Senate ready to tackle economic Cha-cha

Senate of the Philippines (Wikipedia photo)

MANILA  — The Senate may tackle the passage of amendments to the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution just before President Aquino ends his term.

This is following the number of senators who expressed their support to economic Charter Change (cha-cha).

“I am personally in favor of the amendments because these will provide more flexibility given the fast-changing world that we have. Now that we have time, we will push it. It has not even been passed yet on third reading in the House but many senators have (expressed) support,”Senate President Franklin Drilon yesterday said during a roundtable discussion with dwIZ, CNN Philippines and BusinessMirror.

Last week, the House of Representatives has already approved on second reading the Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No.1.

It seeks to improve foreign investment inflow by easing the restrictive economic provisions of the Constitution.

Drilon, however said that though most senators are pushing for its passage, they might find speeding it up difficult because of the frequent absences of Sen. Miriam Defensor Saniago, chairperson of the Senate committee on constututional amendments, revisions of laws and codes.

“It is difficult to say breeze through because it is constitutional amendments but we will support it, we will try to without muzzling our colleagues, without depriving them of the opportunity to debate on this very critical issue,” he said.

He also believe that because it has the majority approval in the House of Representatives, the Palace supports it.

“To be candid, I told Speaker (Feliciano) Belmonte, ‘Okay, let’s see if you are able to pass it.’ If there are enough votes there, that means that the Palace will be quietly supporting it because to be realistic, if the Palace will not support it, it will not get 2/3 votes in the House. That’s the reality,” he said.