(Eagle News) — The Senate will file a resolution seeking for a Constitutional Convention should the Supreme Court decide in favor of joint voting to amend the 1987 Charter via a Constitutional Assembly.
Senator Panfilo Lacson made the announcement during a Senate hearing on Charter Change on Wednesday.
“If the SC would rule (as such), then we will no longer enter into an agreement with the House to meet in joint session. Instead, we will just pass a resolution calling for a con-con,” he said.
Under a con-con, changes in the charter are discussed by delegates voted by the people.
Under a con-ass, the responsibility falls on members of Congress.
The 1987 Constitution, however, is silent on whether voting on the matter by the houses of Congress should be done jointly or separately.
Several senators have argued the voting should be done separately so as not to render the Senate–which has 23 members vis a vis the House’s 292 members—irrelevant.
But former Chief Justice Reynato Puno said that any decision of the Senate in this regard would “pose a political question” that was “beyond the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.”
Even then, Chief Justice Hliario Davide Jr. commended Lacson, noting that “any attempt to railroad any proposal to amend the Constitution” could be stopped by the Senate.