House panel to convene after SONA to tackle mayors’ ‘Cha-cha’ proposals

MANILA, Philippines — The House committee on constitutional amendments will convene after President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) to discuss the charter change proposals of over 1,400 mayors in the country.

Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who chairs the House’s constitutional amendments committee, said that the meeting could happen within the first two weeks of Congress’ second regular session.

The second regular session will begin in the morning of July 27, with the afternoon dedicated for Duterte’s SONA.

“I will call a virtual meeting of our committee possibly within the first two weeks of our session to tackle the proposals of our 1,489 town mayors and other pending measures,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

Rodriguez said he would get the sense of the committee’s members and as well as leaders of the House on discussing the issue of Cha-cha as the country continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) earlier said that members of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) had passed a resolution seeking amendments to the Constitution.

The resolution contains the mayors’ proposed amendments which includes the institutionalization of the Mandanas ruling of the Supreme Court in the Constitution and the lifting of restrictions on foreign investment in industries currently limited to Filipinos.

Rodriguez explained that the Mandanas ruling expands the basis for the computation of the internal revenue allotments (IRA) “to include collections not only of the Bureau of Internal Revenue but also the customs duties collected by the Bureau of Customs, a part of taxes collected in BARMM, taxes from the exploitation of national wealth, excise tax on tobacco products, other taxes provided in the NIRC (National Internal Revenue Code) and franchise taxes.”

“The IRA allotments for the LGUs will be significantly increased which are needed by the LGUs to address the COVID-19 pandemic and other local development programs and strengthen local autonomy in our country”, Rodriguez said.

Meanwhile, on the second proposal, Rodriguez said that there are already pending resolutions before the committee seeking to lift or relax restrictions on foreign investments in the country.

“Specially this time when we need more foreign investments and to invite more foreign businesses relocating from China, in order to provide much needed jobs for our people, this amendment is worth considering”, Rodriguez said.

In May, Rodriguez proposed that the deliberations on Cha-cha be suspended indefinitely due to COVID-19.

JE