The current form of the People’s Initiative Law is unconstitutional and illegal, Philippine Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri told reporters on January 26.
According to Zubiri, the constant attempts by the House of Representatives to review the Constitution through the mechanism of popular initiative are leading the country to a constitutional crisis.
“The Senate continues to believe that the popular initiative in its current form and the way in which signatures are collected is defective and unconstitutional. We warn about a possible constitutional crisis and try to avoid it. But unfortunately it seems like this is happening slowly.”stated the president of the upper house of the Philippine Parliament.
He noted that the popular initiative in its current form makes the senators’ votes insignificant during the vote, so the House of Representatives has an advantage in voting on the initiatives due to their greater number compared to the number of senators.
“We intend to carefully examine the options available to us to maintain the checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution through a bicameral Legislature. “We remain alert for the good of our country and our people.”the head of the chamber emphasized.
Let us remember that the Philippine Parliament is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The upper house, the Senate, is made up of 24 senators, while the lower house, the House of Representatives, is made up of 316 deputies.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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