Pia warns: Expect SONA walkouts and boycotts if House insists on Con-Ass

Senator Pia S. Cayetano today warned the leadership of the House of Representatives to drop any plans of convening a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) at the opening of the joint session of Congress on July 27 for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's 9th State of the Nation Address (SONA).

"Some quarters have floated the idea of forcing the Con-Ass at the joint session of Congress on July 27 in order to create a justiciable controversy that the Supreme Court will be forced to resolve. They are dead-set on pushing our nation to the brink of chaos and a Constitutional crisis just to advance their narrow political interests."

"They should just drop the plan or expect walkouts and boycotts by senators and independent-minded House members in protest and in defiance of their sham political exercise," warned the lady senator, a member of the Senate minority.

Cayetano added that the House leadership should take a cue from the Supreme Court's junking of the petition that sought to void House Resolution No.1109 for being premature.

"The dismissal of the petition by the high court is expected and correct, because there's obviously no justiciable controversy to rule on yet. But what the decision actually proves is that we have a pro-active Supreme Court that's prepared to act on legal questions of transcendental importance, particularly those involving an assault on our basic law by lawmakers themselves."