Ruling party to thwart PPP's filibuster with salami tactics

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Sat, September 23, 2023 | 06:32

Politics

Ruling party to thwart PPP's filibuster with salami tactics

Posted : 2022-04-27 20:29

Updated : 2022-04-27 21:26

Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, floor leader of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), speaks at the National Assembly main hall, Wednesday. He took the floor to initiate a filibuster to prevent the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's push to vote on the prosecutorial reform bill. Joint Press Corps

DPK pushes to pass prosecutorial reform bill by May 3

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, floor leader of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), took the floor at the National Assembly, Wednesday, as the first PPP lawmaker to initiate a filibuster to prevent the passage of the Prosecutors' Office Bill, one of two bills designed to scrap the prosecution's power to investigate criminal cases.

Calling the prosecutorial reform the product of fraudulent political maneuvering by the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Kweon blasted the ruling party for attempting to pass the controversial legislation.

"I wonder why the ruling party members have wasted time for the past five years when President Moon Jae-in has been in power and why they have to push it through, just like they are on a military operation when the sitting president's tenure is about to expire," the PPP floor leader said.

His speech continued for hours. He was there to speak and intentionally prolong the National Assembly session to block the passage of the DPK's initiative aimed at overhauling the prosecution.

In response, the ruling party relied on salami tactics.

The National Assembly session was initially scheduled to continue until May 3. But the DPK cut it short and one-day sessions will be held three times until May 3. The National Assembly session held on Wednesday was to end midnight that day.

Once a session is over, so is the man opposition party's filibuster. The DPK, which holds 171 seats out of the 300-member National Assembly, had already taken all measures to convene another one-day parliamentary session on Saturday. The first bill will be passed that day without legislative interference from the PPP as the National Assembly Law stipulates that once a session is over in the middle of a filibuster, inter-party discussion of the bill in question is considered to have ended. As a result, the bill can be tabled immediately for voting at the next National Assembly plenary session.

Once the first bill is approved, then the DPK will try to table the second bill, the revision of Criminal Procedure Law, for a vote at the National Assembly plenary session to be held on Saturday, immediately after the first bill is passed.

It is apparent that the PPP will try again to interfere with the passage of the second bill through the filibuster. Like Wednesday, their legislative interference won't stop the passage of the second bill, either, as the one-day session will end midnight. The DPK will table the second bill on May 3 at the new National Assembly session and push for a vote.

There is nothing the PPP can do to prevent the passage of the second bill, either.

Placards are set up in front of seats occupied by main opposition People Power Party lawmakers at the National Assembly, Wednesday. Those placards contain slogans protesting the prosecutorial reform bill being pushed by the ruling party. Joint Press Corps

Once the second bill is passed, the two bills aimed at stripping the prosecution of its investigative rights will be sent to President Moon Jae-in's last Cabinet meeting scheduled to be held on May 3.

Being aware that the passage of the prosecutorial reform bills will be inevitable, the PPP took steps it hopes can stop the prosecutorial reform from going into effect.

Rep. Jun Joo-hyae of the PPP told reporters that her party took legal action to thwart the prosecutorial reform by submitting an injunction suit against the DPK-led legislation to the Constitutional Court as the bills had procedural flaws.

According to the lawmaker, Rep. Min Hyung-bae, who was once a DPK lawmaker but left the party to become an independent to help the ruling party pass the prosecutorial reform bills at the judiciary committee, submitted the bills when he was still a DPK lawmaker. But she went on to say that Min had been one of the six members of the subcommittee who read the bills as an independent.

"We received legal counseling from a lawyer who once served in the Constitutional Court that this is against the law, so we came to take the legal action," Jun said.

Rep. Chang Je-won, who is serving as chief of staff for President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, said Yoon may hold a referendum on the prosecutorial reform measures on June 1, once they are signed into law, before he takes office on May 10. But skepticism ran high about the proposed measure as the National Election Commission said holding a referendum on the measures on the local election day is currently impossible.

hkang@koreatimes.co.kr