P-Noy hands off on Cha-cha

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate and the House of Representatives may go ahead with their plan to introduce amendments to economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution even without President Aquino’s blessings, a Palace official said yesterday.

“Independent po iyan (Congress). They can move as they will,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told journalists, when asked if the legislature should have to wait for Aquino’s imprimatur before going full blast with its Charter change initiative.

Valte said it’s up to the lawmakers allied with the President to discuss the issue.

“Depende na iyan talaga sa mga kaalyado, iyung mga kasama natin sa Kongreso. Yes, independent sila (It depends on our allies in Congress. Yes, they are independent),” Valte told reporters in a briefing.

She declined to say, when asked, if Aquino has any preferred mode for amending the Charter. Aquino earlier said he was not keen on Cha-cha at the moment.

“I will defer to the constitutional experts on that. And again, I don’t want to answer,” she said.

“He (presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda) wanted to answer that question but perhaps we’ll defer. I will defer to the constitutional experts to answer on how that can be done,” Valte said.

She also declined to comment on the President’s silence on Cha-cha in his State of the Nation Address last Monday.                             

“Again, let’s not take the SONA as the end all and the be all of the President’s commitment to anything. The President has spoken a number of times on this particular issue and it’s clear that it is not a priority at this point,” she said.

But Aquino’s silence was not a source of discourage for top Cha-cha proponent Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

“Maybe he (Aquino) is not in favor (of Charter change). Whatever it is, we will, the Senate President and I will see him next week,” Belmonte told reporters when asked to comment on the SONA.

Belmonte and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile have been pushing for Charter change since last year. They formally endorsed the move in their respective messages at the opening of the third and final session of the 15th Congress on Monday.

The two said any Cha-cha effort would focus on economic provisions, particularly on the ratio of foreign ownership of business.

Belmonte said he briefly chatted with Aquino after he delivered his SONA and the latter set their meeting next week. “The President said ‘next week,’ let’s talk about it,” he said.

When asked whether there was a chance that the President would change his mind, the House leader said, “Frankly I don’t think so.”

“He was quite cold to it (constitutional reforms). But this is something that deserves to be discussed not just informally in an occasion like this,” Belmonte said.

He said an endorsement from the President is crucial to the success of any move to make changes in the Charter considering that the proposed amendments need to be approved by a three-fourths vote of members of Congress.

“And that’s a lot of people,” Belmonte said. “These amendments are really needed. But at least he does not stop it or he does not talk against it,” Belmonte said. – With Paolo Romero