HOUSE SPEAKERS CLAIM THAT PARLIAMENT WILL BE IN
PLACE JULY DEBUNKED BY PIMENTEL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. is bluffing again by boasting that a Charter amendment plebiscite will be held in June and an Interim Parliament will be in place by July.

Pimentel reminded the House Speaker that the move to amend the 1987 Constitution by peoples initiative is still in square one and it is in danger of being invalidated for being illegal due to the absence of an appropriate enabling law.

JDV should get the Supreme Dreamers Award that Never-Never Land should dish out to the inveterate fantasist that he is. No way he can pull that stuff of having a parliament in three months, the senator from Mindanao said.

He could not even get the Mindanao Railway System get off the ground that he promised to do years back. The MRS is most needed there and there are no legal and constitutional obstacles to having it done. JDV promised that he would get it done more than a decade ago.

Pimentel also noted that the majority coalition in the House of Representatives, led by Speaker de Venecia had to shift to the system of peoples initiative after their original plan to convert Congress into a constituent assembly was derailed by their dismal failure to obtain the required 195 signatures.

The Cha Cha train is heading for the precipice of the peoples wrath at thieving public officials who are pushing for the so-called peoples initiative to divert attention from the administration plunder of the economy; disrespect for the rule of law and the subversion of the Constitution, he said.

The chief engineer of the train, her assistants and the public who were duped into taking the train ride should now disembark for their own good.