House plenary debates on Charter change may start next week
MANILA, Philippines — Plenary debates on proposed amendments to the Constitution to ease restrictions on foreign investments may start by next week, the chairman of the House constitutional amendments committee said.
Panel chair Rep. Alfredo Garbin (AKO BICOL party-list) told a news conference on Wednesday that they will submit the committee report on the proposed amendments to the House Committee on Rules, which would then schedule the proposals for plenary debates.
“We are hoping that by next week, this would be referred to the plenary so we can immediately start debates,” Garbin said of the proposal that cleared his panel Tuesday.
The proposal, penned by no less than Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, has the backing of major political blocs in the House and is likely to breeze through the chamber.
Garbin himself sees speedy plenary deliberations, remarking that most of the issues surrounding Charter change have been repeatedly raised since the 13th Congress and that only “small issues” only need to be settled on the floor.
'No Plan B'
The stumbling block for the proposal, touted by proponents as the key to boosting the economy which has been battered by the pandemic, is the Senate which remains cool to it.
Senators have raised concerns about the timing and propriety of the proposal, considering that the country is still fighting a raging pandemic and that the next elections are only 15 months away.
The House has tried making contact with the Senate, but Garbin said they have yet to meet their counterparts in the upper chamber.
Garbin is only pinning his hopes that the Senate would consider the proposed amendments, claiming that there is “clamor” for changing the Constitution even if a 2018 survey by private pollster Pulse Asia showed that a majority of Filipinos opposed Charter change at the time.
“We are hoping with Speaker Lord Velasco that this is given a chance in the Senate. We do not have a Plan B in case the Senate does not join us,” Garbin said in Filipino.
In the likely event that the proposed amendments pass the House, it would be the second time that an attempt to change the Constitution would clear the chamber under President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been pushing for amendments and revisions to the Charter.
In 2018, the House under then-Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo passed a proposal to revise the Constitution for the country to shift to a federal form of government. It was, however, “dead on arrival” at the Senate.
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