Can Duterte and Alvarez Abolish the Senate?

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

President Rodrigo Duterte and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez are hell-bent to change the 1987 Constitution to usher a new charter where it would change the political set up of the Philippines from a central government to federalism and from a bicameral congress to a unicameral. 
To achieve the schemes,  pro-Duterte congressional leadership lead by Alvarez dangle a  “No- Election Come-On” to scrap the 2019 polls so members of both Houses of Congress support the plan to foist the August Chamber as a Constituent Assembly to hammer the new constitution.

Recently, the Speaker deplored to the media the slow acting Senate as one of the reasons for the amendment of the Charter. 
He and his colleagues said a unicameral system without the Senate under a federal government would be faster.

The Speaker did not even hide his contempt to the Senate by calling it “Mabagal na Kapulungan” (a play of words from “Mataas na Kupulungan” (Upper House)” by assailing the weak leadership of the Senate under the watch of Senate President Koko Pimentel.

THREAT - Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte flanked in Congress by Senate
 President Aquilino Pimentel III and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. Photo
Credit: RMN

He said the Lower House had sent 40 bills but the Upper House did not act on them until now.

Two of them where the Death Penalty Bill that would deter criminals to commit heinous crimes and House Bill 5828 or An Act Providing for the Definition of Public Utility, Further Amending for the Purpose Commonwealth Act 146 that would open the flood gates for foreign investors to come to our shore because of the lure of the one hundred percent business ownership just like what Vietnam, Mainland China, Thailand, and other burgeoning countries in Asia had done.

My poser: Has the Duterte Administration lead by its political thug Alvarez got the number in abolishing the Senate as part of the revision of the Constitution?

Before we count and discuss the respective Senators in the 17^th Senate who will either probably support or stonewall, here are the four ways to change the Constitution as mandated by Article XVII (Amendments or Revisions) of the 1987 Charter.

1. The Congress (or Constituent Assembly), upon a vote of three-fourths of all its Members; or
2. A constitutional convention called by Congress through two-thirds votes; or
3. A Constitutional Convention called by Congress by majority votes of its members submits to the electorate the question of calling such a convention.
4. People’s Initiative upon a petition of at least twelve per centum of the total number of registered voters, of which every legislative district must be represented by at least three per centum of the registered voters therein.

Here are the 22 Senators, their party affiliation, and terms of office where I categorized as Pro-Duterte Administration’s Senators (PDAS) and Independent Minded or Opposition Senators (IMOS) after I whisked out on the list resigned Senator Allan Peter Cayetano who was appointed to head the Department of Foreign Affairs and jailed Senator Leila de Lima not because she publicly acknowledged she had tryst with her driver but because of narcotics charges.

Pro Duterte Administration’s Senators (PDAS)       Independent Minded or Opposition Senators (IMOS)  
 1) Koko Pimentel – PDP                                              1) Ralp Recto - LP

      2) Tito Sotto – NPC                                                      2) Franklin Drilon – LP        

      3) Nancy Binay – UNA                                                 3) Sonny Angara – LDP,                                                                                                                                         Reelectionist ( RE) 

      4)Sherwin Gatchalian – NPC                                       4) Bam Aquino – LP, RE 2019

 5)  Richard Gordon - Ind                                              5) JV Ejercito – PMP, RE 2019        

6)   Manny Pacquiao - UNA                                         6) Chiz Escudero – NPC, RE 2019  

 7)   Cynthia  Villar - Nationalista                                  8) Ping Lacson – LDP

 8)  Loren Legarda -NPC                                              9) Grace Poe – NPC, RE 2019

 9)  Migz Zubiri, PDP                                                   10) Antonio Triallanes –Magdalo,RE 2019  

                                                                                     11) Joel Villanueva - CBAC

                                                                                     12) Kiko Pangilinan – LP, RE 2019

Why I put some of them at IOS? Because aside from the Liberal Party’s solons like Drilon, Aquino, Hontiveros, and Pangilinan, those IMOS would surely opposed the change of the Constitution through Constituent Assembly
 Moreover, the President and Speaker Alvarez would not gamble the revision scheme to the members of the Constitutional Convention, who will be elected on a poll, since they could not control them unlike those members of Congress who are vulnerable to the quid pro  we called Pork Barrel or those 20 percent S.O.P or cut they can get from private contractors on government projects given to them by the Palace/

Furthermore, the People’s Initiative is grueling as seen how the Sigaw ng Bayan and Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) led by Lawyer Raul Lambino and Erico Aumentado who were under the behest of their patron then House Speaker Joe de Venecia - who has a moist eye for the Prime Ministership - failed 8-7 votes before the Supreme Court when somebody questioned it.  

In the 22 members Senate, the Duterte Administration needs 17 Senators to constitute the three-fourth votes required by law for the Constituent Assembly.

The stalemate in the present Senate is nine (9) solons are rabidly pro-Duterte and it is next to impossible to get the other nine (9) senators to complete the 18 warm bodies who will vote to change the Constitution by abolishing the Senate even it could persuade outgoing Senators Honasan and Legarda by offering them lucrative if not prestigious appointive position.

The acquiescence of Grace Poe, Edgar “Sonny” Angara, JV Ejercito-Estrada, and Chiz Escudero who would be running for reelection in 2019 and will succumb to sleep with the “devil” in return for term extension up to 2022 is still doubtful?

Can we compare that stunt, HesusMariaHusep, to that of Judas selling Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver and be blamed in perpetuity as principals in murdering the checking-in-balancing Senate to the excesses of the House of Representatives?

Forget about exiting Senators Antonio Trillanes and Bam Aquino, even if Duterte and Alvarez clip, twist, hammer, and pull their cojones these sons of guns would not yield but instead chose death as they hated Duterte to the bone.

If Duterte and Alvarez could not muster the 17 senators as based on the aggrupation, then would it be time to go to Plan B?

The Plan is President Duterte imposes a Revolutionary Government where the president declare through a fiat that he alone govern the land as executive, legislative, and judiciary by abolishing the 1987 Constitution and appoint a Constitutional Commission – ala Revolutionary Government of President Corazon Aquino in 1986 - to hammer a new charter that will abolish the Mabagal na Kapulungan.

My poser:

Would the Filipinos accept and vote the Duterte’s scheme in a plebiscite that would put legitimacy, just like the 1987 Constitution, to the new Constitution?

(You can read my selected columns at mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)