Speaker: House ‘focused’ despite Cha-cha tensions

‘Solons won’t engage in fruitless arguments with critics’

The House of Representatives will not dignify criticisms and invectives lodged against its members in connection with the ongoing move to amend the Constitution through a people’s initiative, Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez said Thursday.

Romualdez said the House remains focused on its legislative tasks instead of engaging in “fruitless arguments” with detractors.

“We here in Congress always think of how we can give a better life to all Filipinos,” Romualdez said in Filipino. “What service can we provide, what program [or] project will benefit the public? So here in our so-called Charter change, this…. The Constitution is for the Filipino — not for the congressman, not for the President, not for the Senate, it’s for the people.”

Romualdez also said he respects any move to challenge people’s initiative before the Supreme Court.

“That is the freedom of expression. I always respect the opinion ofothers,” he said.

He said the effort to review the economic provisions of the Charter is anchored on the House leadership’s commitment to the vision of an“economy open to the investments needed to generate businesses, jobs, and livelihoods for Filipinos.”

“The intention of reviewing the economic provisions is so we can openup our economy, so that the economy can grow, so we can improve it,[and] generate jobs.”

He added that the Senate’s move to propose Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 to amend three specific provisions of the Constitution was something “good and positive” as it showed the senators’ willingness to work with the House.

He added that he had no time for “petty differences, foul words and unnecessary invectives.”

“What we do, we try to look at the good in everything that everyone does, even the Senate. So if they are doing something positive and good we embrace it, if they say or do something that is not necessarily to our liking, we respect their freedom and right to express that. But we do not dignify baseless criticisms.”

On Monday, Romualdez denied giving orders for House members to gather signatures for the purpose of a people’s initiative.

Romualdez also responded to the claim of Senator Ronald dela Rosa that a House member had told him that the signature drive was launched upon the Speaker’s instructions.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about. He does not mention any congressman,” he said.

But Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte was ready to trade barbs with the senators, denouncing as a “diversionary ploy” its clamor against a people’s initiative.

“The Senate is now raising the issue of political reforms in the Constitution in its Jan. 23 manifesto—although the popular clamor now is only for lifting the anachronistic economic provisions that spook foreign investors— apparently out of fear that any Charter change initiative could possibly lead to rationalizing or reforming the term-limit provisions of which our senators are the biggest beneficiaries,” Villafuerte said.

“This is because the political provisions of the 1987 Charter allowthem among all our elective officials the longest time of 12 years—six years plus a reelection of another six years—to serve in their legislative posts.”

“In contrast, the same Constitution limits the President and Vice President to serve for a single term of six years without reelection,while members of the House of Representatives and all other local elective officials from governors down to provincial, city and municipal Sanggunian legislators are allowed to serve for a maximum of nine years, comprising three consecutive three-year terms,” he added.

Villafuerte, who has long pushed constitutional reforms in Congressand was a lead author of two Charter change measures that the House had overwhelmingly passed, said: “Our senators seem seized with mental anguish about the possibility for political reforms in the 37-year-old

Constitution that would rationalize term limits and thereby put them on equal footing with all other elective officials in the land.”

“But what makes our senators so special among all our elective officials that they are accorded the privilege of serving for the longest time of 12 years in the Senate when even our President and Vice President are restricted to a single term of six years?” he said.

“Why not make our senators as equals of their peers in the House orwith local elective officials by having all of them serve for, say, three, four, or six years?”

Despite Romualdez’s denials, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino PimentelIII urged President Marcos to ask his cousin, the Speaker, to stop pushing for a people’s initiative that has caused a rift between senators and congressmen.

Pimentel said Romualdez was the force behind the latest people’s initiative—an accusation the Speaker denies.

But Pimentel said he and other senators received reports that House members’ staff were going around and bribing people to join the signature campaign for a people’s initiative.

He said these House members would not act without orders from their leader, Romualdez.

Pimentel said their legislative work was being hampered by the push for a people’s initiative.

In other developments:

• Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said the ongoing people’s initiative should be dismissed by the Commission on Elections as unconstitutional. A people’s initiative may only amend, not revise the Constitution. “When you alter the check and balance in Congress, that’s a revision,” he said.

• Davao 3rd District Councilor Conrado C. Baluran called on the public to join “One Nation, One Opposition,” a multi-sectoral prayer tally set on Sunday in Davao City to protest the use of government programsand public funds to mislead voters into signing documents intended to support amendments to the Constitution.

• Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez, a former House Speaker, on Thursday said he would “definitely” challenge before the Supreme Court the legality of the ongoing people’s initiative to amend the Constitution. — Maricel Cruz & Macon Ramos-Araneta