House prods Senate: Your turn to make Cha-cha move

BLOCKING FORCE Representatives of various civil society groups express their continued opposition to Charter change at a press conference at Club Filipino in San Juan City on Thursday, following the House approval of a bicameral resolution amending the economic provisions of the Constitution. —LYN RILLON

A day after passing on second reading a resolution seeking to amend the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, the House of Representatives on Thursday prodded the Senate to do the same to allow the people to decide on Charter change (Cha-cha) alongside the midterm elections in 2025.

Speaking to reporters, Deputy Majority Leaders Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin and ACT-CIS Rep. Erwin Tulfo said that now that the lower chamber has done its part, it was up to the Senate to deliver on its promise to approve its own resolution for economic Cha-cha before the 2025 elections.

They are referring to Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 (RBH 6), which was filed by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri in January, but has since faced an uphill climb for approval in the upper chamber.

The House counterpart, Resolution of Both Houses No. 7, had sailed through committee approval in just six hearings. RBH 6 needs three-fourths of the majority vote of the 24-member chamber to pass in the Senate, something Zubiri said was “difficult but not impossible.”

Easing economic provisions

Deliberations on economic Cha-cha officially started in the Senate on Feb. 5 and senators wanted to conduct more public hearings across the country to gauge the people’s sentiment on the issue.

Zubiri had maintained that the upper chamber would not be pressured by deadlines for the passage of RBH 6, while Sen. Sonny Angara, who heads the subcommittee tackling the resolution, said he was looking at an October deadline.

Both resolutions are identical in proposing to relax the economic provisions in Articles 12, 14, and 16 of the 1987 Constitution and open up the country’s public utilities, educational institutions, and advertising to foreign ownership.

“I really hope they (Senate) would get on with it because every day, every month that passes by, we get closer to the elections,” Garin said. “What would the Filipino people tell us then—when prices of food are still too high, [that] we endure poor quality of education.”

“Other people think that to stay in power you have to let the people stay in poverty,” she added. “That is the worst kind of governance.”

Tulfo stressed that the more important part of constitutional amendments was getting them to the people through a plebiscite to “give them a chance to decide for themselves.”

“Look, if they don’t want it, Congress can’t do anything about it,” he said. “But if they say they like that, then the discussion is over.”

Shared distrust

Both the House and the Senate have been wrangling over Cha-cha, with the Senate accusing the House of using economic revisions as a gateway for political amendments, such as term extensions or even the abolition of the Senate by changing the form of government to a uniparliamentary system.

The House, meanwhile, has accused the Senate of blocking more than 300 Cha-cha proposals since 1987 to perpetuate themselves in power. Senators are allowed two consecutive six-year terms, or 12 uninterrupted years if they are reelected, while congressional representatives are allowed three consecutive three-year terms or nine uninterrupted years.

President Marcos has refused to intervene in the congressional stalemate, saying that the Senate must take charge of discussions to amend the Constitution.

However, he said he wanted the plebiscite for the constitutional amendments to be held alongside the 2025 elections to save on cost, a proposal that constitutional experts argued was unconstitutional.