SENIOR House member Robert Ace Barbers is cold to the Senate proposal on Charter amendments and urged his colleagues in the House to carefully study the same in light of the confusion that he envisions that it will create as to which mode of amending or revising the Charter such RBH 6 will fall.
“The crux of this entire brouhaha is the mode of amendment or revision. Section 1 paragraph 1 of Article 17 of the Charter expressly states ‘3/4 of all members of Congress’. Where will RBH 6 fall then? This is precisely the problem that the People’s Initiative intends to fix and clarify first. There is no other amendment mentioned in the PI. Once this is clear, only then can Congress proceed with further amendments,” Barbers said.
“Should we go ahead and consider RBH 6 and granting for the sake of argument that it passes, the method used by Congress in passing it may be questioned in the Supreme Court and may therefore put to waste all the resources and time spent on it. It is therefore my suggestion to my colleagues to study this well before jumping into the fray. In the meantime, let the People’s Initiative continue so we can see and hear the sentiments of our sovereign people,” Barbers said.
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