MANILA, Philippines — Moves to amend the Constitution now face a major stumbling block in the Senate as its leadership said they would rather focus on the Marcos administration’s priority legislation which does not include charter change.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said Tuesday that while the proposal is not dead in the chamber as the constitutional amendments panel chaired by Sen. Robinhood Padilla can still continue deliberations, it might encounter opposition from some senators.
Related Stories
"I have spoken to some senators who are not in favor of tackling charter change at this time," Zubiri said in a media interview.
The Senate president himself is cold to the proposal, calling it a "very divisive issue" that the Senate does not want to touch for now.
"I think what the country needs to do now is to focus on post-pandemic recovery and reconstruction," he said as he stressed that Cha-cha was never a priority of the Senate.
Along with Padilla, top lawmakers including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s cousin, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, have been largely driving the new Cha-cha train that claims to aim to ease the supposedly "restrictive" provisions of the Constitution.
Marcos, however, has said that Cha-cha is not among his priorities as the goals of its proponents to allow for more foreign investments can be met without tweaking the fundamental law.
The president also said there are a lot of other things that need to be done instead of Cha-cha. "There’s so many other things that we need to do first, that we can still do, we can achieve," he said.
Despite Marcos’ pronouncement which would likely embolden a growing sentiment among senators against Cha-cha, Padilla said he is undeterred and would continue to push for the measure.