Senate Cha-cha proponents: No political changes

MANILA, Philippines — Joining the fray to have the Charter changed, several senators have vowed to focus on its economic provisions and to steer clear of politics to ensure their initiative will have better chances of getting approved.

Sen. Sonny Angara, who chairs the Senate finance committee, joined Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri in signing the Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 that seeks to open up public utilities, advertising and educational institutions to foreign ownership by allowing legislation to ease the prohibitive economic provisions.

In a dzRH interview yesterday, Angara said Charter change has better chances of passing the Senate if it focuses on economic amendments.

“It is better to talk about Charter change at the start of the administration and limit it to public services, educational institutions and advertising as among the industries to be liberalized to draw more investment opportunities,” Angara said in Filipino.

He said the Senate would not allow people’s initiative proponents to prevent the Senate from participating properly in Charter change discussions through constituent assembly or con-ass, by making sure the two chambers of Congress vote separately and not as one, as is being pushed in the Lower House.

Joint voting through con-ass would allow the 315-member House of Representatives to overrule the Senate in the required three-fourths majority vote.

The Senate will push for separate voting under con-ass to protect the bicameral nature of legislation in the country, Angara said.

“The scope of legislation is wide, but we have to be clear here in limiting the debate to economic provisions, and not on politics,” he added, referring to extending the term limits of elected officials and even the proposed tandem voting for president and vice president.

For her part, Sen. Imee Marcos declared the people’s initiative “dead on arrival” for being “very divisive.”

The presidential sister said while she supported Charter change through legislation to kill the people’s initiative, she feared that amending the economic provisions would embolden lawmakers to also tinker with the political provisions, particularly on term limits.

“Con-ass is a