JPE: Cha-cha must be debated when sessions resume in July

Charter change (Cha-cha) should be on the agenda of the next regular session of the 15th Congress, but it should be limited to lifting the restrictive economic provisions in the Constitution, said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

Enrile said he and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. had agreed in principle on the need to debate amendments to the Constitution at the resumption of Congress sessions in July.

“It’s about time. We as a nation must be enlightened enough to discuss this,” Enrile said.

He said he and Belmonte had yet to raise the matter with President Aquino.

Enrile stressed, however, that the Charter change debate should be confined to constitutional provisions limiting foreign ownership of certain industries, and would exclude proposals to revise the country’s political structure.

No officials

“Let’s not talk about the positions of the president, vice president, the senators, congressmen, governors and mayors. Let’s not change that,” he told a press forum at the Senate on Thursday.

Both chambers should agree on the economic agenda early on, and should not accept proposals outside of this agenda, Enrile said.

By removing the restrictions on foreign ownership of industries such as mining, public lands and public utilities, the government would widen foreign participation in business and create more jobs, he said.

Congress ended its first regular session Wednesday night.

Key legislation

Apart from the 2011 national budget, the Senate passed some key legislation, including the GOCC Governance Act of 2011, and the bill deferring the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for 2013.

“This law will hopefully pave the way for the much-needed political and economic reform in the region of Muslim Mindanao. This law is not anti-Muslim. It does not derogate the importance and necessity of autonomy for Muslim Mindanao,” Enrile said of the law that would postpone the ARMM elections scheduled for Aug. 8.

He said it was “not an ordinary measure” but a “very delicate” one “full of political overtones and undertones”.

The Senate also concurred with the ratification of the Agreement on Technical Cooperation between the Philippines and Japan, which provides for technical training of Filipinos in Japan and seeks to send Japanese volunteers with a wide range of technical skills to the Philippines.