‘Senate on right track with RBH 6’

Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva on Tuesday said the upper chamber is on track for the Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 (RBH 6), which seeks to amend certain economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.

According to Villanueva, who chairs the Senate Committee on Rules, the chamber would settle first the rules on how they would process constitutional amendments.

“We’re definitely on the right track, and we’ll be ready before the culmination of the subcommittee hearing,” he told reporters in a text message.

“After our hearing, we asked the secretariat to collate and present to the members of the Rules Committee our draft committee report then I’ll sponsor it on the floor and approve it,” he added.

Senator Francis “Chiz”

Escudero earlier noted that the Rules of the Senate do not have a specific section on procedures for constitutional amendments, unlike the House of Representatives, which are categorically stated in Sections 143 and 144 under Rule XXI.

Section 143 of House Rule XXI states that “the Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths (3/4) of all its members, may propose amendment(s) to or revision of the Constitution.”

On the other hand, Section 144 prescribes that “Proposals to amend or revise the Constitution shall be by resolution which may be filed at any time by any Member. The adoption of resolutions proposing amendments to or revision of the Constitution shall follow the procedure for the enactment of bills.”

House’s Resolution of Both Houses No. 7, the counterpart version of the Senate’s RBH 6, was approved by the lower chamber last week.