CAVITE Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. has urged congressional leaders to sit down and privately settle their feud over the House of Representatives’ push for constitutional amendments, instead of quarreling before the public.
The veteran legislator appealed to House and Senate leaders to observe parliamentary courtesy, stressing that the differences in their opinions on the charter change initiative could have been avoided had the Senate first voted on the measure before announcing that it does not have the numbers to push for it.
“Nagkakaroon tuloy ng word war between the Senate President and the Speaker (Martin Romualdez) and (House Committee on Constitutional Amendments) Chairman Rufus (Rodriguez), minsan nakakahiya e,” he told Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers Friday on his radio program “Kape Kape Muna” aired over DWRB. “Dapat e veteran legislators kami, kung ano man ang pinagkakaiba ng opinyon, settle privately.”
Barzaga said the word war started when Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said that the delay in the enforcement of the implementing guidelines of the three laws (1. Public Service Act; 2. Retail Trade Liberalization; 3. Foreign Investment Act) appeared to be caused by the Lower House’s push for rewriting the Constitution’s economic provisions.
Rodriguez has said Zubiri’s allegation was “unfair” to House members, especially the Speaker, who has taken exception to Zubiri’s allegations that the House railroaded the passage of the measures calling for a Constitutional Convention (Con-Con).
“Hindi namin kasalanan ‘yun (delay in the enforcement of the implementing guidelines of the three laws),” Barzaga said. “Unfortunately now, masama kaagad ang insinuation ni Senate President Migz Zubiri kaya nag-reply na ang ating Speaker at si Chairman Rufus Rodriguez, kaya sinasabi namin kung minsan nakakahiya rin sa publiko. The heads of the chambers of the lawmaking body are quarelling before the public. The issuance of the implementing guidelines of the aforementioned three laws is the act of the executive independent of the action of the House and also of the Senate.”
