Cha-cha not among Senate priority measures – Zubiri

MANILA, Philippines — The controversial Resolution of Both Houses 6 that proposes to amend the 1987 Constitution was not included in the Senate’s priority measures on the last stretch of the second regular session of the present Congress.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri yesterday said the Senate subcommittee headed by Sen. Sonny Angara will still have to conduct three more hearings for RBH6 pushing for the amendment of provisions on public service, education sector and the advertising industry.

Asked whether RHB6 was included in at least 20 priority bills listed under the Common Legislative Agenda of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (CLA-LEDAC), Zubiri said no.

“These are all legislations. We still have three more hearing in Baguio City, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro.”

Angara’s committee has so far conducted four public hearings on Feb 5, 12, 20 and March 5, which tackled the general provisions of the proposal to amend specific economic clauses of the Constitution. The first four public hearings were attended by legal luminaries, business executives and representatives from the education sector.

Zubiri said he was about to meet the 23 senators in a caucus to discuss the strategies of the Senate in effective and efficient tackling of the priority measures.

When asked whether the Senate would calendar and put Cha-cha to a vote to let the public know the respective positions of each senator, Zubiri said they would still discuss the matter in a caucus set today at the resumption of session.

Zubiri expressed confidence that the Senate will see the passage of priority bills listed under the CLA-LEDAC before the end of May when second regular session of the 19th Congress wraps up.

He added that the Senate has tabled for discussion the proposal to revive the Reserve Officers Training Corps with specialization. He said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has designed the proposed ROTC based on expertise.

“In the ROTC program, for example, those experts in computers, you will be in the anti-cyber hacking division of the reservist force. If you are engineers, they will assist the AFP engineering programs, while nursing students will be (deployed)