Senate won’t dance to House Cha-cha

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate is unlikely to prioritize deliberating on a resolution passed by a House committee seeking to lift restrictions on foreign ownership of businesses as well as extend the terms of members of Congress though constitutional amendments, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said yesterday.

“There is none in our priorities to that effect,” Sotto told reporters when asked about the resolution passed by the House committee on constitutional amendments. He stressed that Charter change is not on the urgent to-do list of the chamber.

He said the Senate would still have to determine how to handle the document, called a “Resolution of Both Houses” by the committee.

“Even the term they are using like ‘resolution of both houses of Congress’ is not clear to me. Why? Because that term is merely a definition of either a joint resolution, a concurrent resolution or a simple resolution. So what is it?” he asked.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson described the House resolution as “at best, half of the story.”

“Being bicameral, without the Senate agreeing to amending the Charter via a constituent assembly, no amount of determined efforts by the House members will bring to reality new provisions of the 1987 Constitution, whether economic or political,” Lacson said.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chairman of the panel, on Thursday expressed optimism that the House would start plenary debates in January next year.

The resolution proposes a five-year term for all members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as for local officials (except barangay or village officials). They can serve for up to three consecutive terms.

Rodriguez said any amendments, if the measure is approved in Congress, will take effect only after 2022.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said the proposed constitutional amendments are prone to abuse in the absence of political or electoral reforms.

“While we fully support the proposal to increase the terms of our politicians to five years with one reelection, this must come with political reforms, otherwise we continue to perpetuate our weak political party system that is prone to abuse and elite capture,” DILG spokesman Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said in a statement.

Malaya said that reforms, such as the strengthening of political parties, anti-turncoatism provisions, campaign finance and anti-dynasty provisions, should also be approved alongside the proposed term extension approved by the panel members.