Press Release
February 21, 2006
PIMENTEL HITS ADMINISTRATION BRIBERY ATTEMPT TO GET CONGRESS SUPPORT FOR CHA-CHA
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban)
today said the administration and its legislative allies are wrong
if they think they can push ahead with Charter Change by bribing
members of Congress with automatic membership in the proposed
unicameral parliament.
Pimentel accused the administration of double-talk and unstatesmanly
behavior by resurrecting the scheme to scrap the 2007 elections and
to allow incumbent lawmakers to sit in a so-callled Interim
Parliament that will be formed upon the ratification of amendments
to the Constitution, the main feature of which is the adoption of a
parliamentary system.
He said the sinister scheme is embodied in Article XVIII (Transitory
Provisions) of the resolution proposing the revision of the 1987
Constitution which was drafted by the House committee on
constitutional amendments and revision of laws.
Pimentel said it is the height of deception for the President and
her political lieutenants led by Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. to
revive the no-election proposal and reward pro-Charter Change
legislators with parliamentary seats after they publicly declared
that they were not pushing for the twin proposal.
The administration earlier denied that it was endorsing the
no-election scheme after it was severely criticized by the Catholic
Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
We are very much against the proposal because it is clear that
automatic membership in the parliament that will replace Congress is
brazen act of bribery, Pimentel said.
The minority leader said the bribery attempt is obviously intended
to entice congressmen and senators to support Charter Change
especially in the light of the administration campaign to gather 195
signatures from among the senators and congressmen for a resolution
seeking to convert Congress into a Constituent Assembly to amend the
1987 Constitution.
Pimentel branded as patently unconstitutional the claim of Speaker
De Venecia, Jr. that Congress can convert itself into a constituent
assembly through a three-fourths vote of all the senators and
congressmen, voting together.
He said this is contrary to the bicameral character of Congress
which mandates that all bills and resolutions should be approved by
the Senate and House of Representatives through separate voting.
The administration is so desperate to get Charter Change moving and
have the proposed amendments approved that they dont mind whether
their proposition does not conform with the process laid down by the
Constitution, Pimentel said.
The minority leader said the denial of Malacañang
and its
legislative allies that they have resurrected the no-election scheme
falls flat in the light of the wording of the Transitory Provisions
in the House draft amendments that states: The unicameral
parliamentary system and the parliament provided herein shall begin
immediately after ratification of these amendments, with the present
Congress converted into the Interim Parliament and all members
thereof shall become automatic members of the Interim Parliament
until June 30, 2007 except for the senators elected in May 2004. The
Interim Parliament shall set the first elections under the new
system and synchronized therewith the elections for all local
officials except those of the barangays.
Pimentel pointed out that although the proposal provides that the
Interim Parliament shall set the first elections under the
parliamentary system, it does not mention when such political
exercise shall be held.
He also laughed off De Venecias statement that the Senate will find
itself becoming irrelevant if it will continue to stonewall on
Charter Change.
Pimentel said the House speaker is the one in danger of becoming
irrelevant for espousing Charter Change whose principal aim is to
perpetuate President Arroyo in power despite her loss of credibility
and moral authority to govern due to allegations of cheating in the
2004 elections and other scandals hounding her administration. |