GMA, JDV Cha-cha remarks not in good taste

SENATORS yesterday asked the Arroyo administration to stop pestering the Supreme Court as Malacañang's allies stepped up their calls for the high tribunal to listen to the "voice of the people" and allow the Constitution to be amended through the people's initiative mode.

"I think they (the President and her allies) should lead by example and not hector the Supreme Court," Senator Richard Gordon said in an interview.

He was referring to Ms Arroyo's remarks on Thursday in favor of Charter change before an international conference of jurists, including Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban. De Venecia made the same plea but in more impassioned terms before the same body the following day.

"It's not in good taste," Gordon said, adding that De Venecia's call for the justices to change history by approving the people's initiative was contemptuous of and disrespectful to the court.

Gordon, who chairs the committee on constitutional amendments, and maverick administration Senator Joker Arroyo said that De Venecia's appeal to the Supreme Court justices to alter history by approving the people's initiative smacked of "desperation."

"That's political lobbying. It does not give due respect to the Supreme Court … You don't go to the Supreme Court and tell it to approve the initiative. It's a contemptuous conduct as far as I'm concerned," Gordon said.

Leave justices alone, senators tell Palace
Gordon: Cha-cha remarks not in good taste
Inquirer, 23 October 2006
By TJ Burgonio, Michael Lim Ubac