Up your con-ass

Up your con-ass | Daily Tribune

Former magistrates of the Supreme Court are doing the nation a great service by speaking out against the People’s Initiative, or PI, a process manipulated to achieve a dark agenda.

The nation has been keenly following their learned views while the current members of the High Court maintain their opinions to themselves because of the huge possibility that the contentious issue will reach the SC.

Listening to the former SC members provides a glimpse into how the current composition of the High Tribunal will likely vote in the petition against the PI.

Similar PI efforts were thwarted in the SC in 1997 and 2006.

The renewed PI bid has a single aim: to amend a provision in the Constitution on how Congress shall vote in a Constituent Assembly that will, in effect, emasculate the Senate.

If the process succeeds as puppet masters of the PI proponents want it to, Congress will become unicameral, and the Senate’s abolition will be imminent, according to retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.

Carpio, who is a veteran of the Tribunal that heard the equally heatedly debated 2006 petition against the PI, exposed the true Charter change, or cha-cha, beat.

The House of Representatives could transform the government into a parliamentary system with a single revision in the wording of the Charter that would allow Congress to convene as a single chamber.

“They can convert the government to parliamentary, and the 24 senators cannot oppose it,” Carpio said.

He and former Associate Justice Adolf Azcuna maintain that the current setup — which many complain is too tedious and results in a slow legislative mill — is necessary for checks and balances.

With the Senate neutralized by the sheer number of House members, a con-ass can push for a parliamentary system of government headed by a prime minister, who will be elected from among the members of parliament.

Carpio said the abolition of the Senate would bring about a “constitutional crisis” that the nation does not need.

“Under the PI proposal, the House alone can convene as a constituent assembly to propose amendments to the Constitution,” he said.

Carpio warned that the proposed revision via a PI would cause an upheaval that would change the political landscape and environment.

Carpio said allowing Congress to vote as one is tantamount to giving the House carte blanche on cha-cha.

Provisions of the Charter are not clear on voting for Cha-cha under a con-ass.

The accepted interpretation is a two-thirds vote of each chamber “of the House and of the Senate is needed to approve,” Carpio said.

Another element lacking in the PI blitz is transparency, Carpio pointed out.

“There is no law that can stop it, but you can go to previous rulings of the Supreme Court,” which is his way of stating the inevitability of the issue reaching the High Court.

Since there is no substantial difference in the issues regarding the PI, then and now, the petition will likely be junked even if it hurdles the Commission on Elections.

Meanwhile, the Comelec has suspended the process of accepting the PI petitions as it cited the need to review the guidelines for it.

The poll body wants a clear indicator on handling the petitions as the magistrates had warned against processing the petitions without an enabling law that a 1997 decision required for the PI to be valid.

Another PI attempt was thrown out by the SC in 2006 as it upheld the 1997 decision and ruled that the proposals were not clearly stated.

By all indications, the PI and con-ass will not prosper, and those behind it should stop their plot for term perpetuation.