Koko Pimentel: Cha-cha sans Senate participation 'unconstitutional, impossible'

Amending the 1987 Constitution without the Senate’s participation is unconstitutional and impossible.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III thus said amid ideas in the House of Representatives to push for cCharter change (Cha-cha) through means that do not involve the Senate.

“Not involving the Senate and they believe that they can amend the Constitution? Impossible. Hindi lang po unconstitutional, impossible pa [It’s not only unconstitutional, but also impossible],” Pimentel said in an interview on CNN Philippines Monday.

For Pimentel, this kind of “attitude” from their fellow lawmakers in the House of Representatives would further push the senators to reject Cha-cha.

“Kung ganyan kasi ang attitude ng ating mga kaibigan sa House at ina-announce nila ‘yan, all the more they will really lose support of the senators,” he said.

(If that will be the attitude of our friends in the House and they announced that, all the more they will really lose support of the senators.)

“You will even now see senators explaining the issue to the people and telling the people why what the House is doing is unconstitutional. So, ‘wag na nilang gawin ‘yan kasi palayo na tayo nang palayo sa mga real problems confronting our people,” he added.

(They should not do that because that will only distract us further from the real problems confronting our people.)

Pimentel also noted that only a “minority” of the 24 senators are supportive of amending the Constitution.

Last week, Deputy Speaker and Pampanga Representative Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales said the House is considering other options in pushing for Cha-cha due to lack of support for constitutional amendments in the Senate.

Gonzales mentioned people’s initiative as a way to push for amending the Constitution.

But for Pimentel, the Constitution cannot be overhauled through people’s initiative.

“People’s initiative will only be for just a surgical amendment of the Constitution. Very specific po ‘yan and also, that takes a lot of effort. So kilusan nila ‘yan basta for as long as we comply with what is required under the Constitution,” he said.

(They should put a lot of effort on that but that should comply with what is required under the Constitution.)

“The support must be wide enough and also deep enough, ‘yan po ang requirement ng ating Constitution but then in my opinion we cannot revise the constitution through people’s initiative it's just one topic, very specific topic,” he added.

Under Article XVII of the 1987 Constitution, Charter change can be done through:

• Congress upon a vote of three-fourth of all its members
• constitutional convention
• people’s initiative upon a petition of at least twelve per centum of the total number of registered voters, of which every legislative district must be represented by at least three per centum of the registered voters therein.

Earlier, Pimentel, being a stalwart of PDP-Laban, whose main advocacy is to push for a federal form of government, said he is supportive of amending the political provisions of the Constitution but not the economic provisions.

Last week, Senator Robin Padilla filed a resolution seeking to expand the terms of several government officials, including the president and vice president.

This is the second time that Padilla pushed for constitutional amendments in the Senate. Padilla is chairperson of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes.

But Senator Cynthia Villar and Senator Imee Marcos already opposed moves to amend the Charter. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News