At the Senate hearing discussing moves to amend the Constitution, Sen. Lacson was congratulated by former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. for Senate Resolution 580, which lets the Senate act on proposing or initiating an amendment to the Constitution “as a separate institutional body independent” of the Lower House.
Quotes from the hearing…
After listening to former Chief Justices Puno and Davide, former Senate President Pimentel, former SC Justice Azcuna and Prof. Garcia:
“After listening to the opening statements of at least three eminent, learned and experienced former justices of the Supreme Court, I was just wishing that the congressmen who were strongly batting for (Congress) voting jointly, were listening kanina. Para mahinaan na sila ng loob at huwag na ipagpilitan na hindi kami dapat voting separately.”
On the possibility of the Senate calling for a constitutional convention:
“If we adopt (Senate Resolution 580) and proceed with proposing amendments via a Senate constituent assembly, somebody can raise the issue before the Supreme Court. In case the Supreme Court will rule that it should be a joint session as a constituent assembly and further voting jointly, then we will no longer enter into an agreement with the House to meet in joint session. Instead, we’ll just pass a resolution calling for a constitutional convention.”
Former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. commending Sen. Lacson for Senate Resolution 580:
“I would like to commend and congratulate you for filing that resolution, for the Senate now to act on proposing or initiating an amendment to the Constitution as a separate institutional body independent and coordinate with the Lower House…
… (T)he proposal in the Lower House may reach its goal by riding on a bullet train, it could be the second train in the Lower House faster as expected because you have in the Lower House a super majority. And I don’t think with that composition of the Lower House now will be an objective deliberation. You can even say it is a done deal in the Lower House. In the Senate, with that resolution, you can put a brake to any attempt to railroad a proposal to amend the Constitution.”
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