Confident that majority in Congress will vote in favor of martial law in Maguindanao, a Malaca?ang official urged lawmakers Thursday to hasten the voting in their joint session. News agencies reported a heated debate on whethere the imposion of martial law by President Gloria Arroyo was in keeping with the Constitution. Raul Gonzalez, chief presidential legal counsel, said the questions posed by lawmakers from both Houses of Congress to the resource persons they invited to the session were virtually the same such that he got bored and fell asleep. “They should go directly to the voting. Their questions are just the same. I was so bored fell asleep,” Gonzalez said in an interview. Besides, he said majority of those in the joint session will vote in favor of the martial law imposition in Maguindanao as the opposition comes mainly from the Senate which has only 24 members. The 1987 Constitution provides that the Senate and House of Representatives, which has more than 200 members, vote jointly on the matter. Congress held the first joint session Wednesda but went on recess Wednesday night without putting the matter to a vote. They resumeed at 2 P.M. Thursday. When asked if the House of Representatives – majority of whose members were allied with the Arroyo government – would overwhelm the opposition, Gonzalez said, “That is my expectation. The majority of Congress will sustain the proclamation. We can say that the Senate is against it but the Senate has always been a hotbed of opposition.”
