Some of the country’s leading legal luminaries agree that the Senate and the House of Representatives (HOR) may tackle jointly any proposal to amend the Constitution but the two chambers must vote separately on Charter change.
Appearing in today’s public hearing by the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes and Laws on resolutions seeking to amend the 1987 Philippine Constitution were former Supreme Court Justice Adolf Azcuna, former Supreme Court Associate Justice Vicente Mendoza, former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Christian Monsod, and Fr. Ranhillo Aquino, Dean, Graduate School of Law, San Beda College.
They agreed that amending the 1987 Constitution shall be done separately via three-fourths votes of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Aquino said both Houses of Congress voting separately upholds the bicameral nature of the two chambers. Congress is a partisan body, he added.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said that the issue on Congress voting separately or jointly on the matter of amending the Constitution has been resolved after hearing the statements of resource persons in the hearing.
“Indeed, it is correct that we vote separately. The Constitution mentions voting separately, I think, three or four times. And only once has it mentioned that we vote jointly and that is only in the case of martial law. So I think that issue is resolved, definitely. And hearing from Speaker (Lord Allan) Velasco and the chairman of the constitutional amendments committee, they agree. So that is already a solved issue,” Sotto said.