Con-ass resolution questioned before High Court

MANILA, Philippines – Two lawyers, including one identified with the Arroyo administration, asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to strike down the House of Representatives resolution convening Congress into a constituent assembly even without the participation of the Senate. In their petition filed before the high court, lawyers Oliver Lozano and Evangeline Lozano-Endriano claimed that House Resolution No. 1109 was unconstitutional because it says that the House by itself could convene into the assembly by getting 225 votes or three-fourths of the combined members of the House and Senate. By voting jointly, the Senate could be rendered inutile because its members are greatly outnumbered by lawmakers at the House. “The respondents railroaded House Resolution No. 1109 to convene the lower house of Congress into a constituent assembly to amend the Philippine Constitution. The alleged hidden agenda is to extend the term of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo beyond 2010," the petition read. The respondents include Speaker Prospero Nograles, among others. Justiciable controversy Lawmakers backing Resolution 1109 have previously said the approval of the resolution is meant to trigger a justiciable controversy that would compel the high court to rule once and for all whether Congress in a constituent assembly should vote jointly or separately on specific amendments to the Constitution. But administration critics have earlier warned that elevating the matter to the high court could be risky because majority of the Tribunal’s magistrates were appointed by President Arroyo. Charter change is widely perceived as Mrs. Arroyo’s last card to term extension because once a constituent assembly is convened, proposals to amend term limits could be adopted. In an interview with reporters on Wednesday, SC spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez said the constitutional amendment had been a long-standing issue," which the magistrates have long prepared for." “This is not something new for the court. The court is prepared for that. We will deal with that as it comes," Marquez said shortly before Lozano and Endriano filed their petition.