House, Senate agree to hold joint session

Heeding the call of a majority of congressmen, the leadership of the House of Representatives abandoned last night its bid to prevent the holding of joint session of Congress, agreeing to hold it today, at the latest.

Meeting reporters after presiding over a two-hour all-party caucus, Speaker Prospero Nograles said a team of House leaders and the chamber’s legal advisers were directed to meet a counterpart group from the Senate to discuss the “rules of engagement” for the holding of the joint session.

Earlier yesterday, senators held a caucus and forged a non-binding agreement to revoke the Martial Law declaration.

“This is non-binding. It does not bind anyone of us in the event that the facts, in the opinion of the individual members of the Senate, each one to decide to vote for or not. This was suggested by the (Senate) minority (bloc),’’ Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told reporters after yesterday morning’s caucus attended by 19 senators.

A total of 18 senators present in the caucus were reported against the President’s fiat.

Speaker Nograles also issued a strong guarantee that the joint session will only take up the report of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the factual bases for her decision to proclaim martial law over Maguindanao.

“Not in my watch,” stated Nograles as he rejected insinuations that the joint session might be converted into a constituent assembly that would discuss amendments to the 1987 Constitution.

The House leader also abandoned a proposed resolution expressing the support of majority of House members to Presidential Proclamation 1959. Adoption of the House Resolution 1525 would have been used by the House leadership to reject a call for a joint session because this would
represent the “collective sentiment” to support the martial law declaration in the violence-prone province.

“The consensus was for us to listen. We cannot agree to concur or revoke without the facts,” Nograles
said.

He said Malacanang must present the factual bases for imposing martial law.

However, Nograles stressed that the rules of procedure for the joint session remained the priority item that both Houses must agree on before the presentation of the Arroyo report is discussed.

The caucus agreed to send the following to help the Senate draw the rules: Majority Leader Arthur Defensor; Senior Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora, Secretary General Marilyn Barua-Yap and the head of the House legal department.

According to Nograles Congress has only five days left to act on the martial law report, thus, the rules of procedure are vital in the holding of the joint session.

“We have to finish it before next week’s Christmas recess. Therefore, the rules should be out, what if 268 people want to talk, mapupuyat tayo lahat,” he said.

Nograles also appealed to his colleagues to make themselves available as he admitted that quorum problem could block attempts to hold the joint session.

“It is the highest constitutional duty of everybody,” he said.

Earlier, opposition lawmakers led by Reps. Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza said they will resist attempts of the House majority to cause the cancellation of the joint session.

On the other hand, Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo defended his mother’s martial law proclamation
as he assailed critics for putting her in a “damn if you do, damn if you don’t” position.

“Before President Arroyo issued Proclamation No. 1959, some sectors were saying the administration is treating the issue of Maguindanao with kid gloves. Now that she has placed Maguindanao under Martial Law to effect warrantless arrests, search and seizures which is aimed at dismantling private armies and confiscating loose firearms in that particular area with the primary objective of restoring law and order in the province, they are again crying hell,” he said.

Meanwhile, a suggestion made during the Senate caucus and submitted for debate during the proposed joint session today was to shorten the Martial Law period from 60 days as sought by the President ‘’in order to pressure the Executive Department to solve the problem of Maguindanao the soonest possible time,’’ Enrile said.

Since the Constitution states that the session would be held jointly, questions whether the members of the two legislative bodies vote as one body or the two chambers voting separately in a joint session would have to be threshed out by Congress leaders.

Enrile asked Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri to meet with his Lower House counterpart and adopt rules to be used in the joint session.

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, an administration ally, said Proclamation 1959 suffers from “doctrinal confusion,’’ and she would vote to revoke it, although she said House members would outvote the senators.

“It will hardly be worth the effort to attend the joint session, because the Senate will be atomized, but at least every senator could explain his or her side,’’ she said.

Malacañang for its part said it would lift martial law soon once all the perpetrators of the Nov. 23 Maguindanao massacre are arrested and all private armies dismantled in the province.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the Martial Law duration would be shorter as long as the mastermind of the killings and some 2,400 civilian volunteer organizations (CVOs) involved in the carnage are brought to justice.

(With reports from Charissa M. Luci, Ellalyn B. De Vera, Edmer F. Panesa and Leslie Ann G. Aquino)