THE rules for the Senate’s approval or rejection of Resolution of Both Houses No. 6, or the measure proposing economic revisions to the 1987 Constitution, will be ready by the time the subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes ends its discussions, Senate majority leader Joel Villanueva said yesterday.
Villanueva, who is the chairperson of the Committee on Rules, said senators are “right on track” in coming up with the rules on how senators will vote for or against RBH No. 6.
“We’re definitely on the right track and we’ll be ready before the culmination of the sub-committee hearing,” Villanueva said in a Viber message to the media.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, subcommittee chairperson, has so far held four hearings on RBH No. 6, tackling Charter’s general principles, and the provisions on the public services sector and the education sector.
Angara said the subcommittee will resume its discussions when Congress resumes regular sessions after their summer break on April 29.
He also earlier said that the Senate will not speed up discussions on RBH No. 6, as demanded by lawmakers from the House of Representatives.
Angara said the subcommittee is eyeing to approve RBH No. 6 in October this year.
Villanueva said that after the discussions on RBH No. 6, the Senate body will ask the Secretariat “to collate and present” to the members of the Committee on Rules the draft committee report, “then I’ll sponsor it on the floor and approve it.”
With Villanueva as its chair, the Committee on Rules has Senators Joseph Victor Ejercito and Mark Villar as vice chairmen; and Senators Angara, Nancy Binay, Sherwin Gatchalian, Grace Poe, and Alan Peter Cayetano, as members.
Senate president pro tempore Loren Legarda, and minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III are ex-officio members.
Villanueva, however, said he cannot yet provide details of the rules since he has not seen a copy of the draft committee report, but hinted that this will not be complicated since the Senate will pattern its rules with that of the House.
He reiterated that the Senate and the House should vote separately for the approval of the proposed amendments to the Charter, citing Section 144 of the House rules which states that “the adoption of resolutions proposing amendments to or revision of the Constitution shall follow the procedure for the enactment of bills.”
It was Sen. Francis Escudero who raised the lack of Senate rules in approving or rejecting the proposed amendments to the Charter.
