Senate to tackle Cha-cha after Lent

The Senate is scheduled to tackle the Cha-cha (Charter change) issue after the current congressional Lenten break which ends next weekend.

Sources told The STAR yesterday that senators would most likely constitute themselves into a committee of the whole to take up two constitutional amendment-related resolutions.

One resolution is authored by opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara and Sen. Robert Barbers, who belongs to the ruling Lakas party. It seeks the convening of Congress into a constituent assembly to propose Charter changes.

It is similar to the Concurrent Resolution 16, which the House of Representatives, the chief proponent of Cha-cha, had overwhelmingly approved and which it had sent to the Senate.

The other resolution pending before senators proposes the election of a constitutional convention to recommend constitutional amendments.

The Senate has been under pressure from the House to tackle Cha-cha. Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and his colleagues have told senators that they cannot ignore the congressmen’s constitutional reform initiative.

In fact, at least two House leaders – Reps. Prospero Nograles of Davao City and Rodolfo Albano of Isabela – have accused Senate President Franklin Drilon of blocking Cha-cha because Drilon allegedly wants to run for president or vice president in next year’s elections.

The Senate head has denied that he is preparing to seek the top elective post or the vice presidency. – Jess Diaz