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  1. Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    710
    #1
    [SIZE=2]What's your pick on this? Is it really premature or a milestone for those pushing a con-ass for cha-cha?
    [/SIZE]
    [SIZE=2]SC junks petitions vs con-ass, court spokesman says[/SIZE]
    06/16/2009 | 12:54 PM

    MANILA, Philippines The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday dismissed two petitions seeking to strike down a House resolution calling for a constituent assembly (con-ass) to amend the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

    SC spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez told GMANews.TV said the full details on the dismissal of the petitions, filed separately by lawyers Louis Biraogo and Oliver Lozano, would be given in a press in a press conference later in the afternoon.

    Radio reports had earlier said the petitions were junked for being premature and lacking in legal standing. The decision was reportedly penned by Chief Justice Reynato Puno.

    Biraogo contested the SC's decision. "Bakit mawawalan ng legal standing eh I am a taxpayer? [How can they say it lacks legal standing when I am a taxpayer?]," he told GMANews.TV.

    Two weeks ago, Lozano and Evangeline Lozano-Endriano asked SC to nullify House Resolution 1109 because it would allegedly pave the way for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to extend her term beyond 2010.

    The petitioners said HR 1109 was unconstitutional and would only render the Senate “inutile" because once Congress votes jointly, senators would be outnumbered by their House counterparts.

    Biraogo followed suit on June 5, filing a petition for certiorari to nullify HR 1109. The petition also sought to prevent House Speaker Prospero Nograles "and his deputies, subordinates and representatives" from enforcing the controversial resolution.

    Administration critics raised fears that a “justiciable controversy" would spring up from Lozano and Biraogo’s petitions, compelling the high court to clarify once and for all whether Congress should vote jointly or separately when effecting specific changes in the Charter.

    Government critics have likewise suspected that the Supreme Court might vote in favor of HR 1109 since a majority of the magistrates are Arroyo appointees.

    Nograles said the SC's dismissal of the petitions was "legally anticipated" because they were premature.

    "There will be a justiciable issue only when con-ass is convened and proposed specific amendments are made. It's like all the rallies and the lightning protests the militants and those who want to run next year are making, including some of the bishops — it's all just noises, and it's all premature," he said in a text message to reporters.

    Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño, one of the staunchest opponents of the con-ass proposal, expressed fears that the high court's dismissal of the measure might be "spinned" by con-ass proponents to make it appear that HR 1109 has been upheld by the high court.

    "Lozano's petition was obviously designed to fail so that its dismissal can be used to justify Lakas-Kampi's next step, which is the immediate convening of the House con-ass," Casiño said in a separate text message to reporters.

    House leaders and political party heads will consult with each other on the House next's step before the resumption of Congress session, which will take place after President Arroyo's State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July.

    Nograles and other con-ass proponents, however, have earlier said the House might convene into a constituent assembly after the SONA.- Mark Merueňas, Johanna Camille Sisante and Sophia Dedace, GMANews.TV
    http://www.gmanews.tv/story/165026/S...spokesman-says

  2. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    3,872
    #2
    I haven't read the ruling, but if you consider the personalities who filed the petition, I'm not surprised.

    That guy (Lozano) should've stopped practicing law a long time ago.

SC junks petitions vs con-ass