Despite survey, Cha-cha should proceed, says congressman

MANILA, Philippines — Both houses of Congress should pursue economic Charter amendments despite a Pulse Asia survey early last month showing that 88 percent of Filipinos do not support the initiative, Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said yesterday.

“The right decisions are not always popular. We are kulelat (laggard) in terms of FDI (foreign direct investments) in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations),” Rodriguez said, as he called on counterparts in the Senate to act on Resolution of Both Houses No. 6.

“The last thing the government needs is to always play the populist card which only resulted in the hampering of the country’s infrastructure development for the past 37 years,” the lawmaker added.

“The fate of economic Charter reform is in the hands of our senators,” Rodriguez said, as he urged senators to fulfill their promise to approve the measure before May 24.

He said the dominant view expressed by the resource persons during the House hearings favored the changing of foreign equity and ownership restrictions in public utilities, education and advertising, which are the only provisions sought to be amended by both RBH6 and RBH7.

Rodriguez is one of the authors of RBH7, the House version of the proposed economic constitutional amendments. The House has already approved RBH7 on third and final reading, and has sent it to the Senate.

The Senate version, RBH6, is authored by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and Senators Loren Legarda and Sonny Angara.

For the first time in 37 years, the two chambers of Congress have come this close to proposing amendments to the Constitution.

“And we are limiting the proposed changes only to three areas. There is no proposal to extend the term of any elective official. There is no political amendment,” Rodriguez stressed.

He added that the inclusion of questions on political amendments in the recent survey might have confused the public.

The lawmaker also pointed out that he continues to believe that changing foreign capital and ownership restrictions would bring in more foreign direct investments, which in turn would create more job and income opportunities for Filipinos.

Senate frowns  on political Cha-cha

The unsolicited proposal for Charter change pitched by presidential adviser for poverty alleviation Larry Gadon raised a few eyebrows in the Senate, which received a letter from the secretary asking that Congress extend term limits of local officials.

Gadon, a disbarred lawyer for his profane language, sent a letter to Senate President Zubiri and Speaker Martin Romualdez on April 1 listing down his “suggestions on constitutional amendments.”

Topping his list is extending the term limits of local officials – district representatives, governors, vice governors, board members, mayors, vice mayors and councilors – to six years, from the current three years with reelection.

Gadon also proposed increasing the number of senators from 24 to 48, with the same six-year terms with “no possibility of reelection.” He also proposed a transition from presidential to parliamentary form of government, where a Prime Minister post will be shared by both the Speaker of the House and the Senate President.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said Gadon should just mind his own business and stick to his Cabinet assignment.

“It would be better to ask Secretary Gadon what poverty alleviation measures he has in mind, and just request him to keep his mind off constitutional amendments,” Pimentel said.

Economic Charter change advocate Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said he was immediately turned off by Gadon’s proposals to tinker with the political provisions.

“If political amendments are included, we might as well not talk about Charter change anymore,” Gatchalian said during the Kapihan sa Senado forum yesterday.

While it was within Gadon’s right to express his opinion to Congress, Gatchalian said that “the reality is, political amendments are not acceptable to the public.”

He was referring to the March 6-10 survey conducted by Pulse Asia which showed that 88 percent of Filipinos surveyed opposed Charter change, up from 45 percent in March 2023.

Zubiri earlier said the Pulse Asia survey is an “eye opener” for the Senate to listen to the public’s sentiments, as well as conduct consultations nationwide and educate the public, instead of railroading Charter change in the upper chamber. – Marc Jayson Cayabyab