House to conduct comprehensive hearings on RBH 7, says solon

MANILA, Philippines —  The House of Representatives Committee of the Whole will discuss Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 7 on the proposed amendments to the Constitution extensively, holding three hearings per week from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. starting February 26.

Majority Floor Leader Rep. Manuel Jose Dalipe made the announcement on Wednesday.

Dalipe confirmed that the hearings would start on Monday — and not today, Wednesday,  as initially announced — because the Committee on Rules was still finalizing the schedule of resource persons invited for the discussions on proposals to amend the Constitution’s economic provisions.

Dalipe said that they were unsure when the whole committee would be able to finish deliberating on RBH No. 7, but he noted that the target was to end talks before the adjournment of Congress on March 23 for the Lenten season break.

“We are dividing it [resource persons’ schedule] because we will be having hearings on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. That’s now the plan. So, we will not be only conducting one hearing per week. The plan is to hold three per week,” Dalipe said.

“President [Ferdinand] Bongbong Marcos said that the Senate take the lead and we follow suit, this is it. We’re not just following the Senate, but we are also trying to add more time to see to it that we’ll be able to hear everyone by convening the committee of the whole, and as much as possible, we’ll try to exhaustively discuss it,” he added.

Dalipe and Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo also assured the public that the hearings would not be a shortcut to approving RBH No. 7, noting that some of the issues have been discussed in previous discussions — not only in the 19th Congress but in the past congresses as well.

“Just to assure you, we are not taking shortcuts; in fact, it seems like a repeat performance because we have done this in the past; we have been doing this repeatedly already,” Quimbo said.