AUG.

25, 2012

NR # 2842B

JBC representation issue, a Con-Com error of omission: Aumentado

Citing a seeming error of omission committed by the Constitutional Commission, a senior lawmaker filed House Resolution 2631 to amend a constitutional provision to clearly state that each chamber of Congress be represented in the Judicial and Bar Council. It is now imperative that the particular provision be clarified to mean that each chamber of Congress has one ex-officio member in the Council consistent with a presidential form of government with a bicameral Congress, author and House Ethics and Privileges Committee Chairman Rep. Erico Aumentado (2nd Dist., Bohol) explained. In a chronology of events, the number of representatives of Congress to the Council became a contentious and controversial issue which reached the Supreme Court after former Solicitor General Frank Chavez initiated an action to declare as unconstitutional the membership of Sen. Francis Escudero and Rep. Niel tupas, Jr. in the JBC. The Supreme Court has initially sustained the Chavez petition, and in fact, ordered that only one ex-officio member shall represent the Congress in the JBC, Aumentado noted in the resolution. Subsequently, the Senate and the House of Representatives filed a motion for reconsideration arguing that since the present presidential form of government has a bicameral legislature, it is therefore, imperative that both chambers must be represented in the council. To clarify his point on the said error of omission, Aumentado noted that when the Constitutional Commission provided one representation in the JBC, the Commission then was of the belief that the parliamentary form of government would prevail over the presidential type. This is the same error the Commission has committed in the provision for the amendment or revision of the Constitution where the provision thereon is suited for a parliamentary form of government and not a presidential form of government with a bicameral Congress, Aumentado stated in HR 2631. This obviously unintended error must be corrected so the Supreme Court could not anymore flip-flop on the issue, and thus, could be guided accordingly, the lawmaker stressed. Aumentados resolution said Congress needs to constitute itself into a constituent assembly and in session assembled, voting separately, to amend Section 8 (1) of Article VIII Judicial Department of the Philippine Constitution to allow both Houses of Congress a representative each to the Judicial and Bar Council. The proposal has been referred to the Committee on Constitutional amendments chaired by Rep. Loreto S. Ocampos (2nd Dist., Misamis Occidental). (30) dpt