Next round of proxy war

Back from their month-long recess, our lawmakers of the 19th Congress resumed their sessions last Monday. Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri counted as many as 20 priority bills under the common legislative agenda remain pending before them. Zubiri hastened to clarify that the two common Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) Nos. 6 and 7 on Charter change (Cha-cha) are not among these 20 priority bills still at the Senate legislative mill.

As of the Senate chief’s latest headcount, there would be at least nine of the 24 senators who would likely vote “No” on the Cha-cha Resolution. Thus, this will not meet the required two-thirds of the Upper Chamber members, or 16 senators must vote “Yes” to approve the proposed constitutional amendments.

On the other hand, the House of Representatives led by Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez has already approved all 20 of these priority bills. As far as the Speaker is concerned, the Lower House approved all 20 priority bills before their Holy Week break last March. This is way ahead of their June this year target, he added.

The 20 priority bills are administration measures that the Senate and the House leaderships agreed upon with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) at the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

Although not a priority bill, one of those approved before the congressmen adjourned last March was RBH No. 7. The House passed the exact copy of the Senate’s RH No. 6 Cha-cha version to lift the 60-40 ownership restrictions on three economic provisions only, namely, public utilities, advertising and higher education.

So by this time, the House-approved RBH No. 7 has already been transmitted to the Senate. But this will have to wait until the Senate passes upon their own version under RBH No. 6, which is still pending at the Senate.

Earlier faced with the threat of people’s initiative getting ahead of the Cha-cha moves, the entire Senate stood squarely against it. As an apparent compromise, the Senate leadership headed by Zubiri came up with RBH No. 6 to carry out economic Cha-cha by legislation.

Given the big differences between the two RBH versions, its targeted approval this year remains a pipe dream.

Incidentally, the second regular session of the present Congress will adjourn sine die this May 24. The 19th Congress will resume its third and last regular session on July 22 when PBBM delivers his third State of the Nation Address (SONA). But by that time, it’s already campaign mode for many of the lawmakers who are up for running in the upcoming mid-term elections in May, 2025.

While it may seem to be a stalemate between the Senate and the House on their respective RBH, Cha-cha advocates are not losing hope. Remember, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) merely suspended last February its acceptance of Cha-cha signatures submitted to them by the People’ Initiative for Reform, Modernization and Action (PIRMA). So the PIRMA petition is still alive.

While PBBM stays away from the Cha-cha debate, his immediate predecessor, former president Rodrigo Duterte, has not relented in opposing it. In fact, the former president, father of Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Duterte, supports the anti-administration groups rallying against Cha-cha. Mr. Duterte earlier accused the Marcos family of allegedly using Cha-cha “to perpetuate themselves in power.”

For now, the more than 300-strong House of Representatives has practically nothing much to pass upon, except a number of bills of local application, or those bills that pertain to their individual congressional districts. In fact, only 197 House members responded to the roll call last Monday.

Unfortunately, the Lower House lost another member with the passing away last week of Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. At the time of his death, the 74-year-old Barzaga chaired the House committee on environment and natural resources. He is the third congressman who died during his incumbency. Two Palawan congressmen died earlier one after the other. Rep. Edward Hagedorn and Rep. Edgardo Salvame died a few months apart.

Actually, the House has two other vacancies. One was created with the appointment of an incumbent congressman to PBBM’s Cabinet and the other got expelled as House member. Former House Deputy Speaker Batangas Rep. Ralph Recto got appointed in January this year to become PBBM’s new Secretary of the Department of Finance.

In the case of former Negros Oriental third district Congressman Arnolfo Teves Jr., he was expelled from the 19th Congress in August last year. Teves has sought political asylum in Timor Leste where he is facing deportation as a fugitive wanted for the assassination of Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo on March 4, 2023.

So all five congressional vacancies are concurrently headed by the Speaker on top of his own at the first district of Leyte. This is not to mention that the Speaker religiously joined the presidential trips abroad. To his credit, the Lower House delivered all the bills committed to the LEDAC.

At the resumption of their session last Monday, the Speaker declared that the Lower House intends to strengthen their congressional oversight functions. The oversight powers of Congress include checking, monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the laws as crafted by the legislators. This is to ensure protection of public interest and to hold accountable the government officials who are mandated to implement these laws approved by Congress, the House leadership pointed out.

At the outset, the Speaker identified his own three priority concerns for oversight. These are persistent soaring prices of basic goods and commodities; rising cybersecurity threats in both the offices of government and private sectors and the continuing national security concerns in the West Philippine Sea.

Initially, the Speaker announced the House will ferret out the truth in the much ballyhooed “gentlemen’s agreement” on the South China Sea issue supposedly entered into by ex-president Duterte with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Former Duterte Cabinet officials, he noted, even have differing versions of the truth. “Baka nabubudol na tayo nila,” the Speaker quipped.

Hold on to your seats for this next round of proxy war.