Senate panel hopes to release report on Cha-cha by October

Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / JOAN BONDOC

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan expressed hope on Thursday that by October this year, a committee report on Charter change (Cha-cha) proposal would be out and ready for plenary debates in the Senate.

The House of Representatives has long approved a resolution that calls to convene both chambers of Congress into a Constituent Assembly to propose amendments to the 1987 Constitution.

“We’re looking at maybe October dahil two weeks ago lang natin nakuha yung Consultative Committee (Con-com) draft,” Pangilinan said during a regular forum in the Senate.

He was responding to a question as to when the Senate committee on constitutional amendments that he chairs intends to submit a report on Cha-cha proposal.

Con-com, which drafted the proposed federal Constitution, has yet to submit to the committee the memoranda regarding some of the questions like the funding and powers of proposed federal estates, which were raised during the panel’s last hearing, the senator said.

Asked about if the panel may also come up with a recommendation against Cha-cha, Pangilinan said it was “possible.”

He noted that even the administration’s economic managers have expressed apprehensions over the proposed shift to a federal form of government with some calling the proposal confusing and a “fiscal nightmare.”

“Eh pag ganyan ang bitiw ng salita eh bakit natin madadaliin ito? [If that is how they talk then we should not hurry up these things],” Pangilinan said. /jpv

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