Senators never acted on Cha-cha moves, says House leader

The signature campaign for people’s initiative for amending the 1987 Constitution is gaining ground because the Senate never gave Charter Change (Cha-Cha) a chance, House constitutional amendments panel chairperson and Cagayan de Oro lawmaker Rufus Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez was referring to the signature campaigns which ask voters if they are in favor of amending Article 17 Section 1 of the Constitution by allowing all members of Congress to jointly vote on proposed constitutional amendments.

This proposal would in effect disregard the senators’ vote given that the Senate has only 24 members as against the House of Representatives' over 300 members.

“Senators have put themselves in a problematic situation for which they have only themselves to blame. We have always respected bicameralism. But our proposals and insistent appeals for them to consider Charter reform have invariably fallen on deaf ears,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

“They have consistently ignored the people’s clamor for Charter reform voiced through their elected district representatives until the people decided to take matters into their own hands,” he added, referring to past efforts of the House chamber to amend the 1987 Constitution, including the economic provisions that supposedly restrict foreign direct investment from coming in the country.

Senate leaders initially said they were willing to amend the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution a week ago, but they had a quick change of heart and said they are not pursuing such constitutional amendments.

The 24-member Senate on Tuesday released a manifesto condemning the ongoing people's initiative, which seeks to amend the 1987 Constitution by allowing all members of Congress to jointly vote on proposed constitutional amendments in a constituent assembly.

The senators expressed concern that if the people's initiative prospers, further changes to the Constitution can be done with or without the Senate's approval and even absent all members.

Another proponent of Cha-Cha and House ways and means panel chairperson Joey Salceda earlier said that politicians should not get in the way of people’s initiative.

On Wednesday, Salceda said the proponents of the people’s initiative for Cha-cha already gathered the required signatures of 12% of the total number of registered voters, of which every legislative district must be represented by at least 3% of the registered voters. 

“Sobra na, lampas na sa requirement.Why don't we listen to the people?,” Salceda said.

Rodriguez said he is hopeful that the Charter reform advocacy of the House would succeed this time.

“This is for the sake of our country, our economy and our people,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez also said that if the Senate would be on board Cha-cha, Congress could finish Charter reform before the Holy Week recess of Congress in March.

“Instead of wasting their time on seeing and fearing ghosts and no-el (no elections) scenarios where there are none in the ongoing people’s initiative, Senators should work with us on changes in the economic provisions. That may ease the pressure from our people for them to act on Charter reform,” Rodriguez said.

“We have the records, the institutional memory. So we are ready to tackle this matter of constitutional reform with the Senate as soon as possible,” he added. —LDF, GMA Integrated News