No LEDAC; BBM meets separately with senators, congressmen

Amid feuding over the people's initiative to amend the Constitution, President Marcos met separately yesterday with congressmen and senators instead of convening the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

- DELON PORCALLA and MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB

Sources at the House of Representatives said the senators had requested the convening of LEDAC, wherein the legislative agenda of the national government is tackled, but it was called off for still unknown reasons.

"We both know that LEDAC meetings involve the senators and congressmen. But we don't really know what suddenly happened. What we only heard and learned eventually, is that the President met them separately and we still also don't know on whose instance," a source said.

All 24 senators have opposed, by way of a strongly worded manifesto, an ongoing people's initiative that the House is supporting, ostensibly to amend restrictive economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution.

Executive session, not LEDAC

Instead of convening LEDAC, Marcos met separately with senators and congressmen in an executive session, according to Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva.

"LEDAC was postponed. Instead, we had an executive session with the President," Villanueva told Senate reporters.

Marcos first met with the senators composed of Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, Villanueva, the President's sister Imee Marcos, JV Ejercito, Sonny Angara, Grace Poe, Pia Cayetano, Sherwin Gatchalian and Mark Villar - before meeting with the House contingent.

The President seemed to have stepped in amid an impending constitutional crisis that the senators had feared would happen, due to some lawmakers' support for the signature drive that seeks to silence the Senate in the charter change vote.

Asked about the executive session, the President's sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, was tightlipped due to the confidential nature of the meeting, but blamed the House lawmakers' support for the people's initiative as the cause of the conflict in Congress.