Senate people’s initiative probe open to Speaker, House members

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate begins this week its probe into alleged “signature buying” for a people’s initiative to amend the Constitution, which Sen. Imee Marcos said congressmen could attend.

Marcos issued an open invitation to the public hearing of the Senate committee on electoral reforms on Tuesday on her resolution to look into the signature drive, allegedly initiated by the leadership of the House of Representatives.

“Yes, that’s right… if there’s something you (House members) can do to defend yourself, you must come because of what you said. It was insulting and confrontational. It’s better that we have a calmer discussion,” Marcos said in an interview over dzBB.

She clarified that she was not provoking any quarrel, but insults had been made.

Speaker Martin Romualdez had sent a letter to Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri urging the Senate to roll out its own process of Charter change. 

Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva earlier said Romualdez’s letter is an insult since it contained the phrase “Congress acting as one body.”

“This signals a strong sense of unity and purpose. The Congress of the Philippines, now acting as one body, will eventually fulfill the call for a reformed, responsive, and result-oriented constitutional framework,”Romualdez had written.

While she considered inter-parliamentary courtesy between the Senate and the House, Marcos asked how can courtesy be a factor when the House is pushing to abolish the Senate, but insisting that Congress will vote as one and jointly, diminishing the upper house with 24 senator-members, compared with the lower chamber with 316 congressional members.

“It seems funny, there are only 24 of us (in the Senate), we will be drowned by more than 300 of their votes and we will have no say. It’s not like that,” she said in an earlier interview.

“In our Constitution, it is clear that it is bicameral, so the senators must also be listened to,” Marcos remarked.

Days before the Senate probe, Marcos said she had been receiving information about the alleged bribery to gather signatures for the initiative.

The senator, however, admitted that witnesses are hesitant to surface during the hearing as their budget