Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman (Facebook)

Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman insists that he hasn't changed his position favoring joint voting of Congress when its members are acting as a Constituent Assembly or Con-Ass.

Responding to an allegation made by former Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr., Lagman said in a statement Thursday night, Jan. 11: "In the question whether the [Con-Ass] must vote separately by chamber or jointly among the representatives and senators, I am not changing my position that there must be a joint voting."

The Liberal Party (LP) president says this is so "because the members of the Congress are not acting as legislators but as members of a [Con-Ass] where one member is entitled to one vote individually and not through their respective Houses, as impliedly held in Gonzales vs. Comelec (G.R. No. 192856, March 8, 2011).

The 300-plus strong House of Representatives and the smaller, 24-member Senate comprise the Philippine bicameral Congress.

A Con-Ass is one of three modes throughwhich Charter change (Cha-cha) could be carried out. The other two are via Constitutional Convention (Con-Con) and People’s Initiative (PI).

Of the three, it's the PI that appears to be gaining traction among those advocating for constitutional amendments.

"My position is now being echoed by those behind the present [PI] campaign to malevolently marginalize the Senators in the [Con-Ass] because the Senate has consistently been the graveyard of proposed constitutional amendments in the past," Lagman said.

Despite the PI being a civilian effort by name and definition, Lagman claimed that the ongoing effort "has been transformed into a congressional initiative because the gathering of signatures is being conducted by municipal mayors at the behest of the members of the House".

As per Garbin, Lagman "strongly advocated" for joint voting between the two chambers during a hearing of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments back on Jan. 13, 2021. Garbin chaired the panel at that time.

However, in a DZBB radio interview Wednesday, Jan. 10. Lagman appeared to make the case against joint voting between the House and the Senate.

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"Alam nila matagal nang ako ay in opposition sa [Cha-cha] kung anumang bahagi ng [Cha-cha] sapagkat hindi ngayon napapanahon," Lagman said in the interview, which the ex-solon alluded to.

(They know that I've long been opposing Cha-cha, whatever part of Cha-cha, because it is not timely.)

"Ang gusto ko lang ipaliwanag ito ay… ang [PI ] that.. [Cha-cha] ay isa lamang na bagay. Gusto nilang palitan yung voting sa [Con-Ass], yung [Con-Ass] yun ang pagtitipon ng mga representatives and senators upang mag-propose ng amendments to the Constitution," he said.

(What I want to explain is this...PI and Cha-cha is just one facet. They want to change the voting in the Con-Ass, which is the gathering of representatives and senators for the purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitution. )

"Ang ginawa nila joint voting, yung mga representatives and senators. Ano ang epekto nito? Marginalized ang mga senators sapagkat nakakarami yung mga representatives over the senators," said Lagman.

(What they did was joint voting between the representatives and senators. What is the effect of this? The senators will be marginalized because the representatives are way bigger in number.)