“With the recent exchange of toxic words between the Senate and the House on the recent push of the House leader for People’s Initiative, the Senate has to dance the Cha-Cha alone”
Following the conundrum over Charter change (Cha-Cha) with both the Senate and the House of Representatives still undecided when and how amendments on the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution will be amended, there’s now the speculation on what could happen if and when The Hague-based International Criminal Court would enforce an arrest warrant on former President Duterte considering that President Marcos Jr. had made it clear the ICC did not have jurisdiction in the Philippines!
With no less than the former President claiming the ICC had issued warrants against him and others including Duterte’s former chief of police, now senator, and some others who had committed “crimes against humanity” during Duterte’s war on illegal drugs.
There had been reports ICC probers were in the Philippines last December 2023 to validate charges that Duterte et al. had indeed committed crimes against humanity with so many extra-judicial killings.
The ICC probers reportedly also had confirmed the existence of the infamous “Davao Death Squad,” linking the former President to hundreds of extrajudicial killings in Davao City, when Duterte was still mayor.
Comes now the big question: If there is really an arrest warrant for former president Duterte and others, linking them to extra-judicial killings, how will the alleged arrest warrant be enforced when no less than President Marcos had made it clear the ICC had no jurisdiction in the country?
And to give meaning to this, the Department of Justice and the Philippine National Police also said they will not cooperate with the ICC.
Certainly, the ICC cannot just enter the country and arrest Duterte and others for what the ICC claimed Duterte et al. committed crimes against humanity.
In other words, it all boils down to the issue of jurisdiction, since the Philippines had withdrawn membership in the United Nations Rome Statute which created the ICC.
Abangan, as they say in the vernacular.
In a non-commissioned survey, Social Weather Stations found an increasing sentiment of the people in favor of the reported ICC probe in the Philippines of the bloody and brutal war of the former President on illegal drugs and the reported Davao Death Squad when Duterte was mayor.
It would seem the reported incoming arrest warrant on Duterte and some others is favored by the people.
But, as I said, how can the ICC enforce it since it would need the cooperation of the Marcos administration?
***
Senate dancing Cha-Cha alone
It is often said that it takes two to tango, with obvious reference to cooperation between two people to achieve anything.
But in the case of Cha-Cha, it would seem the Senate alone would push through with the amendment of the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution by its lone self.
Now, the question is, can the Senate go through with Charter change alone without the House of Representatives, since Senate Resolution 6 calls for a Constituent Assembly to amend the Constitution?
The Senate Resolution calls for the formation of a Constituent Assembly as the mode of a Charter change.
Santa Banana, with the recent exchange of toxic words between the Senate and the House on the recent push of the House leader for People’s Initiative, the Senate has to dance the Cha-Cha alone.
Time element is now the problem.
With the forthcoming 2025 mid-term election, reelectionist and newcomers will be filing their Certificates of Candidacy by October.
Even the plan of the Senate for a plebiscite to be done jointly with next year’s poll has been rejected by the Comelec.
Surely as night follows day, a Senate push for Charter change looks, to me, dim.