Palace to House: Aquino not keen on Cha-cha, but go ahead

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Although President Benigno Aquino III had already expressed no interest in amending the Constitution in a bid to improve the economy, Malacañang said on Tuesday it won’t block such moves.

“Nung nailunsad nga sa Kamara ay inulit lang po ng Pangulo yung paniwala na hindi naman kailangan baguhin yung economic provisions,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said over Radyo Inquirer 990AM.

(When it was filed before the House of Representative, the President just reiterated his stand that there is no need to amend the economic provisions of the Constitution.)

The House of Representatives is set to tackle before the Plenary on Tuesday a resolution seeking to amend the limits of the constitution’s economic provisions.

Despite Aquino’s disapproval, however, Coloma said the Executive recognizes Congress as a co-equal branch of government, which has the right to tackle such ideas and proposals.

He said they will just wait for the outcome of the proceedings.

Although his allies have been pushing for Charter change, the President has insisted that he does not intend to amend the Charter.

Recently, however, he expressed openness to the proposal, but only to address judicial overreach, which he raised after the Supreme Court declared the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) unconstitutional.

Aquino also said he was looking into calls for his term extension, although Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said there were no moves to call for Charter change for that purpose.

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