LAWMAKERS from the House of Representatives have all but given up that the proposed economic amendments to the 1987 Constitution will be passed in the Senate following the statement of Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri that he cannot muster the required majority vote of 18 senators to approve proposed Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 6.
Lanao del Norte Rep. Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo said Speaker Martin Romualdez has made it clear that the House will follow President Marcos Jr.’s instruction that it is the Senate that will take the lead on economic Charter change.
“I think our Speaker gave us clearly his leadership direction,” Dimaporo told a press conference. “The general directive of our leadership is we will let the Senate take the lead.
If that is how the Senate feels about it, there’s nothing we can do but respect that it is not their priority.”
He said it is up to the Senate to decide “on what they feel is best for the Filipino people and then when the time comes, both the House and the Senate will work together hand in hand to deliver what is best for the Filipino people under the presidency of PBBM (President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr.).”
Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong agreed with Dimaporo that the House has already delivered its commitment to the President and the Filipino people to approve amendments to economic provisions of the Constitution to open the country to foreign investments.
“What is really the most important issue that we need to talk about — and we have already delivered — is the intention of really revisiting the Constitution and specifically to discuss specific provisions, which is the economic provision in the Constitution,” Adiong said.
Adiong said the House will be busy deliberating on pending pieces of legislation and exercising its oversight functions while waiting for a more definitive Senate action on proposals for constitutional economic reforms.
“If we can improve in strengthening our laws for the benefit of the public, that’s the direction Speaker Martin, the leader of the House of Representatives, would like to pursue in the remaining weeks of our session before we call for sine die,” Adiong said.
The House has approved and transmitted to the Senate its economic Cha-cha bill – RBH 7 – which is the counterpart measure of RBH 6, before Congress went on a month-long summer break last March.
RBH 6 is still being deliberated in the sub-committee of the Constitution of Constitutional Amendments. It will have to hold three more hearings, which will be held outside of Metro Manila before chairperson Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara is expected to submit his committee report.
In an interview over the weekend, Zubiri said that at least eight senators are against Cha-cha, making it impossible to meet the 18 votes needed to approve the measure.
On Monday, Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III said there is “no chance” that the Senate will pass RBH 6.
Dimaporo said that being a registered voter who voted for 12 senators in the 2022 national elections, he would like to senators vote on RBH 6 “before the end of this year or the midterms (May 2025 election).”
