Senate, House leaders to meet on Cha-cha

Senators and House leaders led by Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. are scheduled to meet today on the controversial issue of Charter change (Cha-cha).

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. told reporters yesterday that he arranged the meeting to enable the two chambers of Congress to resolve their differences on the need for constitutional reforms.

He said there is no doubt that there is consensus among senators and congressmen that certain provisions of the Constitution need to be amended.

The issue on which there are divergent views is the mode of rewriting the Charter, he said.

He said lawmakers can first agree on what sections of the Constitution would be amended and resolve the question on the mode later.

If they can agree on the constitutional provisions that need to be rewritten, there should be less difficulty in deciding the manner of effecting such changes, he added.

De Venecia and his colleagues are proposing that the rewriting job be done by Congress itself working as a constituent assembly.

On the other hand, many senators were initially for electing a constitutional convention to propose Charter changes, but several of them have reportedly changed their mind and are now for a constituent assembly.

According to estimates, electing a convention and maintaining it would cost taxpayers between P2 billion and P6 billion, a huge expense that the nation cannot afford, especially at this time when it is facing a large budget deficit.

Cha-cha proponents in the House have argued that a constituent assembly would entail only a small cost on the part of the government and is the most expeditious way of amending the Charter.

Pimentel is for shifting the presidential form of government into a parliamentary-federal system. – Jess Diaz