Do average Juans even care?

How can anyone argue against change, particularly if it is genuinely intended to serve the country’s and the people’s interests?

That’s precisely why the Senate, earlier this month, filed Resolution of Both Houses 6, its own version of a similar measure that was authored by House Speaker Martin Romualdez and adopted by the Lower Chamber in March 2023.

The House’s version of Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 calls for a hybrid constitutional convention that would propose amendments to the economic provisions of the Constitution.

Romualdez was very clear about the House’s RBH 6’s purpose, that is, to rewrite the Charter’s restrictive economic provisions to enable the country to attract more foreign investments.

On 15 January 2024, Senate President Miguel Zubiri filed the Senate’s own RBH 6 which, according to him, was the result of his meetings with Speaker Romualdez and the latter’s cousin, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., who had asked the Senate to take the lead in starting the process of amending the Constitution’s economic provisions.

“He said, ‘why doesn’t the Senate take the lead in the discussions of the economic provisions and then you approve your version which the House can adopt?’ That was the President’s position,” Zubiri said.

The President, according to Zubiri, had also stressed that taking the “People’s Initiative” route towards Charter change was “too divisive.” Already reports were spreading about how people in the provinces were being bribed with as low as P100 for their signature in support of a People’s Initiative.

Per Zubiri, a week before he filed the Senate’s RBH 6, the President underscored that “dati akong senador (at) bilang dating senador, hindi din ako papayag na ma-diminish ang kapangyarihan ng Senado

“Senators, including Deputy Majority Leader JV Ejercito, challenged Romualdez to speak up and quash the PI af ter he had been identified as being behind the signature campaign.