Senate cha-cha chances ‘dimming’
Charter change advocates may again fall short in their fresh bid to amend the 1987 Constitution, this time through Resolution of Both Houses No. 6.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Sunday bared that at least eight senators are considering voting against RBH 6, which proposes changes to specific economic provisions of the Constitution.
“As of now, there may be at least eight (who are against it),” Pimentel said in a radio interview over the weekend when asked whether the RBH 6 could get enough votes from the upper chamber.
Senate Minority Deputy Leader Risa Hontiveros earlier said the minority bloc is counting on at least seven senators to vote against the renewed push to amend the Charter.
To gain passage, the RBH 6, which proposes amendments to economic provisions that concern public services, education, and the advertising industry, needs the approval of at least threefourths of the upper chamber’s 24 members or at least 18 votes.
At the moment, Pimentel said he is counting on Senator Cynthia Villar and her son, Senator Mark Villar, to vote against the passage of the RBH 6.
“Senators Cynthia, Risa and I are on the same side on the RBH 6. So, perhaps that counts as three. I think Mark will follow the path of Senator Cynthia, so that’s four, at least half of the eight votes,” he said.
Villar said she prefers legislating laws to improve the economy rather than amending the economic provisions of the Constitution.
“They always say that is only economic provisions, but the economic provisions they are saying are minor only. It is not really that important,” she said in a chance interview.
“If you want to improve the economy, we can just legislate what we need to improve because these are things that businessmen are complaining about,” she added, referring to the ease of doing business and corruption in the government.
According to Pimentel, proponents of RBH 6 must do their best to convince them to approve the proposed measure.
“They should do their best in defending it because it is not only the substance. They need to convince us how important this proposal is,” he said.
The Senate minority chief, likewise, stressed that the Senate’s rules on the adoption of Charter change proposals must be cleared first.
“The procedure. The rules are not yet ready,” he said.
Speaking at the plenary last week, Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero noted that the Rules of the Senate does not have a specific section on procedures on constitutional amendments, unlike the House of Representatives, which are categorically stated in Sections 143 and 144 under Rule XXI.
“I raise this because we do not have a counterpart or similar rule. And right now, as things stand, the House of Representatives, it seems, has a rule on how to adopt proposals or reject proposals to amend the Constitution while the Senate does not,” Escudero said.