House sticking to Holy Week Cha-cha deadline

MANILA, Philippines — Does President Marcos really want a Charter change plebiscite held simultaneously with the 2025 midterm elections? House members prefer to hear it directly from the horse’s mouth.

Administration lawmakers appear determined to finalize economic Charter change before the March 22 congressional Holy Week break, with a plebiscite by July this year.

Reps. Margarita Nograles, Rodge Gutierrez and Zia Alonto Adiong said they would prefer that President Marcos make his own categorical statement on the timeline for Cha-cha, rather than let Senate President Miguel Zubiri speak for the Chief Executive.

“Only the President can speak with certainty on whatever he really wants on the timeline,” Nograles said. “We would just like to say that whatever was taken up behind closed doors should be respected in terms of confidentiality.”

“As far as the House is concerned, our work continues, and we will exhaustively look into the economic revisions in the Constitution and hear the different resource persons while looking into Resolution of Both Houses 7,” Nograles, of Pwersa ng Bayaning Atleta party-list, said.

On Monday, Zubiri said he and 12 other senators were told by President Marcos that he prefers a plebiscite on Cha-cha done simultaneously with the May 2025 midterm elections.

The House of Representatives, led by Speaker Martin Romualdez, has voiced its commitment to adopt the Senate’s Resolution of Both Houses 6 (RBH 6) in toto.

But Nograles said there is a need for a smart approach to decision-making, citing the importance of setting “specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound” goals while awaiting further directives from the President.

“It’s good that we do have this timeframe, although we have yet to hear what the President really has to say about this,” she said.

For his part, Gutierrez – a member of the House minority bloc – told media he preferred hearing directly from the President.

He urged senators to consider avoiding an extension of the deliberations on RBH 6 before sine die adjournment.

“But of course, again, we would urge our colleagues in the Senate, at least as priority, hopefully we don’t extend it all the way to sine die,”