Lower chamber files own RBH

Members of the House of Representatives have initiated their resolution, proposing amendments to certain economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, which they aim to pass “as soon as possible.”

Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr., Deputy Speaker David Suarez, and Majority Leader Mannix Dalipe led the filing on Monday of Resolution of Both Houses 7, which aims to alter Articles XII, XIV and XVI — the same provisions the Senate wants to amend under its RBH 6.

House’s RBH 7 mirrors Senate’s RBH 6, seeking to relax the economic restrictions on foreign ownership in public services, education, and the advertising industry of the 37-year-old Charter, said to be hindering the country’s economic potential.

“The nation’s economic policy must be reframed under the demands of this increasingly globalized age, while still protecting the general policy of Filipinofirst that guides the economic provisions of the Constitution,” the resolution reads.

Identical to RBH 6, RBH 7 will convene the two chambers of Congress, the House, and the Senate, into a constituent assembly, or con-ass, in which they will vote as one body to propose constitutional amendments.

Both measures restate the provision of the Constitution that Congress may propose amendments “upon a vote of three-fourths of all its members.”

Under Article 17 of the Constitution, the Charter could only be amended or revised through a constitutional convention, conass, or a people’s initiative.

Dalipe said the House mimicked the Senate’s RBH 6 to ward off insinuations that their proposal will go beyond economic provisions.

“As I mentioned earlier, the provisions that we placed here are exactly the same (as) what the Senate placed, so that there are no other stories, or there are no other thoughts or fears, and no doubt. We have really patterned it because they might say there is another version of RBH No. 6,” Dalipe said.