Lacson to Palace: Be more creative in running after party-list groups with alleged communist ties

There are other ways to remove party-list groups with alleged links to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, New People’s Army (NPA) instead of amending the 1987 Constitution, Senator Panfilo Lacson said on Friday.

Lacson said taking the charter change route “might be too big a bite to take,” . . . “if indeed true that the President’s reason for reviving efforts to amend the charter is to abolish the party-list system, or at least directed at particular party-list list groups.”

“When we open the valve to amend the Constitution, especially via a constituent assembly, nobody, not even the highest officials of the three branches of government can choose, much less assure which provisions may be amended or not,” he said in a message to reporters.

“As an old adage goes, there are a thousand ways to skin a cat. If it’s true that Malacañang’s wish is only aimed at the Makabayan bloc in Congress for allegedly acting as legal and political fronts of the CPP-NPA, they should be a little bit more creative in accomplishing that objective without opening the floodgate to possibly tinker with the Constitution in its entirety,” Lacson explained.

Leaders of the House of Representatives earlier met to discuss plans to revive discussions on at least two pending resolutions seeking to convene Congress into a constituent assembly to introduce changes in the charter.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III, after a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte, said the chief executive does not want a term extension with the charter change move, but to remove the party-list system to solve the communist insurgency problem.

Duterte earlier tagged some party-list lawmakers belonging to the Makabayan bloc as supporters of the CPP-NPA.

Asked if abolishing the partylist system would deprive some sectors a voice in the legislative chamber, Lacson said, “The more important issue here is removing the party-list groups that earned their congressional slots from an enabling law in compliance with the same Constitution that is sought to be amended.”—LDF, GMA News