement was that the schedule of the hearings should have a long gap (in between) but lately, the hearings were scheduled close to each other),” Escudero said.
“Ang unang tingin ko ay kulang at hindi ito makakarating. Hindi ito ordinaryong botohan na majority quorum of all members. Hindi ito parang nagpapasa ng treaty na two-thirds, mas mataas pa ito, three-fourths ito (For me, it lacks the numbers, this cannot make it. This is not like an ordinary voting where you just need the votes of the majority quorum of all members. This is not like a treaty that needs two-thirds vote because this requires a much higher vote of three-fourths of the members),” he added.
He said that for now, hearings on RBH 6 will be suspended after Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, the sub-committee chairman, resigned from his post after Zubiri stepped down as Senate leader last Monday.
He said they have yet to discuss who will head the sub-committee or if it will already be abolished since “there is a pending measure so we have to decide one way or the other on how to go about it.”
“But my thrust right now, without consulting yet my colleagues, would be to assign it to where it should be assigned. Hindi namin magagawa ‘yan hanggang wala kaming plenary session (But we cannot do it until we have plenary sessions). We can’t do it during recess),” he added.
Escudero said he has also been opposed to the creation of the sub-committee since there is an existing mother committee which should have handled the proposed Charter change hearings.
The committee is headed by neophyte Sen. Robin Padilla, who is a non-lawyer.
He said he will let Padilla decide whether to continue with the hearings or not when they resume sessions after the sine die break.
