CEBU Rep. Antonio V. Cuenco on Monday agreed to a proposal of House Speaker Prospero Nograles to postpone action on the baseline bill on third reading until the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council has met on the proposed legislation.
“This is a brilliant idea to which I subscribe,” Cuenco, chair of the House committee on foreign affairs, said in a privilege speech after Nograles presented the proposal to the committee.
Cuenco said he expects the LEDAC meeting to be similar to a bicameral conference committee and expressed the hope that an agreement on how to draw the baseline would be reached soon.
The House committee on foreign affairs decided to defer deliberations for three weeks and give Nograles a free hand to submit the bill to the Malacanang-initiated LEDAC.
Nograles’ proposal came in the wake of Malacanang’s April 4 request to the House of Representatives to revise House Bill 3216 and remove Scarborough Shoal and Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) in the disputed Spratlys Group from the archipelagic baseline and treat them as “regime of islands.” Last December the House unanimously approved HB3216 on second reading.
Paranaque Rep. Roilo Golez, a member of the minority group, however, objected to the proposal to postpone the vote on third reading of HB3216, saying it would be a “capitulation of the House of the executive department” and would weaken the country’s claim on Spratlys.
Golez also said it is “out of order” for the House committee on foreign affairs to reconsider HB3216 which it is already in plenary for third reading.
On the proposal to discuss the bill in LEDAC, the Paranaque congressman said, “LEDAC is not a forum for a detailed, vigorous debate on the merits of the bill due to the time constraint and discussion format in LEDAC.”
While agreeing to await the outcome of the LEDAC meeting, Cuenco also said in a privilege speech: “It is too late now to stop the approval of this bill on third and final reading. To abort its approval at this stage of our lawmaking process would create a terrible precedent that could cause havoc of the proceedings of the House.”
He added, “It would even lend credence to the charge that the House of Representatives caved in to external pressures.”
The Spratlys in the South China Sea are being claimed wholly or in part by the Philippines, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.