THE House of Representatives is set to approve on third and final reading on Wednesday the proposed Resolution of Both Houses No. 7 (RBH No. 7) which seeks to revise what congressmen describe as the “restrictive” economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.
Senior Deputy Speaker Gonzales Jr. of Pampanga, a principal author of RBH No. 7, said lawmakers will stick to its deadline of passing the economic Charter change resolution before Congress adjourns sessions this week for its Lenten break.
“Under the original timeline set by our good Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, we hope to have final approval before our scheduled adjournment on Wednesday, barring any last-minute delay,” Gonzales said.
A counterpart measure at the Senate, RBH No. 6, is still being deliberated by the subcommittee of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes which is chaired by Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, who has said that the discussions could take until October.
Gonzales said the joint resolution, which contains the economic amendment proposals, “will be approved as is without amendment,” as recommended by the Committee of the Whole House chaired by Speaker Romualdez.”
Gonzales is one of the principal authors of RBH No. 7, which is an almost exact reproduction of RBH No. 6, introduced in the Senate by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and Senators Loren Legarda and Angara.
RBH Nos. 6 and 7 are both entitled, “A Resolution of Both Houses of Congress proposing amendments to certain economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, particularly on Articles XII, XIV and XVI.”
The proposed House and Senate changes are on the grant of legislative franchises to and ownership (60-40) of public utilities in Article XII, administration and control of basic educational facilities in Article XIV, and ownership of advertising firms (70-30) in Article XVI.
Proponents of the bill seek to lift the 40 percent limit on foreign ownership in the three sectors to attract more foreign direct investments to the country and create more jobs for Filipinos by adding the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law” to the three constitutional provisions.
The only difference between the House and the Senate’s version is the provision found in RBH No. 6 which expressly states that the voting on the amendments should be undertaken separately by the two chambers.
The Constitution, while requiring a three-fourths vote of all members of Congress, is silent on how the voting should be done.
Gonzales said those who still doubt that the House is planning to include political amendments in its push for economic Charter reforms “should now shed their baseless suspicions and their fear of the unknown.”
“Speaker Romualdez and the rest of us in the House have honored our word and followed the guidance of our President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr: that we would work only on proposing economic amendments,” he said.
The House leader said not one House member even tried to propose anything political in nature in the push for economic Charter reforms.
“We have proven the doubters wrong. No term extension proposal for any elective official. I hope they will now believe President BBM’s statement that his advocacy was confined only to changing the economic provisions,” he said.
