House Speaker Martin Romualdez cannot feign ignorance about the attempts of the House of Representatives to lead a signature drive to amend the 1987 Constitution through a People’s Initiatve campaign.
Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero pointed this out as he took to social media to show a video of the House leader, taken last Dec. 11, 2023 of him proudly announcing this intention.
“This is clearly a politiko’s (not a people’s) initiative,” Escudero said in his X (formerly Twitter) account.
“How can Speaker Romualdez deny he is not behind this ‘pekeng initiative’ when he bragged about it last December and took credit for it?” he said on the 45-second video clip of the House Speaker talking last month.
“History has taught us that nothing good comes out from anything that begins with a lie,” the Bicolano senator added.
In that video, Romualdez was quoted that the House is now thinking of ways to address “the procedural gap or question on as to how we amend the Constitution.”
“We will highly recommend that we embark on a people’s initiative to cure this impasse, so to speak, on how we vote. And I hope we can undertake this as soon as possible, so we could have some clarity on the procedures,” Romualdez stated in the video.
“So, we would like to amend the Constitution vis-à-vis how we procedurally amend the same. And that’s either we vote jointly or separately, we would like to have the result by and through People’s Initiative,” the House lawmaker continued.
Last January 23, the Senate issued a strongly worded manifesto signed by all 24 senators, rejecting the House of Representatives’ bid for Cha-cha through the People’s Initiative (PI) as allegations of bribery and corruption, and illegal use of government programs and funds hounded the campaign.
In a related development, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go also scored the hasty attempt to alter the Constitution, asserting that any attempts to do so should be for the betterment of ordinary Filipinos, especially the underprivileged, and not to promote the interests of politicians.
Highlighting the importance of the Senate in maintaining the nation's democratic checks and balances, Go criticized the proposal for a joint voting process of Congress in amending the Constitution.
“Kung magvote jointly tayo, wala nang saysay ang Senado. Paano na po ‘yung tinatawag natin na checks and balances sa gobyerno? Sino magchi-check ngayon? (If we vote jointly, then the Senate is rendered powerless. How can we ensure there is checks and balances in government? Who will check?),” Go pointed out.
“Eh, kung meron silang ipasa na mga provision o pagbabago sa Konstitusyon, eh, outnumbered kami. Kaya meron tayong Senado, pinili kami ng tao nationwide. Kami po ang representative ng bawat Pilipino (If they approve or pass any provision or changes in the Constitution using that mode, then we are outnumbered. But we have the Senate, the people who chose us nationwide. We are the representative of each Filipino),” he further stressed.
“Bilang inyong representative na inihalal nationwide, magsasalita po ako, ipaglalaban ko po ang kapakanan ng mga mahirap nating kababayan at ng bawat Pilipinong aking nirerepresenta (As a representative who was elected by people nationwide, I will speak up and defend the welfare of the poor and our fellowmen that I represent),” he assured.