House Speaker Martin Romualdez (left), Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel (Speaker’s office, Facebook)

House Speaker Martin Romualdez lectured his fellow lawyer, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III on Friday, Jan. 26 about the subject of the People’s Initiative (PI). 

This, as Romualdez was asked by journalists to react to Pimentel's continued tirades on the PI movement, which the latter had called invalid over the alleged involvement of the House of Representatives.

Incidentally, Romualdez said that Pimentel was his former classmate in law school.

As if discussing Constitution 101, Romualdez recalled during a press briefing Friday the three modes by which Charter change (Cha-cha) may be carried out. 

"The [PI] is not initiated out of the Congress eh. As you know there are three modes. Di ba, May Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass), where the House and the Senate convene as one; electing delegates, di ba, to a Constitutional Convention (Con-Con). Pero wala namang pakialam yung senador o yung miyembro ng Congress sa [PI]." 

(There is the Constituent Assembly, where the House and the Senate convene as one; and the election of delegates under Constitutional Convention. But the senators and members of Congress don't have anything to do with PI.) 

As the name implies, Romualdez, who leads the 300-plus strong House of Representatives, says the PI is a "purely civilian matter". 

"Walang partisipasyon ang mga congressmen dyan (Congressmen have no participation there), so I dont know what they're making reference to," said Romualdez, president of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) party. 

He further spelled out what the PI doesn't entail: "We don't haven't pass any resolution, we don't have to pass any bill, we don't have to set anything for hearings. There are no formal functions or participation of congressmen or senators. Yan ay PI (That is PI). The PI contemplates the power of the people." 

The Leyte 1st district congressman said Pimentel and his fellow senators who have been apprehensive over PI and its accompanying signature campaign could simply be "seeing ghosts". 

He noted that the senators can question the PI movement at the proper venue if they really wanted to. 

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"They're seeing ghosts all over the place. Let the people decide. We expect the process of the PI--all the senators' problems with the PI, the conduct of which they can take it up with the Comelec or raise whatever allegations that I see are quite baseless in the proper courts." 

At the same time, Romualdez said he sees nothing wrong with theHouse members or senators who make the effort to answer the questions that their constituents may have on PI. 

"Pero (But) at the end of the day, senators and congressmen are people no? So as long as you are not using government funds, you are not using your offices in pursuit of these purely civilian activities, you're in good stead," Romualdez said. 

The PI aims for a constitutional amendment to enable Congress--the House and Senate--to “vote jointly” in future attempts at Cha-cha. This will be turned into a simple yes or no question during the plebiscite, which proponents want to hold in June 2024.