Lawmaker hopeful Cha-cha stalemate can be resolved

The House of Representatives leadership under Speaker Gloria MacapagalArroyo is optimistic that its gridlock with the Senate on separate voting for purposes of amending the 1987 Constitution will be over in a couple of months.

“It’s because we want this finished by the time we will be filing our certificates of candidacy (by October this year),” Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso, chairman of the House committee on constitutional amendments, said over the weekend.

In an interview with radio station dzBB, the former Court of Appeals justice pointed out that lawmakers under former House speaker Pantaleon Alvarez had made the rounds in 2016 and 2017 in several regions across the country, introducing Charter change.

“We have already finished the draft resolution of the House,” Veloso said.

He maintained that the mode for proposing amendments

to the 31-year-old charter would still be via constituent assembly, which is most practical and cheaper, considering that constitutional convention and people’s initiative are time-consuming and costly.

Veloso’s committee will convene tomorrow and deliberate on the draft constitution for a shift to a federal form of government.

He added that a new resolution would state that voting for proposed amendments should be done separately by the House and the Senate, allaying fears of senators that their votes will be diluted by members of the House.

Arroyo will not ignore the Senate with regard to the Duterte administration’s plan for a shift to federalism, unlike