No timetable yet for Cha-cha in House—Fariñas

Majority Floor Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rudy Fariñas
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas on Tuesday said the lower chamber still has no timetable for the proposed Charter change (Cha-cha).

“Timetable is too far the table as such Draft has not even been officially transmitted to the HOR, if so,” he said on Tuesday in a message to reporters, referring to the draft federal Constitution submitted on Monday by the 22-member Consultative Committee (Con-com) to President Rodrigo Duterte.

READ: Duterte receives ‘pro-poor’ federal Constitution

DOWNLOAD: The complete final draft of the federal Constitution

On Monday, Senate President Vicente Sotto III also said the proposal is still not a priority in the upper chamber.

Sotto also said Con-com’s draft is still subject to the scrutiny of Congress.

READ: Charter change still not a priority of Senate — Sotto  

The proposed amendment in the 1987 Constitution being pushed by Duterte’s allies in Congress, could pave the way to the country’s shift to a federal form of government.

Amending the Charter can be done either through a Constituent assembly (Con-ass), composed of sitting legislators, or through a Constitutional Convention (Con-con), composed of experts elected by the people in a plebiscite. /jpv