MANILA, Philippines?Before Malacañang can revive its Charter change moves in Congress next year, the Supreme Court should first settle the issue of whether the House of Representatives and the Senate should vote separately or jointly on constitutional amendments, Senator Miriam Santiago said Friday.

?In general, the House of Representatives is in favor of Charter change, while the Senate opposes. Which of these chambers will prevail will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court,? Santiago said in a speech to students of the Our Lady Lady of Fatima University in Valenzuela City.

?The high court holds the key to whether the Charter change process will start next year,? she said.

Santiago said the high court must decide how to compute the three-fourths vote of Congress which was needed to effect any changes in the Constitution.

?The House position is that first we should compute the total number of Congress members, which is 261 votes in all. If so, then only 195 votes are needed to change the Charter,? she said. ?By contrast, the Senate position is that Charter change needs three-fourths of the House, meaning 178 votes; plus three-fourths of the Senate, meaning 17 votes.''

She explained that the Senate was opposed to the House position because it would mean that a senator has just the same vote as a representative and since there were more representatives in the lower chamber, the Senate would be outvoted.

Santiago noted that the issue has split even former Supreme Court justices and constitutional convention delegates.

As a constitutional expert, Santiago said she was naturally opposed to Charter change without any justifiable reasons. But this time, Santiago said there were two "compelling reasons'' for Charter change -- changing the nationality requirements in the economic provisions will make the Philippine economy globally competitive; and changing from a unitary to a federal system of government will solve the long-standing issue of Muslim separatism.

By relaxing the Constitutional limits on foreign ownership of restricted investment areas such as land and media, Santiago said foreign businessmen seeking greater control of their businesses would be encouraged to come in.

"It is only natural that a foreign business company will want to own majority control of a corporation that it might establish in our country. We are engaged in cut-throat global competition for foreign investments. But if we continue to limit foreign participation to minority control, naturally they will seek majority control in other countries which allow it,'' she said.

By adopting a federal form of government, Santiago said the government would finally provide the Muslim leaders not only on regional autonomy but also on much wider authority for their own local government. This could only be achieved if the country adopted the proposal for a federal system of government.

While she was in favor of a federal form of government, Santiago said that the government must be "extremely careful" and ensure that the amended Constitution absolutely prohibits secession by any state.