MANILA, Philippines — The proposal to amend the “restrictive” economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution may be approved by the House committee on constitutional amendments this week, provided that there will be minimal debates on it.
House panel chair Alfredo Garbin said the hearing set on Wednesday on the proposed Charter change is not the first one but a continuation of a series of hearings on the matter.
“Kung wala na masyadong tanong, at napagpasiyahan na ng members ng committee, we can approve the bill [this week] so we can proceed coming up with a committee report para ito ay mai-adopt at ma-refer na sa plenaryo,” he told reporters in an online interview.
(If there will be no more questions and the committee decides on it, we can approve this bill this week so we can proceed with coming up with a committee report and we can adapt and refer it to the plenary.)
The House panel will tackle the proposal to amend the Constitution, which is pushed in Resolution of Both Houses No. 2 filed by Speaker Lord Allan Velasco in July 2019.
The resolution seeks to amend Sections 2, 3, 7, 10, and 11 of Article XII (National Patrimony and Economy), Section 4 of Article XIV (Education, Science, and Technology, Arts, Culture and Sports), and Section 11 of Article XVI (General Provisions) to add the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law.”
Garbin revealed that former panel chair and now Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez had come up with a committee report last year but was told by then Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano to “put on hold the report because of the pandemic.”
He also pointed out that the issue on Charter change has also been tackled in the past Congresses.
“We came up with the matrix of all sentiments and position papers of the different stakeholders in our economic sector and those players in national patrimony. Makita mo nandyan na ‘yung kanilang position paper from 16th, 17th, and 18th Congress,” Garbin said.
(You can see that their position papers from 16th, 17th, and 18th Congress are included there.)
“Ilang beses na itong naging diskusyon. Sa tingin ko naman hindi na kailangan pahabain,” he added.
(This has been discussed many times already. I think this does not need to be prolonged.)
Speaker Velasco earlier said they are aiming to finish the Cha-cha debates before the end of 2021 and present it to the public for ratification alongside the 2022 elections.