Press Release
February 8, 2009

Pimentel to question issue of Senate quorum before the SC

Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said he intends to go to the Supreme Court to seek its ruling on the issue of quorum in the Senate in view of the conflicting interpretations by the majority and the minority.

Pimentel maintained that there should be at least l3 senators present at the session hall to constitute a quorum in view of the fact that the Senate is composed of 24 members.

But since there actually only 23 senators following the resignation of Alfredo Lim in 2007 to run for mayor of Manila, the majority bloc, led by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, subscribes to the view that l2 senators are enough to make up a quorum.

Pimentel started to question the quorum after the Senate president sustained the refusal of Sen. Jamby Madrigal to accept the minority leader's additional amendments to the Magna Carta for Women without justifiable reasons.

The approval of the Magna Carta was railroaded but as a consequence, Pimentel said the bill, in its present form, contains certain vague and flawed provisions.

Pimentel said he will elevate the case to the high court as soon as all the supporting documents are ready. In his petition, he said he will raise the issue of the constitutionality of the Senate's approval of certain bills and resolution, including those that have been already promulgated into law, despite the lack of the correct and valid quorum at the time they were voted upon.

"This is a matter that is justiciable before the Supreme Court and I will continue to raise the question of a quorum whenever I believe there is a valid ground to do so," he said.

During the voting on the Magna Carta for Women (Senate Bill 2396), Pimentel said Madrigal should be credited for shepherding this important measure through floor deliberations. However, he said he could not vote in favor of the bill because his request for a few more questions and for additional amendments was not accommodated.

He expressed the belief that the members of the Senate should be more sensitive to the right of others, particularly the minority, to be heard. Otherwise, he said it could become a chamber dominated by the majority on the basis of sheer numbers.

"I don't like the way that by sheer force, they will stifle the minority senators from speaking up. I am trying to protect the rights of the minority as minority, because if you don't have a minority in a democratic institution, how will democracy protect you?' Pimentel said.

Specifically, the minority leader called attention to the sentence in section 2 of the Magna Carta which states:

"No one shall invoke religious beliefs or customary norms as a means of evading compliance with the Act or preventing another person from exercising her rights provided that each individual shall make her own decision based on their respective religious, moral and cultural beliefs."

Pimentel expressed the belief that if Sen. Miriam Santiago, the proponent of the said amendment, were present when he proposed its deletion, she would have been amenable to it because preventing people from using their religious beliefs as a ground for not complying with the requirements of the law would nullify certain rights of members of other religious denominations.

For instance, he said members of the Seventh Day Adventists are obliged not to work on Saturdays, members of the Iglesia ni Cristo are discouraged from joining labor unions while members of Jehovah's witnesses are told not to salute the Philippine flag.

Pimentel asserted that while it is true that a democratic chamber must be run according to the will of the majority, it has to be tempered with respect for the right of the minority.

"I am not against this worthwhile bill that protects the rights of women, but I am not prepared to accept it in toto without the amendments that I want to propose that were rejected outright, defying the democratic norms that are supposed to be followed in the chamber," he said.

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