BY DENNIS GADIL

THE Senate yesterday declared as unconstitutional the plan of the House of Representatives to amend the Constitution through the Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) mode without the participation of the 23-man Upper Chamber.

All 23 senators including incarcerated Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV signed Senate Resolution 811 expressing the sense of the chamber against a House-only Cha-Cha.

"The provisions of our Charter are clear that any change in our Constitution requires approval of the Senate and House of Representatives voting separately," said Sen. Francis Pangilinan, who authored the resolution.

"It will render the Senate inutile and irrelevant when joint voting of the two chambers is implemented since all the 196 votes may come from 238 members of the House of Representatives," he said.

He added: "The composition of the Senate, will not, in any way, allow this to happen as it is our constitutionally-mandated task to preserve the Constitution."

Pangilinan said the all-out support of senators against Con-Ass "sends the strongest message yet that the Senate stands united against attempts by allies of the President in the lower House to subvert the Constitution for dubious ends."

Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villa-fuerte, president of the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi), claims that the exercise of Congress’ power as a Constituent Assembly will commence once his resolution gathers the constitutional requirement and is presented in the plenary.

"What I am saying is that once we are convened to consider this resolution, that is already the start of our Constituent Assembly powers," he told the plenary.

Villafuerte insists the House can amend the charter without the Senate if it musters the constitutional requirement of three-fourths vote or 197 signatories of all 261 members of Congress which includes the 23 senators.

His draft Con-Ass resolution has reportedly gathered 163 signatories

Villafuerte said he believes that as long as the constitutional requirement of three-fourths vote is met, it is enough to start the process of proposing amendments because the Constitution does not mention the words "House" and "Senate" and merely states "Congress."