MANILA - The Senate has chosen not to intervene in a fresh petition asking the Supreme Court to nullify the lower House’s resolution for a Senate-less constituent assembly (Con-ass).

“There is no cause for action yet,” Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said Thursday after a caucus on the taxpayer’s suit filed Wednesday by lawyer Oliver Lozano and his daughter, Evangeline.

Lozano asked the High Tribunal to invalidate House Resolution 1109 (HR 1109), which authorizes the House of Representatives to amend the 1987 Constitution as a constituent assembly even without the Senate's participation.

Lozano alleged that the lower House “railroaded” the resolution upon orders of Malacañang, adding that President Arroyo pushed for the immediate passage of HR 1109 to legitimize an attempt to stay in power beyond 2010.

The lower House passed HR 1109 Tuesday night. Multi-sectoral groups on Wednesday marched to the House of Representatives to oppose it.

But Enrile explained a perusal of HR 1109 shows that the lower House “only called” for the convening of a constituent assembly to amend the charter. “It’s just a call…You cannot prohibit it. You cannot enjoin it,” he said.

He said the resolution should be further studied by the Senate.

“Imagine, the resolution was just passed by the House. And all of a sudden, a petition was already filed. That’s why we need to look at it further,” Enrile said.   

Not under this Constitution

Enrile added that Lozano’s petition was premature because the present Constitution already disables the lower House to amend the charter on its own.

He explained that the 1987 Constitution specifies that charter change should be done by Congress, and not just by either one of the chambers.

“The lower House is not Congress. The Senate is not Congress,” he earlier told reporters before the caucus was held.

Senate President pro-tempore Jinggoy Estrada echoed the same sentiment. “There are two houses, not just the House of Representatives,” he said. 

However, the constituent assembly provision remains a legal puzzle as the 1987 Constitution does not stipulate if the lower and upper chambers should vote separately or jointly. It only states that amendments to the charter could be introduced by a vote of three-fourths of Congress.

Enrile said that majority of the senators also believe that that the lower House will not be able to move the wheels of charter change without the Senate. He said the House of Representatives recognizes this since they have already submitted the resolution to the Senate.

“We referred the resolution to the committee [on constitutional amendments],” he said. The committee is headed by Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

Special session

Enrile said the lower House will not be able to convene a Con-ass up until July when they finally resume session. Both houses adjourned sine die Wednesday.

He explained that the House of Representatives is not allowed to conduct a special session for more than three days, which would stall moves to amend the charter change. “We will not allow them,” he said.

Enrile added that both chambers can only hold special sessions during recess upon the orders of President Arroyo.

“Until then (July), they cannot meet unless the president calls for a special session,” he said.

Backed by Malacañang?

Minority leader Aquilino Pimentel, who has been at loggerheads with Enrile over the committee of the whole’s probe into the ethics complaint against Sen. Manuel Villar, this time threw his support behind the Senate president's reaction to the Con-ass resolution.

 “No action is yet necessary,” he said. “For the moment, we support the stand of the [Senate] president.”

Senators Miguel Zubiri, Richard Gordon, Benigno 'Noynoy' Aquino, Panfilo Lacson, Gregorio 'Gringo' Honasan, Rodolfo Biazon and Mar Roxas also supported Enrile’s stand.

Meanwhile, Enrile said Lozano’s petition “puzzled” him.

“I was surprised…It looked like it was already prepared,” he added.

When asked if he meant that Palace forces had a hand in the immediate filing of the petition, he replied: “Your guess is as good as mine.” 

Estrada, on the other hand, assailed it as a “ploy” of the Arroyo administration.

He said that Lozano deliberately passed a weak petition the same way he did with his impeachment complaint against the president.

Lozano previously filed impeachment complaints against President Arroyo at the House of Representatives. One of the complaints he filed led to the dismissal of the complaint. 

Mar to GMA: Reject HR 1109

But while Roxas agreed that Lozano’s petition was “not filed at the proper time” because there is no justiciable issue yet, he is pushing the Senate to file a separate petition already to strengthen the argument against HR 1109’s unconstitutionality.

“It’s evident that Lozano filed a weak petition. It was designed to expedite cha-cha. It’s a Trojan horse,” he said.

He explained that if the SC dismisses Lozano’s petition to nullify HR 1109, this could be interpreted to mean that HR 1009 is legitimate.

“The Senate should already file a position paper which contains strong arguments for defense so that the call against cha-cha would not go to waste,” he said.

Roxas also filed House Resolution No. 1126, which urges Pres. Arroyo to “reject” the resolution filed by the lower House because it is her “constitutional and moral duty” to condemn the “unconstitutional acts” of her allies.