SEN. Robinhood Padilla yesterday said amending the political provisions of the Constitution can start next year, as he stressed that the Charter needs to be “evolving” and adapt to the present time.
Padilla, who is the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes, said what needs to reviewed now are the restrictive economic provisos of the Charter.
“Ang patungkol sa political (amendments), pwede next year. May 2025 election pa, pwede tayong sumabay ulit doon (The political [amendments] can be pushed next year. [Its ratification] can be done simultaneously with the 2025 elections,” Padilla said.
He also said: “Ang Constitution kailangan buhay, hindi ‘yan patay. Ang Constitution na patay, walang mangyayari sa bansa natin. Tulad ngayon, 37 years, anong nangyari sa Pilipinas? Tignan nating mabuti, baon tayo sa utang (The Constitution should be evolving, not dead. A dead Constitution will bring no progress to a country. Like what we have now, it’s been 37 years (since the crafting of the 1987 Constitution). What has happened to the Philippines? Let us take a closer look — we are buried in debt).”
In the meantime, the actor-turned-senator said lawmakers should look into the Charter’s provisions that slowdown the entry of foreign investments into the country.
Padilla has recently ended its countryside consultations on his proposal to improve the economic rules in the Constitution through the constituent assembly (con-ass) mode.
It, however, continues to hold hearings and is now discussing the House-approved Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 and House Bill No. 7352, which laid down the technical details for the convening of a constitutional convention (con-con) to tackle Charter changes.
It will hold another hearing today and has invited Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, former senators Franklin Drilon and Francis Pangilinan, and former Rep. Margarito Teves as resource speakers.
The key points for discussion include whether the Senate will adopt the position of the HOR to use con-con to amend the Constitution, the enactment of the law calling for a con-con if such will be the chosen mode, clarify the procedures by which the Charter will be amended, and the process of election of con-con delegates, among others.
OPEN HEARING
Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez yesterday rejected the proposal of Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri to hold a closed-door meeting on the Charter change initiative, stressing a public hearing should be held in the interest of transparency.
“I am against any executive session or secret meeting on this matter. Let us be transparent: We are discussing the fundamental law of the land, not just a proposed piece of legislation. Let us not hide our discussions from the public,” said the chair of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments.
Rodriguez said lawmakers should avoid discussing anything in secret, except for certain issues like those affecting national security, foreign policy, and the country’s territorial integrity.
He said the Senate President was again showing his “fear of the unknown” by anticipating that some lawmakers would show off in a public hearing since Zubiri has said that it is prone to “grandstanding.”
“He should trust his Congress colleagues to follow decorum. He should not mistake passion for showboating,” he said.
Zubiri has admitted advising Padilla to postpone Monday’s hearing on RBH No. 6, which calls for a constitutional convention to propose amendments to the Constitution’s economic provisions.
Padilla proceeded with his panel’s hearing without the presence of Rodriguez, who was earlier invited as a resource person only to be told at the last minute that the invitation was withdrawn since Zubiri said House members should be invited not as resource persons but as guests only.
Rodriguez said there have been several instances in the past where House members appeared before Senate committees as resource persons and “I myself have appeared in the Senate several times in person and in zoom to defend my bills on our regional hospital, our state university, the protection of our rivers and other bills authored by me.”
“I agree that the Senate and the House should observe parliamentary courtesy. However, what is not courteous, even in parliamentary terms, is disinviting a colleague from a co-equal body. Instead of dispensing with our presence, they should have proceeded to hear us”, he said.
Rodriguez also chided Zubiri for saying the House constitutional reform initiative was already dead, since Padilla was pushing for the convening of Congress as a constituent assembly to propose amendments, while the House advocated the calling of a con-con.
“The Senate president, a former majority leader and a veteran of several Congresses, knows the process. If the two chambers have divergent versions of a proposal, they convene a bicameral conference. That is what we do with the annual budget and other laws. There are no conflicts that we cannot resolved,” he said.
For his part, Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez, a former speaker, said he is willing to accompany Padilla “all the way to hell” in his Cha-cha crusade.
“Mr. Chairman, kung kailangan, sasamahan kita hanggang impyerno (if need be, I’ll accompany you all the way to hell),” he said, after the senator vowed to resign from the PDP-Laban if his own party will not support the initiative.
Padilla and Alvarez were together last March 9 in Baguio City for a consultative session with stakeholders about the benefits of revisions of the 1987 Constitution.
“Why can’t we look at it from the perspective of a priority to improve the lives of the people by changing a rusted basic law that chained the nation for a long time?” Alvarez said of Zubiri’s opposition to Cha-cha.
Alvarez was PDP-Laban secretary general before resigning in November 2020. He is currently concurrent chairman and president of Partido Reporma.
CHA-CHA HISTORY
Padilla said he is confident that he can convince his colleagues to support Cha-cha since some of the present set of senators, including Zubiri, have filed in the past Congresses measures calling for Charter change.
Padilla, in an interview with ANC, said it is hard for him to accept that his colleagues in the upper chamber indifferent to Cha-cha now when they have filed similar bills calling for amendments to the economic provisions of the Charter during the 11th to the 17th Congresses.
He said he dug up the records of the Senate and learned that Zubiri and Drilon were among those who have sought Cha-cha.
“Di ko matatanggap na sila po ay against dito. Parang ano ‘yan, nagpalit ka ng isip? Ganoon po ba ‘yan? (I cannot accept that they are against this. Was it like, they changed their minds? Is that so?),” Padilla asked.
Zubiri had said that Cha-cha is not on the priority legislative agenda of President Marcos Jr., thus, is likewise not a priority in the upper chamber.
The Senate, he said, should concentrate in crafting measures for post-pandemic recovery.
Besides, Zubiri added, the so-called restrictive economic provisions of the Constitution have been remedied in the 18th Congress by amending the Public Services Act, Retail Trade Liberalization Act, and the Foreign Direct Investments Act.
But Padilla said amendments to existing laws are not enough to bring the needed changes to the economic provisions since the Charter still imposes restriction on foreign ownership.
Padilla also said he is pushing hard for Cha-cha in the Senate so that the upper chamber will have its version of the measure and not just adopt the House version. — With Wendell Vigilia
