Senate to start tackling economic Cha-cha

MANILA, Philippines — With the Commission on Elections indefinitely suspending all proceedings related to the people’s initiative, the Senate will convene on Wednesday the committee of the whole to tackle the proposal to amend certain economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.

Senate Deputy Majority Leader JV Ejercito said senators opted to discuss RBH6 as agreed upon by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and Speaker Martin Romualdez in the presence of President Marcos.

“I think the committee of the whole will tackle the economic provisions. We will do what was agreed upon (so they can’t say) we didn’t fulfill (the agreement). This is already scheduled,” Ejercito told reporters.

On Jan. 24, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III said the resolution, which aims to amend restrictive economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, is in “suspended animation” amid the continuing signature campaign for a people’s initiative for Charter change.

RBH6 was filed by Zubiri, along with Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda and Sen. Sonny Angara, to amend certain economic provisions of the Constitution and stop the people’s initiative initiated by the House of Representatives.

Congress is currently at an impasse over the issue.

Ejercito said Marcos should issue a statement stopping the signature campaign to ease the tension between the Senate and the House.

“That was what we were hoping for last week, we want a categorical statement from the President to stop all the political bickering. I think to end early political bickering, the President can just make categorical statements to stop PI to defuse the heat and tension,” he added.

Senators are again scheduled to hold a caucus to discuss Charter change developments, Ejercito noted.

‘Cracks now open war’

For the Makabayan bloc, what started as “cracks” in the UniTeam alliance of the Marcos and Duterte camps have already widened into an “open war.”

In a statement, party-list representatives France Castro of ACT Teachers, Raoul Manuel of Kabataan and Arlene Brosas of Gabriela said the growing feud results in the “people’s demands left out in the gutter.”

The feud started with the scrapped confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, both headed by Vice President Sara Duterte, they recalled.

This was followed by the “supposed openness” of President Marcos for the Philippines to return as a member of the International Criminal Court, which investigated former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs and later, the suspension of Sonshine Media News International which is identified with the elder Duterte.

“The Duterte camp retaliated with its known generals doing the rounds and sowing unrest among retired and active uniformed personnel,” they said.

“The social media accounts of the Duterte camp as well as their troll armies started spreading ‘polvoron’ memes alluding to the supposed cocaine addiction of Pres. Marcos Jr.,” they added.

Proof of the feud is the Bagong Pilipinas rally of the Marcos administration at Rizal Park on Sunday. The Duterte camp also organized its rally in Davao City, they noted.

The Duterte camp wants to return to Malacañang, they asserted.

“That is why many quarters are saying they are behind destabilization moves and the call for Marcos Jr. to resign so that Sara Duterte can become president,” they said.

“In all this political maneuverings and bickering it is the Filipino people who are again suffering. These costly political intramurals at the expense of taxpayers would not lower the price of rice or gasoline,” they maintained.

Conflicting ambitions

Brosas said the rallies in Manila and Davao are a “disgusting display of conflicting political ambitions.”

“These politicians stay silent when the people are calling for aid, but when their power is at risk, they have the guts to use public funds for these kinds of expensive gimmicks,” she said.

She also noted that during the rallies, officials did not discuss the rising cost of living, the crisis in transportation and workers’ low salaries. — Sheila Crisostomo, Mayen Jaymalin, Neil Jayson Servallos