If you want to stop people’s initiative (PI) dead in the water, just pass the Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 6, House majority leader and Zamboanga City Rep. Manuel Jose Dalipe told senators recently.
Dalipe reiterated the commitment of the House of Representatives to adopt RBH 6 filed by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, along with Senate pro tempore leader Loren Legarda, and Senator Sonny Angara, once the Senate approves it.
He pointed out that this would pave the way for a plebiscite on the proposed amendments to restrictive economic provisions of the Constitution, effectively killing the PI by operation of the law.
“Actually, hindi naman handlang ‘yung people’s initiative. ‘Yung PI will also have to pass a referendum. Ngayon kung sino unang mapasa ‘yun ang magpi-plebisito,” Dalipe explained in a press release. “Kung ako ang tatanungin ano ang sasabihin ko sa Senado: Ipasa na natin ‘yung RBH 6 ni Senate President Zubiri para hindi na pwede mag-plebisito ‘yung people’s initiative because it’s clear in our law you cannot have two in the span of five years.”
Dalipe said no less than Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez gave the commitment of the House to adopt the Senate version of RBH 6 when he addressed the plenary session of the chamber when Congress resumed its session Jan. 22.
Dalipe noted that there have been numerous attempts by the House to introduce amendments, particularly to the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, but the Senate had effectively blocked all of these.
For instance, Dalipe said the House passed in March last year its own version of RBH 6 with 302 lawmakers as authors, calling for a constitutional convention, to amend the Constitution and has transmitted it to the Senate, where it remains pending until today.
In the 18th Congress, under the leadership of Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, the House also adopted RBH No. 2, seeking to convene both Houses of Congress as a constituent assembly, voting separately, to propose amendments to the Constitution but the Senate did not act on the same.
Frustration over the lack of progress in introducing necessary amendments to the 1987 Constitution to open up the economy and usher progress probably prompted various groups to resort to the third mode of proposing charter amendments, or PI, Dalipe claimed in the press release. ||
