The Philippine Online Chronicles

Congress will again discuss amendments to the 1987 Constitution, specifically its economic provisions, as lawmakers agreed yesterday to push for charter change via bicameral constituent assembly.

Leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives made the decision during the first legislative summit led by House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

Sen. Franklin Drilon said that under the bicameral constituent assembly, the Senate and the House would vote separately on proposed amendments discussed in each chamber. Changes would be subject to the usual legislative process, but the output of these would be put to a vote by the people through a plebiscite.

A seperate report explained that each senator or congressman would be able to propose amendmentsto taken up in committee hearings, but that these would touch on economic provisions only and not structure or term limits.

“This (Charter change) process will be done by both Houses, it will be transparent, there will be public hearings, we will invite experts so the possibility of some vested interests creeping into the discussion will be minimized, if not prevented,” Drilon said at the legislative meeting held at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City.

Votes of at least three-fourths of the members of Congress are required for proposed amendments to be approved, based on the 1987 Constitution. The charter, however, is silent on whether the Senate and the House of Representatives should vote separately or jointly.

Meanwhile, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that only the economic provisions will be tackled, not the political structures. He added that there will be no rush in the renewed push to amend the charter.

President Benigno Aquino III  has said that amending the Constitution is not included in the government’s list of priority measures.

But labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno expressed suspicions that this latest decision of Congress to push for Cha-cha could be the result of President Aquino’s recent trips to the US and Japan.

“Is this what he [Aquino] bargained in exchange for promises of investments from the US and Japan in his latest trips? Big capitalist countries like the US and Japan have been pushing for Cha-cha for the longest time now. We cannot help but think that the president got promises of investments flowing into the country by promising a Cha-cha,” KMU said in its statement.