No ceasefire

For the second time this year, a ceasefire between the two chambers of Congress was announced over Charter change.

And for the second time, the ceasefire was broken almost immediately by both senators and congressmen.  

You can’t help smelling something fishy in the effort by the House of Representatives to stampede the Senate into dancing the Cha-cha.

The congressmen’s partner, the People’s Initiative for Reform, Modernization and Action, has the tenacity of a zombie: never say die. As the second ceasefire was announced and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) released forms for withdrawing signatures for the people’s initiative, PIRMA lead convenor Noel Oñate announced that the signature campaign for PI would continue.

That signature campaign is not pushing for any specific economic reform in the Constitution, but merely for a seemingly minor change in the wording of a provision, which will effectively allow the House to amend the Charter as it pleases without having to worry about those pesky senators.

 Unlike many of the supposed eight million who have affixed their signatures to the PIRMA petition sheets, senators read the fine print, saw an existential threat to their chamber, and the Congress war erupted.

  The underhanded way that the joint voting amendment is being rammed down the nation’s throat to marginalize the Senate reinforces suspicions that the House push for Cha-cha is fueled not by any genuine desire for economic reforms, but by a political agenda that will benefit incumbent congressmen, starting with Speaker Martin Romualdez.

 Since their three-year term ends next year, House members appear to be moving heaven and Earth to achieve their real Cha-cha agenda before the current 19th Congress ends next year.

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Senators have said they are ready to tackle economic Cha-cha, but the PI signature campaign has to stop – which it hasn’t. Since this campaign has been shown to have the blessings of Romualdez himself, he is expected by senators to have the ability to stop the PI.

But the Speaker seems to have conveniently adopted the stance of both the Comelec and PIRMA – that it’s a people’s initiative, which is a private undertaking that