Although the Supreme Court has denied any link between Con-Ass moves in the House and its tectonic new ruling in Banat v. Comelec which is “immediately executory” the Constitutional Arithmetic at the heart of any Unicameral Con-Ass move has suddenly become a SCoRP-specified bit of Calculus. All of a sudden the Magic Number to achieve “three fourths of all the Members of the Congress” is no longer the 196 or 197 that Luis Villafuerte has been so assiduously gathering, but a much larger number. Assuming that there will be no disobedience to the ruling and that it is as stated final and executory, the Magic Number is now 225. Has not SCoRP just thrown a monkey wrench into the Con-Ass ChaCha choo choo train of railroaders Nograles and Villafuerte by changing the denominator that their numerator needs to get three fourths? It would now seem that any challenge to the Con-Ass Resolution, intended to present a justiciable issue before the Supreme Court would be D.O.A. until the House Membership issues are settled.
My original post on the SCoRP decision is at Philippine Commentary and the Global Post.
Based on the Carpio ponencia, my calculation is 220 District plus 55 Party List plus 24 Senators makes 299 Members of Congress. Three fourths of this number is 225 rounded up, which must all come from the 275 House Members that the SCoRP now says comprise the Lower House. The amazing thing is the Carpio ponencia claims whenever the Congress created 4 new Legislative Districts more than the original 200, they in effect created one new Party List seat and increased the Constitutional maximum from 250 to 255. Automatically and implicitly, without passing a special law to explicitly do so!
From a mathematical standpoint, the most cogent and rigorous discussion of the Party List System is to be found in the work of Dr. Felix Muga II of the Ateneo Math Dept with whom I have had many fruitful exchanges over the years.
Although the recent SCoRP ruling was unanimous on the matter of how “additional seats” for the Party List are to be allocated to the qualified “winners” of the election, the real story I think is in the razor-thin edge (8-7) by which SCoRP continued the ban on “national political parties” against their direct participation in the Party List System. The Concurring and Dissenting Opinion of Chief Justice Reynato Puno, who looks like he had to break a 7-7 tie in favor of the eventual majority, is key to understanding the inner struggle that must have gone on. It is uncharacteristically “emotional” for a ponencia by the Chief Justice.
On the Con-Ass Resolution filed in the House of Representatives yesterday, I present a very basic argument:
A mere House Resolution, which is an official Act of the Lower House, even one signed unanimously by every Member of the HoR, does not have the power or authority of Law to convene “The Congress” to a Flag Raising Ceremony without a Concurrent Senate Resolution. What more a Constituent Assembly?
Should a “justiciable issue” manage to be filed, a Minute Resolution from SCoRP ought to be sufficient for its proper disposal as a toxic waste of the people’s time and money, and a strain on the people’s forebearance of Evil Clowns.
Popularity: 1% [?]
No comment for those ass…