MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri is puzzled why the House of Representatives is rushing to amend the Constitution when it is not even a priority of the President nor of the Senate, since new laws are already in place to address key legal obstacles to foreign investments.
Zubiri reiterated that the Senate committee on constitutional amendments, chaired by Sen. Robinhood Padilla, continues to conduct public consultations throughout the country, even if it is evident there is no majority support for the House version of Charter change (Cha-cha) in the Senate.
“Sometimes I get confused. I don’t know what requires urgent attention, the priority measures of Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), that is our group, made up of the House of Representatives, Senate and the executive, which discusses the priority measures needed for our country and Charter change is not there,” Zubiri told ANC.
“You all know that the President already said that it is not part of his agenda. It is not a priority of the President,” added Zubiri, who stressed that he would never want to pick a fight with members of the House, having been in the lower chamber for nine years.
He recalled one recent meeting where the President told Speaker Martin Romualdez that amendments to the Constitution are not his priority.
He said Marcos, a former senator, knew that Charter change will not always have warm reception in the Senate, and could be a divisive issue for the country.
“I’m busy going around selling the country to be able to fix the problems of our country,” Zubiri quoted Marcos as having told his cousin, Romualdez.
The Senate President said his chamber intends to finish approving the list of priority bills agreed upon in LEDAC that are mostly socio-economic reform measures designed to help the country recover from the pandemic.
Despite the Cha-cha move’s lack of support in the Senate, senators are not ignoring the House and Padilla continues to go around the country for public hearings to produce a committee report that will be discussed in plenary, said Zubiri.
New laws
The Senate in the immediately preceding 18th Congress already passed and had enacted at least three landmark bills that allow 100-percent foreign ownership of certain industries and sectors that should be implemented first before tinkering with the economic provisions of the Constitution, stressed Zubiri.
These include the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, amendments to the Foreign Investment Act and the Public Services Act (PSA).
“These (were) to answer the problem of the restrictive economic provisions in the Constitution,” Zubiri said.
He, however, asked why concerned agencies have yet to release the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the PSA a year after the law was enacted.
“I don’t know why. Are they (government agencies) delaying for some underlying reason? Why don’t they let IRR go and let it out so that more direct foreign investments can come to the country? Obviously, they (investors) are still in a quandary what the implementing rules and regulations are,” he said.
Zubiri also said he was wary about the mode of amending the Constitution pushed by the House that is via constitutional convention (con-con) where delegates are elected to propose the amendments.
He said proponents in the House are not only seeking amendments to the Constitution’s economic provisions, but also to its political provisions leading to term extensions and a shift to a federal or parliamentary – or a combination of both – form of government.
Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva said the chamber has always been supportive of the President’s legislative agenda, “including the measures that will help our farmers, create employment and to facilitate the country’s digital transition.”
“We also need to see the effects of the landmark laws we passed last Congress… before we talk about Charter change,” Villanueva said.
‘7 months’
Still, the chairman of the House committee on constitutional amendments kept his hopes up to have the whole process of amending the 1987 Constitution completed within seven months, now that the bill for a hybrid con-con is set for transmittal to the Senate.
“In the bill (House Bill 7352), we are giving the constitutional convention seven months to finish its job,” said Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of the bill and the Resolution of Both Houses 6.
“The deadline is the best proof that we want this effort to be limited to the economic provisions. Rewriting the other parts of the Charter would entail a longer, perhaps an open-ended period,” he said.?
Rodriguez said he would suggest to Romualdez that HB 7352, which was approved by an overwhelming vote in the House of Representatives last Tuesday, be immediately transmitted to the Senate for inclusion in Monday’s hearing.?He was referring to the hearing set by his Senate counterpart, Padilla, whose committee is set to tackle both HB 7352 and RBH 6.
Rodriguez pointed out that the seven-month deadline is enough for the envisioned con-con to rewrite the economic provisions.
“If they could do it in three months to five months, the better for the country, the less expense the convention would require,” he said.
Under RBH 6’s accompanying HB 7352, con-con delegates would receive no salary but be entitled to a P10,000 allowance for every day of attendance in the assembly or any of its committees.
Rodriguez said he intends to attend the Senate committee hearing upon the invitation of Padilla.
The bill’s co-author, Rep. LRay Villafuerte of Camarines Sur, joined Rodriguez in urging senators to take it up very soon.
‘Railroading’
Militant youth group Anakbayan has assailed what it described as the railroading of a resolution by the House for a hybrid con-con to undertake Cha-cha.
Anakbayan chairperson Jeann Miranda warned that one of the main proposals lawmakers are pushing for in Cha-cha is to shorten the terms of the president and vice president to five years but, at the same time, allow them to run for reelection.
In simpler terms, Miranda said this means President Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte would be able to prolong their tenure in office.
“That was done by his father (Ferdinand E. Marcos) in order to become a dictator, now he’s going to do it, too? It’s obvious Marcos Jr. and Duterte have ambitions to prolong their stay in office to enrich themselves and their cronies,” Miranda’s statement in Filipino said.
Anakbayan is also of the opinion that opening up the economy to foreign investment and ownership will only exacerbate the current crisis.
Speaker defends House
Yesterday, Romualdez set the record straight against insinuations that the House was rushing the approval of Marcos’ priority bills as well as the hybrid con-con measure, stating that doing one’s job should not be seen as a crime.
“All legislative measures approved in the House were deliberated extensively and exhaustively – from the committee level to plenary sessions,” the House leader said in a statement sent to the media.
“All voices were heard before we take a vote. All of these passed through the correct process and were thoroughly studied,” Romualdez, speaking partly in Filipino, said in refuting claims that many approved measures were railroaded by the super majority coalition. – Delon Porcalla, Emmanuel Tupas